The Dark Triad of Personality: Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, Narcissism

The “Dark Triad of Personality” (sometimes called the “Black Triad”) is an intriguing term in psychology that refers to a group of personality traits—psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism—found together in one person. Importantly, these are non-clinical traits, meaning they can exist within the range of normal personality. Below, you’ll learn more about the triad itself, its components, and you’ll even have the chance to take a test.

What Makes Up the Dark Triad?

If you’ve read about sociopaths, narcissists, and Machiavellians, you know they have a lot in common. These individuals typically lack empathy, don’t consider others, are focused on their own desires, and have low levels of compassion. They don’t handle criticism well and can become aggressive if things don’t go their way. Usually, they have no problem manipulating or lying to others to achieve their goals. They often appear charismatic, intelligent, and attractive, but this is usually just a mask.

Because these three personality types share many traits, experts began to study them as a group, now known as the Dark Triad.

While the triad’s components have much in common, each plays its own role. Here are their brief descriptions:

• Machiavellians – Manipulators who use others for their own purposes.
• Narcissists – Extremely self-absorbed people with inflated self-esteem.
• Psychopaths – Antisocial individuals characterized by indifference or even cruelty toward others, extremely low empathy, and impulsivity.

Narcissism is marked by grandiosity, pride, self-love, and a lack of empathy. Machiavellianism involves manipulation and exploitation of others, a cynical disregard for morality, a focus on self-interest, and dishonesty. The main features of psychopathy are antisocial behavior, impulsivity, selfishness, callousness, and ruthlessness.

Almost everyone has some traits from the Dark Triad, but for some, these traits are much more pronounced. You can check yourself by taking the test below.

A Brief History: Where Did This Come From?

In 2002, Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams, Canadian researchers from the University of British Columbia, showed that three psychological traits—non-clinical narcissism, non-clinical psychopathy, and Machiavellianism—form a unique syndrome of traits, promising for studying the negative (“dark”) side of personality.

The hypothesis was further studied by the American Psychiatric Association. It turned out that the three characteristics of the triad are more likely to occur together than separately, confirming the theory.

Traits of People with High Dark Triad Scores

The word “dark” in the triad’s name highlights that interacting with people who have high levels of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism is not always pleasant or harmless for those around them. Since clinical disorders are not considered here, there is usually no direct threat to life or health.

However, those who score high on the Dark Triad often see others as resources to achieve their goals or, conversely, as annoying obstacles. In either case, they are likely to use manipulation, aggression, blackmail, and other dishonest tactics. They are indifferent to the feelings and needs of others and rarely take them into account when making and carrying out their plans. These individuals also have other negative qualities.

Overall, the Dark Triad is thought to reflect the darker sides of human nature, as the name suggests. On the other hand, these personality traits can have their advantages. For example, they can help people achieve success and build careers: such individuals find it easier to manage projects, employees, and so on. They can be very effective at reaching their goals, are not afraid to take risks, attract attention, and usually make connections easily (if they want to).

Perspectives

In the Workplace

Oliver James notes that each of the three Dark Triad personality traits is common in the workplace. Machiavellianism shows up as power retention, tough management tactics, and manipulative behavior. Narcissism is linked to counterproductive work behavior, especially when self-esteem is threatened. Workplace psychopathy is characterized by aggression, conflict, stress, absenteeism, reduced productivity, and lack of responsibility.

Internet Trolling

Recent studies have shown that people identified as “trolls” usually have dark personality traits, displaying signs of sadism, antisocial behavior, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. There is a similarity between antisocial activity and trolling, with internet trolling seen as a form of everyday sadism. Both studies found that bullying-related trolling is common among both teens and adults.

As a Mating Strategy

It is suggested that Dark Triad traits indicate a tendency toward short-term gain and relationships that offer long-term benefits. While modern society encourages long-term planning (like saving for retirement or protecting the environment), there are reproductive advantages to short-term thinking and actions. Additionally, men with these traits are often seen as more sexually attractive to women. Research shows that, on average, people with Dark Triad traits have:

• A faster mating strategy, with more sexual partners
• More favorable attitudes toward casual sex
• Lower standards for short-term partners
• A tendency to “poach” partners from others
• Increased risk of substance abuse
• A preference for immediate, smaller rewards over delayed, larger ones
• Limited self-control and more cases of ADHD
• A pragmatic and playful approach to love

These traits are seen as part of a fast life strategy, which is considered an exploitative, opportunistic, and multifaceted approach to life and work. There is conflicting data about the exact link between the Dark Triad and reproductive success. For example, there is not enough data on reproductive success in the case of psychopathy. Also, not all these traits are always short-term oriented or impulsive. Much of the research on the Dark Triad treats it as a single construct, despite genetic and meta-analytic evidence to the contrary.