Milieu effects on the Dark Triad traits and their sex differences in 49 countries
Section snippets
Method
The research is based on summary data reported previously (Jonason et al., 2020), which included 11,723 participants (66 % women, 34 % men; MAge = 21.53; SDAge = 3.17) from 49 countries from three W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., North America, Oceania, Western Europe) and five non-W.E.I.R.D. (i.e., Asia, Middle East, non-Western Europe, South America, sub-Saharan Africa). We used the means and sex differences (i.e., Cohen's d) for the Dark Triad traits in each country as data derived from the Dirty Dozen
Results
In Table 1, we report the correlations for the mean rates of the Dark Triad traits in young adulthood. Narcissism was the most sensitive to variance in milieu quality (e.g., lower life expectancies and income across all three timepoints), followed by Machiavellianism (e.g., more education across all three timepoints, less inequality across two timepoints), whereas psychopathy had no links. Collectively, changes in these conditions were erratically associated with mean-level rates of the Dark
Discussion
Granted, conditions during one's development are critical in understanding adult behavior. However, much of the relevant literature is limited by a reliance on retrospective reports of one's childhood, an omission of sex differences, and a focus on local, interpersonal indicators of conditions in childhood both in theoretical models and data. In contrast, we consider the role of distal features of one's country to test how milieu effects over one's childhoods predict the Dark Triad traits and
Limitations and conclusions
Although we provided the first account of the relationships between mean-level of the Dark Triad traits and sex differences therein across three timepoints in people's past, relying on robust estimates of each, our study has limitations. Our estimates of the Dark Triad traits relied on relatively WEIRD countries with mostly female participants. Also, in the absence of longitudinal data (Baker & Mednick, 1984; Chopik & Grimm, 2019), we can only establish temporal precedence. In addition, the
CRediT authorship contribution statement
PKJ conceptualized, advised on the analyses, and wrote the paper. SKC conducted the data analyses and assisted in the writing of the Results. FT created the database. MŻP and CS provided feedback on the paper prior to submission. All other authors were part of the team that collected the original data from which these secondary data analyses were derived.
References (51)
- et al.
Dark triad traits and romantic relationship attachment, accommodation, and control
Personality and Individual Differences
(2018) Narcissistic people, not narcissistic nations: Using multilevel modelling to explore narcissism across countries
Personality and Individual Differences
(2020)- et al.
The Dark Triad traits in Australia and Turkey
Personality and Individual Differences
(2019) - et al.
The Dark Triad and animal cruelty: Dark personalities, dark attitudes, and dark behaviors
Personality and Individual Differences
(2013) - et al.
Relationship between adverse childhood experiences and psychopathy: A systematic review
Aggression and Violent Behavior
(2020) - et al.
The aetiology of non-clinical narcissism: Clarifying the role of adverse childhood experiences and parental overvaluation
Personality and Individual Differences
(2020) - et al.
Dark personalities – dark relationships? An investigation of the relation between the dark tetrad and attachment styles
Personality and Individual Differences
(2020) - et al.
Childhood stress, life history, psychopathy, and sociosexuality
Personality and Individual Differences
(2017) In search of Narcissus
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
(2021)- et al.
A behavioral genetics investigation of the Dark Triad and the Big 5
Personality and Individual Differences
(2008)
Narcissus locked in the past: Vulnerable narcissism and the negative views of the past
Journal of Research in Personality
Dark personality, political values, and prejudice: Testing a dual process model of prejudice towards refugees
Personality and Individual Differences
Influences on human development: A longitudinal analysis
An ecocultural perspective on the development of competence
How children invented humanity: The role of development in human evolution
What separates narcissism from self-esteem? A social-cognitive analysis
Behavioral confirmation of everyday sadism
Psychological Science
How can evolutionary psychology explain personality and individual differences?
Perspectives on Psychological Science
Longitudinal changes and historic differences in narcissism from adolescence to older adulthood
Psychology and Aging
Traumatic experiences in childhood and psychopathy: A study on a sample of violent offenders from Italy
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Sociobiology: An environmentalist discipline
American Psychologist
On the real magnitude of psychological sex differences
Evolutionary Psychology
Multivariate misgivings: Is D a valid measure of group and sex differences?
Evolutionary Psychology
Effects of childhood trauma on hostility, family environment, and narcissism of adult individuals
International Journal of Caring Sciences
Cited by (5)
Paradise for the self-interested? The association between economic inequality and the Dark Triad
2024, Journal of Research in PersonalityBreaking down power distance into 5 dimensions
2023, Personality and Individual DifferencesWhat if the supervisor has a different gender? The roles of value fit, identification, and beliefs in gender equality
2023, Scandinavian Journal of ManagementWomen and men have a similar potential for malevolent creativity – But their underlying brain mechanisms are different
2023, Brain ResearchCitation Excerpt :While naturally correlated with general creative potential (Hao et al., 2016, 2020; Perchtold-Stefan et al., 2021a), malevolent creativity is also consistently linked to antagonistic and exploitative personality traits (Kapoor and Kaufman, 2022; Jonason et al., 2017; Perchtold-Stefan et al., 2022a). The positive relationship of malevolent creativity with Dark Triad traits (narcissism – grandiosity and self-orientation; psychopathy – callous social attitudes and lack of empathy/remorse; Machiavellianism – manipulative behavior and exploitation of others; Furnham et al., 2013) is particularly interesting, as men consistently score higher on the Dark Triad than women, with gender differences being most robust for psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Jonason et al., 2020, 2022). Together with the extensively investigated gender differences in aggression as well as general creativity, gender differences in the Dark Triad provide another interesting basis for speculations on gender differences in malevolent creativity.
Moral Disengagement, Dark Triad and Face Mask Wearing during the COVID-19 Pandemic
2022, European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education
- 1
The first and second authors were partially and fully funded, respectively, by a grant from the National Science Centre of Poland (2019/35/B/HS6/00682).