The Dark Triad and framing effects predict selfish behavior in a one-shot Prisoner's Dilemma.

Jessica Sullivan,Aurora García-Gallego,Paul Deutchman

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0203891

Abstract

What causes us to display selfish behaviors? We explored the extent to which Dark Triad traits (sub-clinical psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) support a selfish behavioral strategy. We related performance on a hypothetical Prisoner’s Dilemma (an economic game that simulates a two-person social dilemma) to participants’ (N = 1400) Dark Triad scores. Because contextual factors also impact selfish behaviors, we tested how framing (gain vs. loss; and social vs. nonsocial) shaped performance in the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Participants with high Dark Triad scores were more likely to behave selfishly in the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Participants were also most likely to betray their partner in loss-framed and non-socially framed contexts. These effects did not interact with Dark Triad scores. Our data are consistent with the view that seemingly negative personality traits (like those associated with the Dark Triad traits) that persist in the population may serve as evolutionarily adaptive behavioral strategies.

Highlights

When making decisions about scarce resources, what factors shape our behaviors? This paper focuses on understanding the interaction between personality traits and contextual factors in predicting selfish behavior
We ask whether the presence of Dark Triad personality traits predict selfish behavior in a one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma, a classic cooperation problem where the outcome of the game is determined by players’ decisions to either cooperate with or betray their partner [1,2]
When predicting defection from psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism, we found that only Machiavellianism was a significant predictor (B = .211, SE = .069, p = .002, OR: 1.24, CI: 1.08, 1.42), while psychopathy (B = -.022, SE = .069, p = .753, OR: 0.98, CI: 0.85, 1.12) and narcissism were not (B = .012, SE = .062, p = .853, OR: 1.01, CI: 0.89, 1.14)

Summary

Introduction

This paper focuses on understanding the interaction between personality traits and contextual factors in predicting selfish behavior. We ask whether the presence of Dark Triad personality traits predict selfish behavior in a one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma, a classic cooperation problem where the outcome of the game (and the distribution of resources) is determined by players’ decisions to either cooperate with or betray their partner [1,2]. The Dark triad traits are a set of interrelated, but distinct, sub-clinical personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy [4]. They are associated with a short-term and exploitative mating strategy, impulsivity, low self-control, risk-seeking behavior, future-discounting, aggression, and selfishness [5,6,7,8,9].

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