The making of Darth Vader: Parent–child care and the Dark Triad

Abstract

Does the quality of the relationship one has with their parents influence the development of “dark” personality traits? We examined (N=352) the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and their components in relation to a measure of parental care and a measure of attachment. Machiavellianism was the most susceptible to variance associated with low quality or irregular parental care and attachment patterns. Low quality parental care for narcissism and psychopathy had effects localized to components of each trait and specific to the sex of the parent. Path modeling suggests the quality of parental care leads to attachment patterns which may then lead to different aspects of the Dark Triad.