Dark Personalities Dark personalities are all around us? Dark Triad (Concept first pulled together by Paulhus and Willliams, 2002) · Newer stream of personality research focusing upon the 'darker' aspects of human behaviour · Arguably lexical models focus upon the positive - unlike the Big Five or the HEXACO, the Dark Triad traits - as a collective - were not derived through inductive factor analytic techniques, but were, instead, linked based on theoretical observations about the overlap of the behaviors and nature of these traits. Importantly, they also are concerned with 'darker' aspects of human nature (Jonason & Middleton, 2015). . Collection of traits derived from (theoretical) observations about over-lapping behaviours Concerned with 'everyday', sub-clinical dark personalities rather than clinical disorders Psychopathy = tendency to think of 'psychopaths' - renowned criminals · Successful psychopaths - higher executive function and information processing and higher autonomic functioning · Unsuccessful psychopaths - significant neurological deficits, reduced prefrontal gray matter volume and greater hippocampal asymmetry · Do not care for others · Different autonomic function · Respond to stress faster · Get caught, end up in jail and tend to have autonomic deficit · Psychopaths are the most likely to acquire tattoos for intimidation purposes (Nathanson et al., 2006b), and make negative impressions in brief meetings (Rauthmann, 2012). Models of successful psychopathy (Lilienfeld, Watts & Smith, 2015) · Differential-severity = mild expression of clinical psychopathy ·Moderated-expression = Differential-configuration = Different constellation of traits -> different roots Narcissism · Desire for social admiration · Want to feel socially superior · Develop strategies for enhancing social status and relationships
· Overestimate own abilities more than others do · Overconfident, but this can be perceived positively · Think they're better than everyone · Less likely to be aggressive if unstable self-esteem · Although often perceived by others as socially aversive, narcissists see themselves as good leaders (Furtner, Rauthmann, & Sachse, 2011; Zuroff et al., 2010) and high in emotional intelligence (Petrides et al., 2011). Machiavellianism · Highly socially charming · Low self-control · Low social competence · Low empathy here might be a good thing · All the better for taking advantage of others · Flattery to get what you want (soft tactic) · Threatening directly (hard tactic) · Based on what some guy put in a book · Always want to get ahead · Not good at reading situations and emotions, but do what they can to get around it · May use their tactics because of low social competence . Machiavellians harbor the most cynicism toward others (Rauthmann, 2012). Along with psychopaths, Machiavellians are also the most morally suspect and, more generally, have the 'darkest' personalities (Rauthmann & Kolar, 2012). Traits vs. Personalities · In literature see references to 'dark personalities' or 'dark characters' Sense that people high on such socially aversive traits are characterised by them . But still a trait approach as it's concerned with normal range of functioning · Spectrum of darkness - normal distribution of trait scores Darkness or Dark Factors?