Three socially aversive traits—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—have been studied as an overlapping constellation known as the Dark Triad. Here, we develop and validate the Short Dark Triad (SD3), a brief proxy measure. Four studies (total N = 1,063) examined the structure, reliability, and validity of the subscales in both community and student samples. In Studies 1 and 2, structural analyses yielded three factors with the final 27 items loading appropriately on their respective factors. Study 3 confirmed that the resulting SD3 subscales map well onto the longer standard measures. Study 4 validated the SD3 subscales against informant ratings. Together, these studies indicate that the SD3 provides efficient, reliable, and valid measures of the Dark Triad of personalities.

Introducing the short Dark Triad (SD3): a brief measure of dark personality traits.

This article reviews evidence that manhood is seen as a precarious social status that is both difficult to achieve and tenuously held. Compared with womanhood, which is typically viewed as resulting from a natural, permanent, and biological developmental transition, manhood must be earned and maintained through publicly verifiable actions. Because of this, men experience more anxiety over their gender status than women do, particularly when gender status is uncertain or challenged. This can motivate a variety of risky and maladaptive behaviors, as well as the avoidance of behaviors that might otherwise prove adaptive and beneficial. We review research on the implications of men’s precarious gender status across the domains of risk-taking, aggression, stress and mental health, and work‐life balance. We further consider how work on precarious manhood differs from, and can add to, work on individual differences in men’s gender role conflict. In summary, the precarious manhood hypothesis can integrate and explain a wide range of male behaviors and phenomena related to the male gender role.

Hard won and easily lost: A review and synthesis of theory and research on precarious manhood.

The term dark triad refers to the constellation of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Over the past few years, the concept has gained momentum, with many researchers assuming that the dark triad is a prominent antecedent of transgressive and norm-violating behavior. Our purpose in this meta-analytic review was to evaluate (a) interrelations among narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy; (b) gender differences in these traits; (c) how these traits are linked to normal personality factors; and (d) the psychosocial correlates of the dark triad. Our findings show that dark triad traits are substantially intercorrelated, somewhat more prevalent among men than women, predominantly related to the Big Five personality factor of agreeableness and the HEXACO factor of honesty-humility, and generally associated with various types of negative psychosocial outcomes. We question whether dark triad traits are sufficiently distinct and argue that the way they are currently measured is too simple to capture the malevolent sides of personality. Because most research in this domain is cross-sectional and based on self-reports, we recommend using a cross-informant approach and prospective, longitudinal research designs for studying the predictive value of dark triad features.

The Malevolent Side of Human Nature: A Meta-Analysis and Critical Review of the Literature on the Dark Triad (Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy)

Impulsivity is considered a personality trait affecting behavior in many life domains, from recreational activities to important decision making When extreme, it is associated with mental health problems, such as substance use disorders, as well as with interpersonal and social difficulties, including juvenile delinquency and criminality Yet, trait impulsivity may not be a unitary construct We review commonly used self-report measures of personality trait impulsivity and related constructs (eg, sensation seeking), plus the opposite pole, control or constraint A meta-analytic principal-components factor analysis demonstrated that these scales comprise 3 distinct factors, each of which aligns with a broad, higher order personality factor-Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality, Disinhibition versus Constraint/Conscientiousness, and Extraversion/Positive Emotionality/Sensation Seeking Moreover, Disinhibition versus Constraint/Conscientiousness comprise 2 correlated but distinct subfactors: Disinhibition versus Constraint and Conscientiousness/Will versus Resourcelessness We also review laboratory tasks that purport to measure a construct similar to trait impulsivity A meta-analytic principal-components factor analysis demonstrated that these tasks constitute 4 factors (Inattention, Inhibition, Impulsive Decision-Making, and Shifting) Although relations between these 2 measurement models are consistently low to very low, relations between both trait scales and laboratory behavioral tasks and daily-life impulsive behaviors are moderate That is, both independently predict problematic daily-life impulsive behaviors, such as substance use, gambling, and delinquency; their joint use has incremental predictive power over the use of either type of measure alone and furthers our understanding of these important, problematic behaviors Future use of confirmatory methods should help to ascertain with greater precision the number of and relations between impulsivity-related components

Toward a theory of distinct types of "impulsive" behaviors: A meta-analysis of self-report and behavioral measures

Emotion regulation and aggression

Given substantial interest in the traits conceived of as part of the Dark Triadpsychopathy, narcissism,and Machiavellianismassessment of these traits is of great importance. The Dirty Dozen (DD; Jonason& Webster, 2010) is a brief measure of the Dark Triad constructs that uses 4 items to assess each of theseconstructs. In the present study, the authors examined the adequacy of the DDs Psychopathy scale bycomparing it with established measures of psychopathy in a sample of undergraduates (Sample 1: N 789) and male prisoners (Sample 2: N 75). DDs Psychopathy subscale manifested significantcorrelations with established measures, but the correlations were smaller than those evinced by theexisting scales. The results also demonstrated that there is important variance related to interpersonalantagonism and disinhibition that is not assessed by the DD. The authors suggest that caution should beused in relying on the DD as a measure of psychopathy.Keywords: psychopathy, brief measures, construct validity, assessment

An examination of the Dirty Dozen measure of psychopathy: a cautionary tale about the costs of brief measures.

The role of emotion dysregulation in the association between men’s restrictive emotionality and use of physical aggression.

Psychopathic individuals engage in the most violent and cold-blooded acts of aggression. In the laboratory, psychopathy traits have been linked to the commission of unprovoked aggression. The purpose of this study was to assess affective motives that may underlie the relationship between psychopathy and unprovoked aggression. One hundred thirty-seven men viewed a series of photographs depicting violent imagery, completed a lexical decision task designed to assess state affect, and competed in a laboratory-based aggression paradigm. Results indicated that participants who responded faster to happiness words after viewing violent imagery (i.e., sadistic) were significantly more likely to engage in unprovoked aggression. Additionally, Factor 1 psychopathy (emotional detachment) predicted increased probability of unprovoked aggression; however, this relationship was not mediated by sadism. Rather, Factor 1 and sadism each independently predicted unprovoked aggression. The implications of the present data suggest that the type of violence evinced may inform the risk for perpetration of future acts. That is, the individual who demonstrates unprovoked violence may be more likely to employ aggressive tactics across situational contexts than the individual who demonstrates only impulsive acts of hostile/reactive aggression.

Unprovoked Aggression: Effects of Psychopathic Traits and Sadism

Self-report assessment of psychopathy is plagued by inconsistencies among the relations of the various psychopathy factors. We examined the factor structure of 3 prominent self-report measures of psychopathy-the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale-III (SRP-III; Williams, Paulhus, & Hare, 2007), the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP; Levenson, Kiehl, & Fitzpatrick, 1995), and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-R (PPI-R; Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005). A coherent 4-factor structure resulted from conducting an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the psychopathy subscales along with the domains from the five-factor model. Two of these factors were consistent with traditional conceptualizations of a 2-factor structure of psychopathy (i.e., Factor 1, which loaded negatively with Agreeableness; Factor 2, which loaded negatively with Conscientiousness), while 2 additional factors emerged, 1 of which emphasized low Neuroticism and 1 of which emphasized traits related to novelty/reward-seeking and dominance-related personality traits (high Extraversion). We also investigated the relations of these factors with a variety of externalizing behaviors (EB). The psychopathy scales indicative of interpersonal antagonism (i.e., Factor 1) were most consistently and strongly related to EB. Our findings are discussed in terms of the importance of a trait-based perspective in the assessment of psychopathy.

L. Alana Seibert

Papers

An examination of the Dirty Dozen measure of psychopathy: a cautionary tale about the costs of brief measures.

The role of emotion dysregulation in the association between men’s restrictive emotionality and use of physical aggression.

Unprovoked Aggression: Effects of Psychopathic Traits and Sadism

An examination of the structure of self-report psychopathy measures and their relations with general traits and externalizing behaviors.

Personality and laboratory-based aggression: Comparing the predictive power of the Five-Factor Model, BIS/BAS, and impulsivity across context