Love me for who I’m not: a brief overview of the Dark Triad

The Dark Triad is a name for three distinct personality traits: Machiavellianism,

narcissism and psychopathy. These traits are often named ‘dark’ traits because of their

malevolent nature and anti-social qualities (Paulhus & Williams, 2002.) Whilst all three traits

are distinct personality traits, triad traits frequently overlap one another in symptomatic

people (Jones et al., 2011.)

Machiavellianism consists of manipulativeness, coldness and a lack of concern over

morality (Jones & Paulhus, 2009.) Another way of conceptualising a Machiavellian person is

that they see others as tools rather than sentient beings. It is clinically measured by a twenty

question Likert scale called Mach IV (Christie & Geis, 1968.)

Psychopathy consists of persistent disregard for others’ rights and feelings, an

impairment of remorse and a tendency to behave without inhibition or fear. Psychopathy

strongly correlates with crime, substance misuse, violence and imprisonment ( et al.,

2009.)

Narcissism consists of a preoccupation with one’s own appearance and needs, often

at the expense of other’s needs. If a narcissist’s internal attitude and behaviour becomes

excessive or pathological, such a person may have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)

(DSM-5, 2014.) NPD is often comorbid with other psychiatric conditions, including

psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Caligor et al., 2015.) All three traits on the Dark Triad strongly correlate with lying, manipulation and anti- social behaviour. Williams et al. (2010) showed that all three triad traits were significant predictors of a person cheating on a test. This included when mediators were accounted for.

I thought these animals represented each trait quite nicely - copied from https://tracylouisebrown.com/news/the-dark-triad-leadership-qualities-to-be-wary-of

Brewer’s et al. (2019) multiple regression analysis showed that Dark Triad traits were

associated with deception in sexual encounters. Brewer et al. (2019) also discovered that

women high in narcissism were more likely to blatantly lie in these situations. The darker sides of Dark Triad personalities have their consequences online too. Kurek et al. (2019) discovered that all three triad traits correlated with online disinhibition and online aggression. Psychopathy and online aggression were very closely linked (r = 0.79, p = 0.01) Geary et al. (2021) found that people who rated high in levels of Machiavellianism and narcissism were much less likely to depict themselves authentically on Instagram. It was also discovered that narcissism and psychopathy were negative predictors of presenting oneself authentically on Instagram. Fox & Rooney (2015) uncovered two insightful findings. Firstly, that narcissism and psychopathy positively predicted the number of selfies a person would upload onto social networking sites (SNSs.) Secondly, that narcissism and trait self- objectification positively predicted how often a person would edit their own photos on SNSs.

However, there seems to be a lack of research into how Dark Triad traits affect

behaviour on Tinder, specifically how self-image and self-presentation on Tinder could be

affected by triad traits. Considering that Tinder has over 75 million active monthly users

(Tinder Revenue and Usage Statistics, 2021) and that approx. 2% of the general population

are estimated to have antisocial personality disorder, a manifestation of psychopathy (DSM-

5, 2014), it would be interesting, insightful and important to see just how such a prevalent

form of behaviour could affect people on Tinder.

References

Borgatta, E., Lambert, W., Christie, R., and Geis, F (1968). Handbook of personality theory

and research. Chicago: Rand McNally.

Brewer, De Griffa, D., & Uzun, E. (2019). Dark triad traits and women’s use of sexual deception. Personality and Individual Differences, 142(42–44) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.01.033

Caligor, E., Levy, K., & Yeomans, F. (2015). Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Diagnostic and Clinical Challenges. American Journal Of Psychiatry, 172(5), 415-422. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.14060723

Coid, J., Yang, M., Ullrich, S., Roberts, A., Moran, P., & Bebbington, P. et al. (2009). Psychopathy among prisoners in England and Wales. International Journal Of Law And Psychiatry, 32(3), 134-141.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5 (5th edition). (2014). Reference Reviews, 28(3), 36-37.

Fox, & Rooney, M. C. (2015). The Dark Triad and trait self-objectification as predictors of men’s use and self-presentation behaviors on social networking sites. Personality and Individual Differences, 76, 161–165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.017

Geary, March, E., & Grieve, R. (2021). Insta-identity: Dark personality traits as predictors of authentic self-presentation on Instagram. Telematics and Informatics, 63, 101-669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2021.101669

Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2009). Machiavellianism. Handbook of individual differences in social behavior (93–108). New York, NY, US: The Guilford Press.

Jones, Daniel N.; Paulhus, Delroy L. (2011). "The role of impulsivity in the Dark Triad of personality". Personality and Individual Differences. 51(5): 679–682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.04.011

Kurek, Jose, P. E., & Stuart, J. (2019). “I did it for the LULZ”: How the dark personality predicts online disinhibition and aggressive online behavior in adolescence. Computers in Human Behavior, 98, 31–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.03.027

Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 556- 563.

Tinder Revenue and Usage Statistics (2021). Retrieved 13 December 2021, from https://www.businessofapps.com/data/tinder-statistics/

Williams, Nathanson, C., & Paulhus, D. L. (2010). Identifying and Profiling Scholastic Cheaters: Their Personality, Cognitive Ability, and Motivation. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Applied, 16(3), 293–307. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020773