1. Delroy L. Paulhus & Kevin M. Williams
The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy
Delroy L. Paulhus & Kevin M. Williams

2. The Gist of it all… what is the dark triad?
The dark triad is a group of three personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. The use of the term "dark" reflects the perception that these traits have interpersonally aversive qualities

3. Literature Review Narcissism
Main Characteristics
How it’s measured
Narcissistic Personality Inventory Test (NPI)
Originated from the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Grandiosity
Entitlement
Superiority
Dominance
As part of the literature review lets take a look at Narcissism first…
Main Characteristics include…
Arose from Raskin & Hall’s attempt to characterize a version from the DSM

4. Literature Review Machiavellianism
Characteristics
Cold
Manipulative
How it’s measured
Machiavellianism – Culprit of this aspect of the Dark Triad is Niccolo Machiavelli. A political advisor for a ruling family in Florence in the 1500’s. The details of how he wanted the council to conduct their duties were summed up in this quote and in his book “the prince”. In other words, by any means necessary get the job done, even if it entails (lying, flattery) to get your way.
Richard Christie wrote a book called “Studies of Machiavellianism”, he measures this characteristic by collecting statements from the original works and asking how much people agree with these statements
Mach IV
Richard Christie
“The end justifies the means”
-Niccolo Machiavelli

5. Literature Review Psychopathy
Characteristics
How it’s Measured
Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP III)
Psychopathy Check List (Hare)
Gold standard of measurement
High impulsivity
Thrill seeking
Low empathy
Low anxiety
Psychopathy – Characteristics
Measured by SRP III (3 most recent), Same aspects of the psychopathy checklist created by Robert Hare – a criminal psychologist. Gold standard of measurement, predicts anti-social behaviour in forensic and non forensic populations

6. Literature Review What’s the Connection?
Socially malevolent characteristics
Behaviour tendencies towards self promotion
Emotional coldness
Duplicity
Aggressiveness
The article indicates the following Relative Characteristics of all three
Socially vengeful, behaviour tendencies towards self promotion, emotional coldness
Deceitful or hypocritical and last but not least aggressive

7. Literature Review Psychopathy Machiavellianism Narcissism
Where they overlap
Machiavellianism to Psychopathy
Narcissism to Psychopathy
Machiavellianism to Narcissism
Machiavellianism
Narcissism

8. Are they equivalent? hypothesis
Hypothesis – The articles states “given such associations, the possibility arises that, in normal samples, the Dark triad of constructs may be equivalent”

9. Research Questions
When mapping the Dark Triad on the Big Five domains what differences and similarities are noticed?
Would characteristics of the substantial self-enhancement observed in narcissists also be evident in Machiavellian and sub clinically psychopathic individuals?
Some additional research questions arose related to the hypothesis while teasing apart the triad for further understanding
When mapping the triad onto the Big Five domains (you’ve all heard of the big 5 characteristics – write them on the board) what are the similarities and differences?
“Would characteristics of the substantial self-enhancement observed in narcissists also be evident in Machiavellian and sub clinically psychopathic individuals”

10. Methodology Step #2 Step #1 Anonymous Questionnaire
245 undergraduate psychology students (65% female) participated in the study for an extra course credit
Step #2
Step #1
Anonymous Questionnaire
Dark Triad
Big 5
Intelligence
Supervised Administration of global cognitive ability (IQ)
Over Claiming Measure
Objective Measure
Here’s how they started…
245 undergraduate psychology students (65% female) participated in the study for an extra course credit
Each person took home an anonymous questionnaire package which included standard self-report measures of the dark triad, the big 5 and self ratings of intelligence
They later returned to the lab for a supervised administration of the over-claiming measure and an objective measure of global cognitive ability (IQ)

11. Step #1 The Dark TRiad
Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)
40 item questionnaire
Machiavellianism Test (Mach IV)
20 items on a 5 point likert scale
Self-Report Psychopathy(SRP 111)
30 five point items
Dark Triad Breakdown

12. Step #1 the big five 44 item questionnaire Personality Traits:
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Neuroticism
Openness
Big Five Breakdown

13. Step #1 intelligence Four 5-point scales 1 – Not at all, 5 – Very Much
Items were: Intelligent, smart, good at school and known as brainy
.83
Intelligence Breakdown
Alpha reliability was .83

14. Step #2 Wonderlic Personnel Test Supervised, 50 item
Verbal & Non Verbal
Over Claiming Questionnaire (OCQ)
Cognitive Ability
Self-Enhancement Bias
Supervised Administration of the Wonderlic Personnel Test to be was used to measure global cognitive ability (including both verbal and non-verbal IQ) – wonderlic consists of 50 items to be answered in 12 minutes and was primarily used as an aptitude test for learning and problem solving
The Over Claiming Questionnaire – measure of cognitive ability and self-enhancement bias

15. Statistical analysis & results
Overlap Chart – Highest Correlation (Narcissism to psychopathy)

16. Statistical analysis & results
Agreeableness
Narcissists
Machiavellians
Psychopaths
Conscientiousness
Machiavellians
Psychopaths
Neuroticism
-.34
-.24
Big 5 Traits – were measured using two-tailed t-tests (p<.01) The results were as follows
All 3 of the Dark Triad members had low agreeableness scores
In terms of conscientiousness, Machiavellians and Psychopaths were the lowest of the 3
And last but not least, psychopaths have the lowest levels of neuroticism
Thus far, the above test scores make sense… agreed?

17. Statistical analysis & results
Extraversion
Openness
Narcissism
.41
.38
Psychopathy
.34
.24
The last 2 Big Five traits are extraversion and openness – narcissism and psychopathy scored highest on these scales

18. Statistical analysis & results
Small positive correlations with cognitive abilities and narcissism
Highest scores on non-verbal IQ
Machiavellianism
Psychopathy
Over-claiming
Narcissism
Over-estimate their intelligence
Small positive correlations with cognitive abilities and narcissism but no links with Machiavellianism or psychopathy
The IQ items were separated into verbal and non-verbal subscales and a discrepancy score was calculated by subtracting the 2
The higher non-verbal IQ scores are between Machiavellianism and psychopathy
And in terms of over-claiming Narcissism came in first. This means they tend to over estimate their intelligence

19. Fun Fact Males scored the highest on all 3 of the Dark Triad
Two-tailed test p<.05
NPI
MACH IV
SRP
Males scored the highest on all 3 of the dark triad, this was determined and deemed significant by using a 2-tailed test p<.05
Although males scored highest, they werent too far off between genders, which is why the genders were pooled

20. discussion Big Five showed low agreeableness in all 3
Narcissists and psychopaths scored the highest in extraversion and openness
Machiavellianism and psychopathy scored lowest in the conscientiousness category
Psychopaths scored low on neuroticism and therefore lack anxiety
Lets take a look at what the test scores tell us
- The big 5 showed disagreeableness in all 3, this trait is at the core of the triad. Their social destructiveness is normal (in non-clinical samples)

21. discussion Self – enhancement 1. Narcissists 2. Psychopaths
Does not apply to Machiavellianism
Narcissists to Psychopaths
Grandiosity & poor insight
Significant associations of Machiavellianism and psychopathy with a relatively higher non-verbal to verbal IQ score
Self enhancement – narcissists came in first, psychopaths second, but this did not apply to Machiavellianism. They tend to be more grounded with a reality based sense of self
On the other hand, narcissists have components such as grandiosity and poor insight as part of their personality. The following can also be seen in psychopaths
Significant associations of Machiavellianism and psychopathy with a relatively higher non-verbal to verbal IQ score… in other words, theyre secretly smarter than we may think they are

22. Fun fact
When gender and ethnicity were broken down the strongest correlate of the difference score [(r=.27)] was psychopathy in males of European heritage (i.e white people with dark personalities)

23. The good, the bad & the ugly
Machiavellians and narcissists, more of an irritation than threat
A blessing in disguise?
Personal life
Interpersonal life
Organizational contexts
Psychopathy more difficult
Positive self view, lack of anxiety
When considering which of the 3 are the worst machiavellians and narcissists are more of an irritation than threat
But are these characters a blessing in disguise? Research has proven that there are positive aspects to these dark triad components and personal life, their communication with others and in the work place. I personally have done research on Machiavellians and they have time and time again proven to be solid leaders… cut throat, but non the less effective in some cases
Psychopaths are a bit more difficult to find. Their positive self view and lack of anxietymay, in their own minds, be their way of adapting to situations

24. They are not equivalent!
conclusion
They are not equivalent!
Aside from the hypothesis One of the research questions that were supposed to be discussed pertained to the similarities and differences between the 3 triad constructs, thus far the research does not support the notion that they are equivalent

25. Discussion questions
Which job or job position do you think suits a narcissist, Machiavellian or psychopath best?
Which of the 3 seem the “worst” or least tolerable? What about them makes you think this way?
Which do you see as most beneficial? (society, personal life, organizational contexts)