The Dark Triad Traits from a Life History Perspective in Six Countries.

Peter K Jonason,Valdiney V Gouveia,Marina S Egorova,Árpád Csathó,Atsushi Oshio,Joshua D Foster,Oksana Parshikova

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01476

Abstract

Work on the Dark Triad traits has benefited from the use of a life history framework but it has been limited to primarily Western samples and indirect assessments of life history strategies. Here, we examine how the Dark Triad traits (i.e., psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) relate to two measures of individual differences in life history strategies. In Study 1 (N = 937), we replicated prior observed links between life history strategies, as measured by the Mini-K, and the Dark Triad traits using samples recruited from three countries. In Study 2 (N = 1032), we measured life history strategies using the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale and correlated it with the Dark Triad traits in samples recruited from three additional countries. While there was some variability across participants’ sex and country, the results were generally consistent in that psychopathy and (to a lesser extent) Machiavellianism were related to faster life history strategies and narcissism was related to slower life history strategies. These results add cross-cultural data and the use of two measures of life history speed to understand the Dark Triad traits from a life history perspective.

Highlights

There has been recent interest in the Dark Triad traits to compliment most work in personality psychology on the Big Five traits (Furnham et al, 2013)
We examine how the Dark Triad traits are correlated with individual differences in the speed of someone’s life history strategies with two measures in samples drawn from America, Australia, Brazil, Hungary, Japan, and Russia
When looking at data from all three countries, we found that Machiavellianism and psychopathy embodied a fast life history strategy as seen in individual differences in the Mini-K and the Consideration of Future Consequences whereas narcissism embodied a slower approach as measured in the same way

Summary

Introduction

There has been recent interest in the Dark Triad traits (i.e., psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism; Paulhus and Williams, 2002) to compliment most work in personality psychology on the Big Five traits (Furnham et al, 2013). The Dark Triad traits are associated with a shortterm mating strategy (Jonason et al, 2009), impulsivity (Jones and Paulhus, 2011), interpersonal aggression (Jones and Olderbak, 2014), and limited empathy (Jonason et al, 2013), all of which may reflect individual differences in life history strategies. These traits might facilitate the active exploitation of one’s socioecologies for the immediate extraction of sexual and survival benefits (Mealey, 1995). We attempt to add new and better detail to how the Dark Triad traits are correlated with life history indicators

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion