Development and assessment of the Partner Exploitation Inventory

Abstract

• We create and assess the Partner Exploitation Inventory (PEI). • Items were generated using act nomination and grouped using act frequency methods. • Three components emerged: Harm-Inducing, Ego-Boosting, and Emotional Manipulation. • Differences in PEI scores based on sex and dark personality traits are reported. • The PEI will be useful in investigating partner exploitation in future work. Differences in mating preferences, strategies, and goals can lead to romantic relationship conflict. One method of addressing conflict is exploitation, which occurs when deception, manipulation, coercion, or force is used to obtain a resource that the exploited is reluctant to provide. Here we create and provide initial assessment of the Partner Exploitation Inventory, which measures the use of tactics to exploit a romantic partner. Participants ( n =172) used an act nomination procedure to generate 62 exploitative acts that may be used against a romantic partner. Next, using a new group of participants ( n =516), we grouped the acts into three components that represent different forms of partner exploitation: Harm-Inducing, Ego-Boosting, and Emotional Manipulation. Men reported greater use of Ego-Boosting and Harm-Inducing exploitation, and women reported greater use of Emotional Manipulation exploitation. Evidence for the validity of the Partner Exploitation Inventory was also found through positive associations with questionnaires measuring similar constructs. This study expands our knowledge of men's use of exploitation strategies and is the first study to directly investigate women's use of exploitation strategies. We also created a tool that can be used to examine exploitation in the future.