The Dark Triad of Personality in Everyday Life (2019) provides an overview of the research literature on the dark triad traits.

Exec Summary

• Psychopathy is the “darkest” of the three
• Narcissism is the “lightest” of the three
• Sadism makes the dark triad far darker (dark tetrad)

FULL SUMMARY

About the Author:
Minna Lyons is a psychologist and senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University.
Her research interests focus on individual differences from an evolutionary perspective and the Dark Triad of personality. Lyons has authored several papers, some of which are also referenced in this book.

What’s the dark triad

The Dark Triad consists of three overlapping, yet distinctive personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. The traits share a core of manipulation, callousness, and selfishness (Jones & Figueredo, 2013).

Commonalities

Then the author goes a bit more personal with:

All of the three traits are characterized by a disregard of social norms, which often leads to social transgressions in terms of lying, cheating, manipulating, and stealing. Individuals who are high in the dark traits are untrustworthy and uncaring romantic partners, backstabbing work colleagues, and cold and controlling as parents

All the Dark Triad traits relate to dysfunctional interpersonal relationships. Selfish behavior and lack of care for others are the main culprits for poorer relationships, says the author.

Differences

• Machiavellians: flexible, chameleon-like use of strategies from defection to cooperation to gain benefits for the self. It correlates with fluid intelligence.
  Christie and Geis (1970) proposed that Machiavellianism consists of two traits: interpersonally manipulative tactics, and a cynical view of human nature, both confirmed in a recent large-scale cross-cultural study (Monaghan, Bizumic, & Sellbom, 2018).
  Most studies investigate Mach as one single construct, but there maybe sub-factors (ie.: tactics, divided into deceit and flattery, and views of human nature, divided into immorality and cynicism)
• Psychopathy: impulsivity, reckless risk-taking, and very shallow empathy toward other people. More than the other two is associated with disregard for others, manifesting in criminal activity and disruptive interpersonal behaviors such as bullying (Baughman, Dearing, Giammarco, & Vernon, 2012) and sadism (Carton & Egan, 2017).
  Some consider it the “darkest of the three”.
  The popular two-factor model divides psychopathy into:
• Primary (Factor 1), the “successful” psychopaths that don’t necessarily end up in prison. It involves interpersonal and affective factors, such as coldness and callous manipulation
• Secondary (Factor 2), risky, impulsive behavior that is more likely to lead to prison
• Narcissism: vanity and grandiosity, and by an inflated self-assessment.
  A popular idea divides narcissism into:
  • Grandiose: with elevated self-esteem, and aggressive, forceful, and dominant interpersonal styles
  • Vulnerable: feel insecure and inadequate, and try to mask it from themselves and the rest of the world by faking grandiosity

Psychopathy and Machiavellianism share more features than either does with narcissism. The lowest correlations are between Machiavellianism and narcissism (Furnham, Richards, & Paulhus, 2013)

Situations & Environment Matter

Especially narcissism can be temporary, and can be decreased or increased:

Although all the Dark Triad traits have been conceptualized as dispositional, stable features in an individual, there is some evidence that especially for narcissism, situations may play a part in the manifestation of the trait. For instance, levels of narcissism can be experimentally manipulated to some extent. Narcissism can be increased by asking participants to think about their own achievements (Sakellaropoulo & Baldwin, 2007), or even by thinking of oneself as being a prince or a princess (Li et al. , 2016)

Dark Triads Can Add Value

However, Dark Triad traits do have positive sides too. Especially in circumstances where there is a possibility to gain something for oneself, individuals with Dark Triad traits can be loyal friends, effective leaders, and heroic rescuers (e.g. , Hart, Richardson, & Tortoriello, 2018; Patton, Smith, & Lilienfeld, 2018; Smith, Hill, Wallace, Recendes, & Judge, 2018)

Scientific Doubts Still Abound (No Consensus)

There are still many question marks and consensus hasn’t emerged on several issues.

Some of them:

Psychopathy Isn’t Even A Diagnosis in The DSM

psychopathy itself is not a diagnosis in the DSM system, but falls under the diagnostic category of ASPD
(…) The ASPD diagnosis has a focus on impulsive, norm-violating behaviors. The diagnostic systems have been criticized for not taking into consideration other crucial components of psychopathy

Luckily, it’s now gaining acceptance:

Although psychopathy is not an official diagnosis, following 50 years of diagnostic debates, it is finally accepted as a component of ASPD in the DSM-5 alternative model
(…)
(it’s possible to) receive a diagnosis of “ASPD with Psychopathic Personality Traits

Machiavellianism May Be Level II Psychopathy

Machiavellianism does not directly feature in the classification systems.

Some researchers suggested Machiavellianism may be a nonclinical manifestation of psychopathy (ie.: McHoskey, Worzel, & Szyarto, 1998):

For example, McHoskey (2001) analyzed the MACH-IV scale in relation to a host of clinical symptoms, and concluded that those who score high on the questionnaire are also high on a number of other scales indicating personality dysfunction. More specifically, Machiavellianism had links to antisocial personality

Healthy VS Unhealthy Narcissism

The author suggests that some aspects of narcissism are healthy in lower doses:

“Normal” narcissism is manifested by a healthy self-image and self-esteem, which does not fall apart when faced with threats to the self.

But there is no agreement on how to differentiate healthy VS unhealthy:

According to some, pathological and normal vary in a continuum, where pathological is just a more severe manifestation of the normal (e.g. , Watson, 2005). According to others, pathological and normal are distinctively different manifestations of narcissism, forming two separate dimensional personality traits (e.g. , Pincus et al. , 2009)

Psychopathy’s Sub-Components Are Still Debated

Psychopathy is unlikely to be a monolith construct but may consist of several subcomponents.
There are still debates about what the factors of psychopathy are. The findings vary from study to study, often depending on the scale that is used to assess psychopathy. Theories and empirical evidence has suggested four-, three-, and two-factor models

Big Five And Other Personality Models

• Low agreeableness: All three traits negatively correlated with agreeableness, with stronger correlation for psychopathy and Machiavellianism Muris et al. , 2017)
• Low humility for narcissists: there are differential associations between the Dark Triad and honesty-humility, depending on the aspects of the trait. For example, narcissism had a strong, negative correlation between modesty and lack of greed avoidance
• Low fairness for Machs and psychopaths: Machiavellianism and psychopathy were associated with lack of fairness and low sincerity.
• Neuroticism: the findings are more confusing. A meta-analysis proposed that all the traits are related to low neuroticism. In other studies, Machiavellianism (Muris et al. , 2017) as well as primary and secondary psychopathy (Jakobwitz & Egan, 2006) was positively correlated with neuroticism scores.
  Machs and secondary psychopaths may tend to feel anxious and worried
• Low honesty: all the three relate to low honesty
• Narcissists are extroverted. The author says that “Narcissism seems to be “brightest” of the dark traits, with extraverted approach oriented attitude to life“
• Low conscientiousness for Factor II psychopaths

As an overview:

recent meta-analysis of over 150 studies (Vize, Lynam, et al. , 2018) suggested that psychopathy and Machiavellianism share very similar profiles, characterized by low agreeableness and low conscientiousness
(…)
the core of the Dark Triad lies in dishonestly, coldness, and manipulation

Relationship Between the Dark Triad and the Big Five

The DSM Alternative Model

The DSM-5 proposes the “maladaptive trait model,” measured by a continuous Personality Inventory for the
DSM-5 (PID-5).

The PID-5 domains are:

• Negative affect vs. emotional stability (frequency and intensity of experiencing negative emotions)
• Detachment vs. extraversion (withdrawal of socioemotional experience, including avoidance of close bonds with others)
• Disinhibition vs. conscientiousness (orienting toward immediate gratification, disregarding future consequences)
• Antagonism vs. agreeableness (callousness, disregard for others, exaggerated self-importance)
  • Hostility came out as the largest predictor of impaired psychosocial functioning. Research established strong links between hostility and poor health, unhealthy lifestyles, and dysfunction in social relationships.
• Psychoticism vs. lucidity (expressing odd, eccentric, and unusual behaviors and thoughts)

The author comments:

Which components of the model (if any) are typical of those who are on the higher end of the Dark Triad
continuum?
Antagonism is a key feature of all three Dark Triad traits, leading to major dysfunction in social relationships, sometimes at levels that could be described as “psychosocial disability. ” Those who are high in antagonism are callous toward others and often view other people as instruments for achieving their own goals. Needless to say, this kind of behavior leads to short-lived social relationships or much misery for those ho for some reason (e.g. , children of antagonistic parents) have to endure the connections with the highly antagonistic individual.

Empathy, Emotions, Emotional Intelligence

Table:

Machs and psychopaths have low empathy/emotional intelligence.

Overall, most studies have found that Machiavellianism and even more psychopathy (but not necessarily narcissism) are characterized by low (affective) empathy/emotional intelligence.

The author suggests that poorer emotion recognition ability stems from how individuals themselves react to emotion-evoking events (Machs and psychopaths score higher in Alexithymia).
Such as, those who struggle to identify their own emotions also have low empathy for others

However, affective empathy is not necessarily related to low cognitive empathy, or understanding the source of other’s emotions.
So dark triads can be equally good at understanding others’ emotions.

Impulsivity & Risk Taking

Impulsivity is associated with risk-taking, but that association is not well defined:

Studies have found a nonlinear relationship between impulsivity and indicators of risk-taking. Individuals can be high in impulsivity but low in risktaking, and vice versa.

The consensus is that psychopathy and narcissism are related to higher risk-taking while Machiavellians have a more cautious approach to life.
All three traits relate to impulsivity, acting without thinking of future consequences.

Psychopathy and narcissism are associated with risky substance abuse, whereas Machiavellianism is not (Stenason & Vernon, 2016).
And psychopathy has the strongest associations with risky health behaviors, as well as gambling (especially factor II psychopathy).

Sexual Strategy: Dark Triads = Deadbeat Dads?

The author suggests that dark triad may follow a fast-life strategy.

Such as, they focus on the here and now, seeking to achieve fast results with shortcuts, but at the expense of sustainability and future success.

This strategy is especially relevant in mating and reproduction:

According to the LHT (life history theory), individuals vary in a continuum in the amount of time and effort that they invest in current reproduction (i.e., seeking for partners and copulating with them) and in future reproduction (i.e., maturation and growth; providing for their offspring; maintaining stable relationships). Those who invest little effort in the future (i.e., parenting), focus on seeking multiple partners (…) follow a fast LHS, resulting in a higher total number of children.
On the other end of the continuum, individuals who follow a slow LHS have fewer sexual partners, stable relationships, and fewer children. Low impulsivity and hesitation to take risks may be features that help in investing in the future.

In this view, the Dark Triad is a condition-dependent strategy for fast life.
Dark triad traits are helpful in risky environments with uncertain future where early reproduction and higher-risk taking pays off.
Says the author:

Indeed, there is some evidence that those high in the Dark Triad traits (especially Machiavellianism and psychopathy) have grown up in harsh, unstable environments (Jonason, Icho, & Ireland, 2016).

The author says that all 3 dark triads are related to a fast life strategy, albeit not every single face is:

Melissa McDonald and colleagues (McDonald, Donnellan, & Navarrete, 2012) found that the Machiavellianism, entitlement/exploitativeness facet of narcissism, and impulsive antisocial facet of psychopathy related to a fast LHS, whereas fearless dominance facet of psychopathy and leadership and grandiose facet of narcissism had an association with a slow LHS

My Note: disagree that fearless dominance, leadership and grandiosity are “slow life strategy”
I don’t fully agree here as I don’t see how fearless dominance and grandiosity are associated with slow life, but NOT fast life.

Other possible features of a fast life strategy:

• Avoidant attachment style
• High sex drive. Psychopathy is related to increased sex drive (Baughman, Jonason, Veselka, & Vernon, 2014)
• Unrestricted sociosexual orientation. the Dark Triad is connected to an interest for multiple partners and sex without commitment (Jonason, Li, Webster, & Schmitt, 2009; Nascimento, Hanel, Monteiro, Gouveia, & Little, 2018)

Also read our popular article:

• Psychopaths’ sexual strategy: a case study

It’s True For Women As Well

The Dark Triad is linked to overall high sexual desire and preference for recreational sex in women too (Carter, Campbell, & Muncer, 2014; Jauk et al. , 2016)

And:

Dark Triad women mate promiscuously, and specifically psychopathy and Machiavellianism are related to a fast life history cross-culturally, irrespective of biological sex ( Jonason, Girgis, & Milne-Home, 2017)

It’s still not clear though how this approach would benefit women who are biologically “forced” to invest far more in children, and whose investment is also necessary to raise children.
I’d venture to guess that it may work also for women, just less well than for (attractive) men. Plus, women may simply be a less adaptive “spillover” of players’ sexy sons.

But… Is this strategy really successful? There is no evidence

Studies used sex drive and number of mates as a proxy for reproductive success.

However, that does not equal number of children, and there is little research investigating the “bottom line” of reproductive strategies.

The author did attempt a study though, and the results do not confirm success:

I explored the associations between the Dark Triad and existing children in an online sample of 314 participants (Carter, Lyons, & Brewer, 2018). We found that narcissistic men had more children, and psychopathy in both sexes had an association with fewer children.
This is an interesting discovery, as it seems that the sex drive and multiple matings do not translate into higher number of children in psychopathic individuals

However, the sample small to draw any significant conclusion.

Mate preference for dark triads

Based on a few studies:

• Narcissistic women are choosy, demanding everything from prospective partners: status, resources, attractiveness, education, and intelligence. Machiavellianism was not related to any of the mate choice preferences, and psychopathy had a negative association with a preference for religiosity and kindness (Iran, Atari and Chegeni, 2017)
• Psychopaths don’t care about kindness in either short or long-term (Jonason, Valentine, Li, and Harbeson, 2011)
• Machiavellians did not value warmth-trustworthiness or intimacy and loyalty. It was true for both men and women (Inancsi, Lang, and Bereczkei, 2016). But they cared about the partner’s status and resources

More cheating for psychopaths and Machs

• Psychopaths cheat more: The emerging picture suggests that infidelity is especially pertinent to men and women who are high on psychopathic traits. Psychopathy relates to both actual infidelity and intentions to cheat in the future.
• Machs probably cheat more in box sexes: some studies have found that cheating is more common in high-Mach women, and others have found that Machiavellianism drives infidelity in both sexes
• Narcissism is unrelated to cheating. Relationships between narcissism and infidelity have not been consistent from one study to another, with findings that go in opposite directions.

Dark Triad Pursue Short-Term Mating Strategies

The key message from these studies is that the Dark Triad is associated with a preference for short-term, casual relationships, and higher likelihood of dysfunctional romantic relationships.

And:

Socially aversive personalities often have short, emotionally shallow relationships, characterized by avoidance of commitment to single long-term partners

The emotional attachment styles also seem to support this preference, as psychopaths and Macs have avoidant attachment styles.

How Attractive Are Dark Triads?

• Narcissists are attractive. In a meta-analysis, Holtzman and Strube (2010) found a small but consistent relationship between narcissism and ratings of attractiveness
• Narcissists are more desirable as long and short-term partners from a German study on speed daters ( Jauk et al. , 2016)
• Dark triads’ faces are less attractive albeit they’re rated as more dominant. We have now showed these faces to thousands of women in several different studies, and have found that without an exception, the high Dark Triad morphs are aversive as potential partners (Lyons et al. , 2015). The high faces are also rated as more aggressive, dominant (Lyons & Blanchard, 2016), and dangerous (Brewer, Carter, Lyons, & Green, 2018) than the low faces. even when under the influence of alcohol, women disliked the high faces, and rated them as dangerous (Brewer, Carter, et al., 2018)
  • Narcissists may be the exception. Especially with some types of women: women who had unrestricted sociosexual orientation(i.e., preference for noncommitted sexual relationships) and did not use oral contraceptives had a preference for narcissistic faces (Marcinkowska, Helle, & Lyons, 2015)
• Dark triads tend to date each other

The author says that narcissists seem to be popular, but psychopaths and Machs are not.
She wonders whether the self-reported mating success is based either on exaggeration or coercion of unwilling partners.
I disagree though because ratings based on still pictures say little.

As Alexander from Dating Psychology suggests, the most successful dark triads may be agreeable Machs. Such as, they can put up a good front.

Also read:

• Are psychopaths attractive?

Genes, Environment & Parents: They All Matter

Genes matter.

How much they matter, is more difficult to say.
According to one study:

using heritability estimates, Vernon, Villani, Vickers, and Harris (2008) found that about 31% of variance in Machiavellianism, 64% of in psychopathy, and 59% in narcissism were attributable to genetics.

When it comes to the environment, there likely are “cues” the brain latches onto for its development.
We’re not yet sure what those cues are, but likely:

• Quality of parental care: studies on the Dark Triad and parenting indicate that recollections of a cold, uncaring mother may lead to the lack of secure attachment, which could influence the development of Machiavellian strategies. Recollections of uncaring mothers have an association with high primary psychopathy in women and high secondary psychopathy in men (Blanchard, Lyons, & Centifanti, 2016a, 2016b).
• Crime and disorder in the environment
• Availability of resources

a study that investigated childhood resource scarcity vs unpredictability found that unpredictable childhood conditions had an association with higher scores in all the Dark Triad traits ( Jonason et al. , 2016)
(…)

My note: my personal experience aligns with parental influence
I think that my strategic approach to life and avoidant attachment style stems in good part “thanks” to my mother’s parenting. But I don’t jump to conclusions.

How to Measure The Dark Triad

In general, go for longer questionnaires rather than the briefer ones.

(…) the Dirty Dozen (DD; Jonason & Webster, 2010) and the Short Dark Triad (SD3; Jones & Paulhus, 2014). DD is a very brief, 12-item measure, consisting of four questions/trait. The measure has been demonstrated to have good internal reliability (i.e. , the four questions for each trait are measuring the same thing), but the convergent validity has been more limited (i.e. , the correlations with more established, longer measures can be relatively weak).
SD3 has 27 questions, nine/trait, and has good internal reliability, and stronger convergent validity than the DD measure

The Dark Tetrad: Sadisdm

Sadism is different from the Dark Triad traits and not all Machs, narcissists, and psychopaths necessarily enjoy hurting others.

But there is a relationship:

How does sadism relate to the Dark Triad? Chabrol, Melioli, Van Leeuwen, Rodgers, and Goutaudier (2015) gave questionnaires on the Dark Tetrad to a group of over 600 high school students, in an attempt to classify them into personality types. First, the authors found that all the four traits correlated with each other, suggesting that they share at least some variance

Trolls Are Sadic

Those who troll (i.e. , leave negative and derogative comments, often anonymously) others are high on the Dark Tetrad, especially sadism (Craker & March, 2016; Buckels, Trapnell, & Paulhus, 2014). Especially sadism and psychopathy seem to be a toxic combination with regards to trolling, as a study found that both these traits were typical of internet trolls (Sest & March, 2017).

And:

Especially sadism related to a stronger identity as a troll, and this could be due to the pleasure that sadistic individuals get from hurting others

Psychopaths Are The Only Inveterate, Constant Liars

Keep in mind the first study is from an Internet survey:

narcissism was associated with lying in order to gain something for the self, and Machiavellianism with small white lies, psychopathy was related to not needing any reason for telling lies. Those who were high in psychopathy were lying habitually, and were happy to lie for no specific motive
(…)
Further evidence for compulsive lying in psychopathy comes from a study that found that psychopathy was associated with positive emotions when telling lies (Baughman, Jonason, Lyons, & Vernon, 2014).

Born Criminals? Some Psychopaths, Yes

Psychopathy best predicts crime.

In prison populations, psychopaths are over-represented.
But there are plenty in community samples as well:

studies utilizing nonprison samples have found that there is a small proportion of population “at large” in the community, presenting high levels of psychopathy.
Across several studies on diverse nationalities, rather than Machiavellianism and narcissism, psychopathy is emerging as the driving force behind the connections with delinquency and different types of crimes. In a similar manner as in incarcerated populations, primary psychopathy is one of the most important factors in criminality in student and community samples. Primary psychopathy is especially related to crimes that are of a violent and instrumental nature

However, the author righteously warns to not over-generalize.
Not all psychopaths are (inveterate) criminals, and plenty of non dark-triad are criminals.

Machs are more strategic

Machs and Factor II psychopaths steal more when they won’t get caught:

Machiavellianism and primary psychopathy were positively related to more frequent thefts if the risk was removed

White collar crime is for more successful dark triads

There is little research on white collar crime, but says the author:

The Dark Triad’s associations with deceitfulness and hunger for money, power, and status make it a likely personality constellation relevant in white-collar crimes

And indeed, based on the available evidence:

These results provide further support for the idea that white-collar criminals have characteristics of “successful psychopathy,” manipulation without problems with impulse control

Interestingly, one study on white collar crime also showed high conscientiousness.

Dark Triads: Not The Best Friends

High Dark Triad individuals seem to be more instrumental in their motivations to select and maintain friendships, preferring friends who can satisfy their needs in the arena of mating and climbing up the social ladder. All of the traits relate to shallow friendships

Differentiating the three:

• Narcissists are “less bad”, it’s the “lightest” of the dark traits as they enjoy social contact and having fun
• Machiavellians make for frenemies, friends who are jealous, competitive, and potentially toxic. They also care less about having friends
• Psychopaths are loners who are not bothered with friendships and have no need to try to influence their friends either

The author says that friendships are rife with exploitation because people expect friends shouldn’t “keep tabs” on who gives.

So, first warning, watch out for the power dynamics:

Don’t be the “crazy go-giver” “friend”

Sometimes one friend puts more importance in the relationship than the other, who might not value the friendship as much. Think about your own friends, and how important they are to you.Now, how many of them do you think rates you as important as you rate them? We often overestimate our own importance in the face of other friends.

Dark triads pick friends who can do something for them

For example, in the mating market:

Social psychology experiments have demonstrated that when a person is in a group with attractive people, they receive higher ratings of attractiveness than they would if they were alone (van Osch, Blanken, Meijs, & van Wolferen, 2015)
(…)
A study that investigated the Dark Triad and the reasons for making friends found that these traits do, indeed, relate to using friends as agentic tools ( Jonason & Schmitt, 2012)

A study also found that Machiavellian women preferred friends with high social status.

More findings

• Psychopaths prioritize dominance over warmth: those who were higher on the cold, callous aspects of psychopathy were more concerned about one’s own image and gaining dominance over others, rather than about having warm, affiliative long-term friendships (Foulkes, McCrory, et al. , 2014)
• Narcissists are polarizing
  • Attractive friends… In the beginning. research has shown that especially narcissists are attractive as friends as first sight, the arrogance and grandiosity makes the attractiveness fade quickly as time goes by.
    In contrast, emotionally intelligent people increased in popularity over the three-month period. In the long run, agreeable individuals also receive more nominations in friendship network studies, and also have large, stable networks because other people prefer their company (Harris & Vazire, 2016)
  • High narcissism can also be initially repulsive: However, those who are not high in narcissism initially dislike those who are narcissistic (Burton et al. , 2017)
• Machs are both popular and unpopular. The picture that is emerging with regards to Machiavellianism and popularity in children indicates that high-Mach kids are both popular (Abell et al. , 2015; Hawley, 2003) and unpopular (Abell et al. , 2015).
  Machiavellian boys rather than girls reach a popular status in their peer groups
  • Machs are good at using both pro-social and aggressive tactics.
• Some core dark triad features hinder long-term relationships. In terms of forming successful long-term relationships, core features of the Dark Triad (i.e. , disagreeableness) seem to be a hinder.

• Vulnerable narcissists and psychopaths make the worst friends. People who were high on vulnerable narcissism and psychopathy, in turn, were more likely to use both proactive and reactive aggression in friendships. Vulnerable narcissists may make for particularly toxic in friends, because of low self-esteem and insecurity about one’s position in the social network.
  Grandiose narcissists are less likely to be aggressive toward their friends because they are more secure in their relationships with others
• Machiavellians may be more suspicious and paranoid. High-Mach women perceived their friends as being emotionally manipulative toward them. (…) Machiavellianism and psychopathy (but not narcissism) relate to perceptions of competition in the office ( Jonason, Wee, & Li, 2015)

• Dark triads tend to remain friends with other dark triads, albeit it seems that dark triad prefer others to be on the lower levels of manipulativeness and egotism.
  The author summarizes that those who are more selfish (i.e. , have darker personalities) do not care about whether their friends are kind or unkind.

My note: why narcissists are both attractive and repulsive
My guess is that “socially unskilled” high narcissists are repulsive to many other high-power people because they evoke competition.
Successful narcissists display the same level of confidence, without the “I’m better than you” vibe that triggers competitive responses.
Also, keep in mind that attraction and dislike aren’t always and necessarily opposite. Many women for example are attracted to men they dislike and find to be asshole types.

Pros & Cons of Dark Triad

Evolutionary psychology suggests there are advantages to dark triad traits -or they wouldn’t have evolved and propagated-.

But there are also disadvantages:

According to Miller et al.(2010), it makes sense to think of the Dark Triad as two constructs. In addition to a more adaptive constellation (i.e. , Factor 1 psychopathy, and grandiose narcissism as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory), there is a second Dark Triad, characterized by features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), vulnerable narcissism (e.g. , fragile self-esteem, insensitivity), and Factor 2 psychopathy (e.g. , risk-taking and impulsivity).
All the three aspects of the vulnerable Dark Triad are linked to neuroticism and have associations with insecure attachment…

The author adds:

Vulnerable Dark Triad is associated with difficulties in current functioning, including nonsuicidal self-harming behaviors

Some dark triads are also high in neuroticism, negative emotionality, and the inability to control emotions, which may lead to vulnerability to mental distress.

Switching from pro-social to coercive provides maximum results

The author dedicates a box to Patricia Hawley and her research on “bistrategic controllers”.

And this was one of the most interesting parts for me.

In short, Resource Control Theory (RCT) explains that prosocial strategies increase access to resources by
forming long-term cooperative alliances. However controlling resources with coercion and aggression can also achieve the same result.

The most effective players use both approaches:

Some individuals are skillful in using both coercive and prosocial friendship tactics.
These individuals are named “bistrategic controllers. ”
Children (and adults) who have mastered the use of both coercive and prosocial tactics in their social relationships are acutely aware of social conventions and morality, but they lack an internalized conscience. They may exhibit low levels of guilt after moral transgressions. In many ways, bistrategic controllers display features of Machiavellianism and primary psychopathy, moving adeptly in their social environments by using manipulation and flattery. Mastering both prosocial and coercive tactics relates to social competence, and material and social success.

And a study in children seems to show as much:

Children who were bistrategic controllers (i.e. , more Machiavellian) were rated as aggressive by their peers, but not by their teachers, implying the ability to hide coercive strategies from authority figures

I think this makes sense.

Bonus: Is Trump A Malignant Narcissist? Yes…

To much of the MAGA crowd’s annoyance, the author dedicates a box to this question.

And just in case it wasn’t obvious to anyone, the answer was “(likely) yes” :).

Also see:

• Is Trump a sociopath?
• The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

MORE WISDOM

Bad, not “mad”:

people who are “survivors” of a toxic relationship with a high Dark Triad person are more likely to feel like they are in a need of psychological interventions than those who are high on these traits themselves.
(…)
The interpersonal damage caused by dark personalities could imply that individuals high on these traits are not “mad” (i.e. , mentally ill, needing some kind of interventions), but simply “bad”

Power dynamics govern academia

The author implies that truth is not always in the driver’s seat when it comes to the DSM:

Research involving the DSM-5 trait model will be useful in shifting the DSM further away from categorical diagnoses derived through political processes and presumed authority and toward an empirically based dimensional model of personality and psychopathology

Some treatment may be possible

There is relatively little research with regards to the treatment of ASPD, CD, or psychopathy
(…)
studies have found that treatment is effective especially for Factor 2 (i.e. , antisocial, impulsive behavior) psychopathy
(…)
Especially the behavioral aspects of secondary psychopathy (which have more links to violence and offending) can be reduced in intensive psychological interventions

Personality predicts crime – possibly more than socio-economic factors

Personality variation clearly plays a vital role in the proclivity to commit crimes of varying degrees, possibly more so than other “criminogenic factors” such as socioeconomic status

Impulsivity & early aggression predict crime

For early red flags in children:

longitudinal research has found that early teacher reports of aggression in children are related to lawbreaking in later life (Stattin & Magnusson, 1989), suggesting that proclivity to commit crimes can be identified relatively early. Aggressive behaviors and attitudes in those high on the Dark Triad spectrum extend to animal cruelty (Kavanagh, Signal, & Taylor, 2013), racism (Hodson, Hogg, & MacInnis, 2009), and acceptance of different types of violent acts

And impulsivity:

A feature that has been consistently connected to crime is impulsivity, characterized by low self-control/self-regulation

Machiavellians can have good long-term relationships

Machiavellianism does not automatically lead to lower quality attachments with romantic partners, and taking the results from studies I reviewed before, it can even have an association with increased relationship satisfaction.
Machiavellianism relates to more long-term planning, and individuals high in this trait can have high investment in a partner, resulting in heightened distress if the relationship dissolves.

Psychopaths and Macs can be very distressed after a breakup

Because of the low satisfaction and low investment in relationships, it would be expected that high Dark Triad individuals (especially Machiavellian and psychopathic) are not feeling very distressed when the relationship breaks up. Moroz, Chen, Daljeet, and Campbell (2018) investigated the Dark Triad, and breakup distress in a sample of 264 University students in Canada. Unexpectedly, they found that participants who scored higher on Machiavellianism and psychopathy reported higher distress after breaking up. In regression analyses where the shared variance between the traits was controlled for, the authors found that those who were higher on Machiavellianism experienced higher levels of distress after a break up.

Narcissists do well at work (for themselves)

The author mentions Dutton’s The Wisdom of Psychopaths and “Snakes in Suits“, and warns that the evidence is scarce.

However, narcissists do well for themselves:

Across different studies, narcissism seems to be consistently related to higher success in terms of higher earnings. The overconfidence and assertiveness of narcissistic individuals could be an asset when discussing promotions and starting salaries, resulting in higher pay.

Also see:

• Machiavellians at the top

Grandiose narcissists are social media super users

(…) those who have more adaptive aspects of narcissism use social media more than people who are insecure narcissists. For example, a meta-analysis on a sample of over 13,000 users found that grandiose (but not vulnerable) narcissism related to increased time spent on social media, frequency of tweets or status updates, number of friends or followers, and frequency of posting

And:

Narcissism, in turn, has the most relevance in social media, with a higher likelihood of posting selfies, getting angry if their posts are not acknowledged by others, and using more digital enhancement techniques in trying to make themselves look more appealing.

Internet and anonymity make aggression easier

Online bullying is an easy, low-cost method of exerting dominance over the victim. Writing a denigrating post is only a few clicks away and has the potential to hurt the victim in front of wide audiences.

A study showed that “traditional” bullies are psychopathic, sadistic and Machiavellian with low agreeableness.
But in online samples only sadism was a significant predictor (van Geel, Goemans, Toprak, & Vedder,
2017).

🙋🏼‍♂️ Lucio’s Analysis

Potentially too self-assured about certain conclusions

Several times I felt like the confidence in some statements or conclusions was unjustified.

I think it would be better for research authors to more clearly mark what’s an opinion, a possible interpretation, or a conjecture.

Some potentially wrong conclusions

Sometimes I disagree with the author’s conclusions.

Or, at least, she didn’t use the correct words.

For example:

Thus rather than having sex with consenting partners, those at the higher end of the continuum are more likely to achieve their mating goals via coercion and manipulation

They’re not more likely to have sex with coercion and manipulation.
They’re more likely than non-dark triads are. It’s a big difference.

Potentially unwarranted conclusions from small samples

For example:

This time, 347 online participants completed the lie detection tasks and the Dark Triad questionnaire. Interestingly, we found that narcissism in men was correlated with worse, and Machiavellianism in women with better lie detection ability.
(…) The higher accuracy of Machiavellian women is interesting too, suggesting that cunningness and manipulativeness in women could be adaptive in terms of an increased capacity in seeing through fake tears.

If 347 participated and only a tiny percentage of those are dark triads, how can we even trust the results?
In this case, I didn’t trust those conclusions on what’s adaptive for women not one bit.

In my opinion, speculation based on poor quality is worse than speculation with no data at all.

In another case:

(…) In an online sample of 314 participants (…) We found that narcissistic men had more children, and psychopathy in both sexes had an association with fewer children.
This is an interesting discovery, as it seems that the sex drive and multiple matings do not translate into higher number of children in psychopathic individuals.
It is possible that the adaptiveness of multiple sexual partners (and possible conceptions) is offset by reduced fertility due to increased risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

With such a tiny sample, of which I would guess that only a small percentage are narcissistic and psychopathic, I wouldn’t even venture into drawing any conclusion.

The reduced fertility argument also seems to me like narrative fallacy, or creating just-so stories.

REVIEW

The Dark Triad of Personality is a good book to learn and understand the dark triad.

It’s briefer than many handbooks, but that’s not necessarily a con.
And while I listed some criticism above, I’m grateful to Minna Lyon for this book.
She did a good job, and I also referenced her work in at least two articles.

I would gladly read a future update to integrate the latest research in a few years. I’m especially interested in:

• Number of dark triad offspring. Something that, in my opinion, could be a possible threat to humanity’s well-being
• Life success measures for the three and related sub-traits. For example, odds of getting rich, advancing at work,
  • Environmental variables that thwart or promote dark-triads success. Lots to learn here for organization and human development to promote systems that make it easier for less selfish and toxic people to advance

Overall, still I learned a lot though.
I gleaned some new insights, improved my understanding in a few areas and, equally important, I better understood the current limitations of research.

Also read:

• How to be (positively) Machiavellian
• 7 Machiavellian traits to adopt

Check the best books on dark triads to read or get this book on Amazon.