Differentiating dark personalities on impression management

Abstract

Although dark personalities exhibit a manipulative interpersonal style, it remains unclear how this style manifests differently across conceptually-distinct dark personalities. To address this issue, a college-student sample (N = 299) completed indices of the Dark Triad (DT; grandiose narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) and vulnerable narcissism. Participants then simulated scenarios where appearing either more or less mentally healthy than a peer would win oneself a reward (i.e., healthy-advantage vs. unhealthy-advantage condition, respectively), and participants simulated having the ability to influence how mentally healthy they and their peer appeared. To secure a reward for the self, participants generally (1) presented the self as more mentally healthy in the healthy-advantage vs. unhealthy-advantage condition and (2) presented the other as less mentally healthy in the healthy-advantage vs. unhealthy-advantage condition. Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and vulnerable narcissism each enhanced the former effect but only Machiavellianism enhanced the latter effect. Grandiose narcissism related to describing oneself as mentally-healthy regardless of whether this portrayal was advantageous. Broadly, the findings show differentiation among dark personalities on impression-management behavior and help tease apart the personalities on manipulative behavior.