The Dark Tetrad of Personality: Relevance to Nefarious Groups Delroy L. Paulhus University of...
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Transcript of The Dark Tetrad of Personality: Relevance to Nefarious Groups Delroy L. Paulhus University of...
The Dark Tetrad of Personality:
Relevance to Nefarious Groups
Delroy L. Paulhus
University of British Columbia
Outline
Dark Triad
Dark Tetrad
Application to groups
Positive personalities
Boring
Negative personalities
Fascinating
Exciting
Consequential
MACHIAVELLIAN
NARCISSIST
PSYCHOPATH
The Dark Triad
Narcissist: egotistical attention-seeking
Machiavellian: planful manipulation
Psychopath: reckless and callous
CLINICAL LEVEL-serious problems-requires professional help
SUBCLINICAL-mild version, allows person to manage in everyday society
What is the common factor?
callousness
Machiavellianism
Niccolo Machiavelli
MachiavellianismAdvisor to the Medici family (ca. 1500)
To succeed in politics, you must manipulate others
E.g., flatter important peopleMost people are ignorant and deserve to
be manipulated Richard Christie created the Mach scale
Sun-Tzu:
The Art of War(ca. 500 B.C.)
The Psychopath
Clinical versionkey features:
Nasty & impulsive
Keeps committing crimesNever learnsMost of life spent in prison
The Subclinical VersionNormal psychopath
Successful psychopath
Non-criminal psychopath
Businessman, lawyer, student
The NarcissistThe Narcissist
Sense of superiorityNeeds attentionConstant braggingFeels entitled to superior treatmentDerogates others
In principle, they are secretly insecure
Raskin created the Narcissistic Personality Inventory
MODERN DAY EXAMPLES
OF THE DARK TRIAD
Subclinical narcissism
Paris HiltonDonald Trump
3. MachiavellianismMachiavellian
Bernie Madoff
Sub-clinical psychopath
Sean Avery
SOME OF THE ISSUES
Q: are they actually the same person?A: No, but positively correlated
Q: Are they mutually exclusive?A: No, they can be found in the same person.
OUR RESEARCHDesigned to differentiate the Dark Triad
Included an extensive program of correlational and experimental studies
Hoped to differentiate the three on the basis of predicting distinct outcomes
Required solid measurement instruments
Primarily student and Mechanical Turk samples
Paulhus & Williams (2002)
INTRODUCED THE RESEARCHSRP III (Self-Report Psychopathy)NPI (Narcissistic Personality Inventory)Mach IV (Machiavellianism scale)
Short Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2010)
TO ANTICIPATE:The Dark Triad members show
distinctive correlates across a wide range
of unsavory behaviors
Williams & Paulhus 2003
Self-enhancement
Discrepancy measureDeparture from reality
Objective measure
Over-Claiming QuestionnaireHow familiar are you with these 100
things?Some of them are not real
ResultsCorrelations with self-enhancement
Narcissism were moderate to large
Psychopathy were small
Machiavellianism were zero
CHEATING & FRAUD
Exam copying Study(Nathanson et al., 2006)A. Administered battery of personality
measuresB. Used Wesolowsky Program to detect
cheaters on midterm and final exams
Examines wrong answers on multiple-choice tests
Compares all combinations of studentsStatistical detection of error similaritiesIdentifies outlier pairs
RESULTS
Narcissism r = .10Machivellianism r = .11Psychopathy r = .28
Plagiarism StudyWilliams et al. (2010)
245 students
Term papers scored for plagiarism by Turn-It-In program
Both Psychopathy & Machiavellianism worked
Fraud StudyE-mail questionnaire study (N = 95)
Participation motivation was lottery three $50.00 prizes for participating
Before awarding prizes, we sent another email
“Oops, we lost the list of winners”
Results
12 of 63 students responders reported that they were a winner
Narcissism r = .04Machiavellianism r = .10Psychopathy r = .24 p < .03
Jones & Paulhus (2010)
AGGRESSION
white noise paradigm
Advertised as Competitive Game Study
PROVOCATIONS BY ‘PARTNER’
Actually there is no partner
She decides how to respond by setting the noise delivered to the partner
Aggression was measured by the noise setting administered to partner
Results
Narcissists increased aggression after an insult
Psychopaths increased aggression after a gratuitous escalation
Sexual deviance studies
We asked students about deviant sex fantasies and behavior (paraphilias, etc.)
RESULTS
Most people have some deviant fantasies
Link between fantasy and behavior was stronger among psychopaths
RESEARCH BY OTHERS
Behavior-Genetics StudyVernon et al. (2007)
N = 344 twins
Psychopathy & narcissism highly heritable
Machiavellianism shows a strong shared environmental effect
Big Six studies
Ashton & Lee (2006)
They added Factor 6 called Honesty-Humility -- to the Big Five
All of the triad load on Factor 6, with few loadings on other factors
International Sex Survey
Schmitt and colleagues (2005)
Psychopaths steal other people’s lovers
Same pattern in every one of 45 countries
REVENGE
Nathanson & Paulhus (in preparation)On-line anonymous data collection
If you’re like most people, you have fantasized about getting back at someone for something they did you.
Tell us about an example of such a fantasy and and whether you actually got payback.
Results
Psychopathy and borderline personality predicted stalking
Neurotics fantasized but never acted on it
We also clarified the motivation for revenge
STALKING
Lau & Paulhus (under review)Similar data collection to revenge studies
Have you ever been rejected but continued to pursue the person anyway?
Please give us the details
RESULTS : psychopaths were the most frequent stalkers
CONCLUSIONS
Theoretical Features of D3
Narc Mach PsychopathyCallousness HI HI HI
Impulsivity MOD LO HI
Manipulation MOD HI HI
Criminality LO only all kinds white collar
Grandiosity HI LO MOD
The newest member
SadismSadism
Sexual Sadism
EVERYDAY SADISM
Abu Graib prison guards
Cage Fighting
Video games
1.Postal 22.Grand Theft Auto 33.Manhunt4.Mad World 5.Thrill Kill
EVERYDAY (NON-SEXUAL SADISM)MOTIVATIONS
Sadism encouraged by authoritiesSadism encouraged by in-groupEncouraged by sports normsPersonal revenge
CONCEPT: enjoyment vs. callous acceptance
i.e., appetitive not low disgust
MEASURESQUESTIONNAIRES
Short Sadism Scale (Davies, 2008)Our Multi-Sadism QuestionnaireThe SSIS plus:
sexual sadismenjoyment of sadistic sports, films, video
games, etc.partner abuse, self-harm, animal cruelty
Question:How to show sadism in the psychology
laboratory?
Answer:Bug crunching
Your job is to crunch this bug
30 percent of psychology students agreed
Another 38 percent agreed to help
RESULTS
Those who score high on the Sadism Questionnaire will be more willing to crunch the bug themselves
Also those scoring high on RWA(cf. Milgram)
OTHER RESULTS
Similar results for males and femalesCommon enjoyment of all violent mediaPredicted by Everyday Sadism scaleLinked to animal cruelty, fire-lighting, and
vandalismSexual sadism only slightly relatedUnrelated to self-harmRelatively independent of Dark Triad !
Combinations of the Dark Tetrad
•The Giants
•Hitler, Stalin, Mao?
•Likely high intelligence too
Application to Group
Hierarchies
NEFARIOUS GROUPSOrganized crimeMotorcycle gangsStreet gangsTerrorist organizationsPoliticians
Ideal RolesLEADERS
Narcissist Front man
Machiavellian Mastermind
HENCH-MEN
Psychopath Hired gun
Sadist Cruel
LEADERS
Narcissist Front manMachiavellian Mastermind
HENCH-MEN
Psychopath Hired gunSadist Brutalizers
FOLLOWERSTrue believers
NARCISSISTS
High profilecharismatic spokesperson
MACHIAVELLIANS
Low profileMastermindManipulatorStrategic thinker
TRUE BELIEVERS
Need to belongNeed for an admirable identitycharismatic
AUTHORITARIANS
Obedient to authoritiesEscape from freedomWorldview Clarity
FAMOUS LEADERSHIP PAIRS
The Narcissist The Machiavellian
Nixon KissingerBush Karl RoveBill Clinton Hillary Clinton
Bin Laden Al-Zawahiri
Others ?
CONCLUSIONSTo understand dark characters, more
differentiation is needed
Too often lumped together as simply evil
They act in concert in certain nefarious groups
Undermining such groups requires working on each one’s weakness
THANK YOU
for
listening !
And THANKS TO MY STUDENTS
Kevin WilliamsCraig Nathanson
Peter HarmsKatherine LauBryce Westlake
Dan JonesSabrina Kitching