Vocational interests and dark personality: Are there dark career choices?

This study investigated how vocational interests are related to the Dark Triad - a cluster of three socially malevolent personality traits that include Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Participants completed self-report measures of vocational interests, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Narcissism correlated positively with the artistic, social, biology, and business interest factors and with many of their associated scales. Machiavellianism correlated negatively with the social, applied, and work style factors. Psychopathy correlated positively with the science, biology, and business interest factors, and was negatively correlated with the social and work style factors. The results expand the understanding of personality and vocational interests and support the perspective that the Dark Triad consists of three related yet different dimensions.