The Dark is Rising: Contrasting the Dark Triad and Light Triad on Measures of Political Ambition and Participation

Rolfe Daus Peterson,Carl L Palmer

doi:10.3389/fpos.2021.657750

Rolfe Daus Peterson, Carl L Palmer

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2021.657750

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Abstract

A growing body of research suggests a significant relationship between dark personality traits and political behavior. While the personality characteristics of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (labeled the Dark Triad) are associated with a range of political attitudes, research has not tested the Dark Triad in combination with the emerging use of the comparable Light Triad of personality. This paper sets up an exploration of the competing influences of light and dark personality traits on political participation and ambition. Our analyses corroborate that Dark Triad traits are significantly related to ambition and political participation. Consistent with prior research, the dark personality traits remain predominant. However, there are significant effects for some Light Triad traits as well. Our findings have implications for a deeper understanding of the mix of personality traits that drive political behavior and expand upon the normative discussion of who is, in fact, political.

Highlights

The study of personality and politics spans decades from the Freudian approaches adapted to politics by Harold Lasswell (1948) to the modern exploration of the Big 5 and its political correlates Mondak (2010)
Building from models incorporating the Dark Triad of personality by including the newly developed counterpart the Light Triad, we find evidence that the Dark Triad is predominant in models of ambition and participation; Light traits are sporadic predictors of behavior compared to the dark traits
We find meaningful effects for two of the Light Triad traits, Faith in Humanity and Humanism, in relation to political ambition and participation, respectively

Summary

Introduction

The study of personality and politics spans decades from the Freudian approaches adapted to politics by Harold Lasswell (1948) to the modern exploration of the Big 5 and its political correlates Mondak (2010). The Dark Triad (consisting of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) has proven especially fruitful in studies examining a variety of political attitudes and behaviors (Hodson, et al, 2009; Blais and Pruysers 2017; Peterson and Palmer 2019; Pruysers, et al, 2019; Chen, et al, 2020). Whether helping scholars unpack questions of the personality determinants of nascent ambition (Blais and Pruysers 2017; Peterson and Palmer 2019) or understand an individuals’ orientations toward politics more generally, dark personality traits lend significant explanatory power even when controlling for conventional explanations (Chen, et al, 2020).

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