The Capone hypothesis: Do antagonistic individuals view themselves as more good than evil?

Abstract

We proposed and tested the Capone Hypothesis, which states that antagonistic individuals will rate themselves as less good and more bad than other people rate themselves, but that antagonistic individuals will still regard themselves as substantially more good than bad. This hypothesis was named after Al “Scarface” Capone, a notorious Chicago mobster, who acknowledged his capacity for badness but emphasized his good moral character. To test the Capone Hypothesis, participants (N = 514) completed multidimensional indicators of Dark Tetrad (D4) constructs and an indicator of self-perceived good and evil character. The data supported the Capone Hypothesis: Each D4 construct related negatively to good character and positively to evil character. But, critically, people with relative or absolute elevations in each D4 construct (or any D4 facet) still rated themselves as possessing substantially more good than evil character. Additional analyses revealed that psychopathy and sadism related more strongly to evil character than good character, supporting the idea that at least two of the D4 constructs are more strongly associated with the presence of malevolence rather than the lack of benevolence. The study provides a more nuanced understanding of how people with antagonistic personalities view themselves, which is necessary toward understanding such individuals.