Untangling the concurrent influences of the Dark Triad, personality and mating effort on violence

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2015.05.031

Personality and Individual Differences

Volume 86, November 2015, Pages 222-226

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.05.031 Get rights and content

Highlights

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We examined the associations between the dark triad (DT), mating effort, and violence.
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Uncorrected for personality, mating effort and the DT are associated with violence.
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When personality is taken into account, only psychopathy and low agreeableness correlate with violence.
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Mating effort's relationship with violence is due to concurrent personality influences.
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Psychopathy is associated with unprovoked violence.

Abstract

The Dark Triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy; DT) and mating effort are associated with anti-social behaviour, but these associations may build on underlying personality traits not specific to violence. The DT (measured using the SD3), the HEXACO personality scale, and a measure of mating effort were regressed onto a measure of self-reported violence as defined by an adapted version of the MacArthur Community Violence Screening Instrument in 305 adults recruited via an online survey. While simple correlation analyses found violence and mating effort both systematically associated with most personality and DT measures, regression suggested overall violence was specifically associated with younger age, lower agreeableness, and greater psychopathy (R² = 0.32, 95% confidence interval = 0.24 to 0.40); unprovoked violence was associated with greater psychopathy. These results suggest that when personality, the DT, and mating effort are considered simultaneously, antisocial personality variance falls out of mating effort and narcissism constructs, leaving a more parsimonious set of associates for aggression and violence. This study reiterates the importance of concurrently measuring basic disposition when examining factors genuinely underlying violence and aggression, and the centrality of psychopathy and low agreeableness to such behaviour.

Section snippets

Design

The current study was quantitative and correlational. The key outcome was self-reported violence, with the other measures being putative associates. A cross sectional method was adopted in order to gather participant's responses to the test scales in an online survey.

Participants

All participants were 18 and over. A power analysis conducted seeking a medium effect size with a significance level of 0.05. Faul, Erdfelder, Buchner and Lang (2009) suggested that a minimum of 160 participants were needed. In

Results

Initial analysis obtained descriptive statistics to assess the reliability and validity of the measures used. All scales demonstrated fair to excellent levels of reliability (Table 1). Verbal, throwing, and pushing violence were most common, but some individuals disclosed committing more sustained assaults and robbery, indicating that we were sampling the full range of violence, including more severe (but less common) expressions of the behaviour.

Preliminary analysis tested that data did not

Discussion

This current study examined the concurrent influence of personality, the DT and mating effort on self-reported violent behaviour as measured by the MCVSI. Although both personality and DT constructs correlated with violence, when these constructs are considered in relation to each other, the only measure with a direct influence on violence was self-reported psychopathy. The regression analysis rationalised this over-expansive nomological network, which otherwise suggested that most variables

Acknowledgements

We thank all participants in this study. The work was not funded by any research grant or stipend.

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The current study examines verbal and physical intimate partner violence (IPV) as predicted by the Dark Triad traits (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism) above and beyond associations with the Big Five personality variables, depression, and general hostility within a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample (n = 203) of pregnant women. Prior research indicates that psychopathy is a robust predictor of both IPV perpetration and victimization, but rarely do these analyses include other personality or psychosocial covariates. Key findings include direct effects of psychopathy as a positive predictor of verbal and physical IPV perpetration, as well as indirect effects of the above associations mediated by general hostility. In contrast, depression, but not psychopathy, was a unique predictor of verbal and physical IPV victimization. These findings expand the current literature by focusing on pregnant women as a uniquely vulnerable population and by examining unique direct and indirect effects of psychopathy in the presence of multiple psychosocial covariates.
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There was a positive relationship between the DT factor and general IPV. Because I used DT as a latent factor, its underlying nature predicted IPV, although individual Triad traits suggest diverse effects (Carton & Egan, 2017; Kiire, 2017; Webster et al., 2016; Westhead & Egan, 2015). These results were consistent with previous findings regarding the effects of DT on the MRB factor (Jonason et al., 2011) and the MRB factor on IPV (Buss et al., 2008).
Various intimate partner violence (IPV) risk factors have been identified. The Dark Triad (DT) is considered a proximal risk factor, while life history strategy (LHS) and mate retention behavior (MRB) are ultimate factors. I examined effects of the K-factor as an index of LHS on IPV and its indirect effects through the DT (as a proximal factor) and MRB among Japanese undergraduates (N = 380; M_age = 18.9, SD = 1.21; 212 women). The K-factor negatively affected IPV both directly and indirectly (i.e., fast LHS facilitates IPV directly and indirectly through DT and MRB), but only in women. This research successfully integrated proximal and ultimate factors to elucidate IPV. Limitations and future research suggestions are also discussed.

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View full text

Untangling the concurrent influences of the Dark Triad, personality and mating effort on violence

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Design

Participants

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Aggression and Violent Behaviour

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

Clinical Psychology Review

Personality and Individual Differences

Evolution and Human Behaviour

Personality and Individual Differences

Journal of Research in Personality

Personality and Individual Differences

Personality and Individual Differences

External validity of “trivial” experiments: The case of laboratory aggression

Review of General Psychology

Human aggression

Annual Review of Psychology

Countries with fewer males have more violent crime: Marriage markets and mating aggression

Aggressive Behavior

Personality and aggressive behavior under provoking and neutral conditions: A meta-analytic review

Psychological Bulletin

Behavioral confirmation of everyday sadism

Psychological Science