You Are What You Dream: The Dark Tetrad and Dream Content

Previous research has found behaviors associated with personality traits can be found in the dreams of those who possess them, suggesting a continuum between dreaming and waking life. The present study sought to investigate the association between dark tetrad traits (psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism) and dream content. One hundred thirty-seven participants completed questionnaires measuring dark tetrad traits and ﬁ ghting, sexual, and grandiosity themes of dream content. Correlation analyses revealed signi ﬁ cant positive relationships between all dark tetrad traits and ﬁ ghting, sexual and grandiosity dreams. Regression analyses revealed that psychopathy and gender predicted ﬁ ghting dreams, and sadism uniquely predicted sexual and grandiosity dreams. The results suggest that waking life dark tetrad personality traits are re ﬂ ected in dream content. The continuity hypothesis, which posits a continuity between waking life and dreaming, may in part explain the results.

that waking life personality of the dreamer is reflected in dream content.Extraversion has been correlated with number of characters in a dream, greater number of social interactions in a dream, and more positive affect in dreams (König et al., 2016;Lang & O'Connor, 1984).This is congruent with the idea that extraverts are more social and have a greater proclivity toward positive emotionality then introverts (Diener et al., 2003).However, Bernstein and Roberts (1995) also found no relationship between dream extraversion and number of dream characters.Neuroticism has been related to experiences of negative emotion, fear, confusion, and frustration in dreams (Bernstein & Roberts, 1995;Lang & O'Connor, 1984), congruent with the notion that people scoring highly in neuroticism are more prone to stress and anxiety (Jylhä & Isometsä, 2006).Cann and Donderi (1986) found that participants who scored as intuitive on the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory recalled more archetypal dreams-emotionally intense dreams of a profound and bizarre nature.These findings are corroborated by Aumann et al. (2012), who found people scoring highly on the Big 5 trait "openness" were more likely to have dreams of significance.These results align with the Jungian idea that intuitive types are typically more creative and open to experience (Jung, 1921(Jung, /1971)).
Contemporary theories of dreaming posit a continuity between dreaming and waking life, and may help to explain the expression of the dreamer's personality in dream content.The continuity hypothesis (Bell & Hall, 1971) recognizes the similarities between dreaming and waking life, stating that dreams are related to everyday concerns and preoccupations, but serve no adaptive purpose (Domhoff, 1996).The simulation theories, namely the threat simulation theory (Revonsuo, 2000) and social simulation theory (Revonsuo et al., 2015), take an evolutionary perspective on dreaming.These theories suggest the disproportionately large number of threatening and social situations that occur within dreams may function to better prepare the dreamer for such encounters in waking life.

The Dark Tetrad
The dark tetrad is a constellation of personality traits comprised of subclinical psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism which have been related to antisocial behaviors (Buckels et al., 2013;Chabrol et al., 2009Chabrol et al., , 2017)).It developed from the addition of sadism to the original dark triad of personality traits-psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).The dark tetrad classifies the four traits by their malevolent, callous characteristics and can be used to explain immoral conduct.
Psychopathy is characterized by impulsivity, thrill seeking, low empathy, and low anxiety.It has been found to positively correlate with extraversion and openness and negatively correlate with agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).Narcissism is characterized by grandiosity, self-entitlement, dominance, and a sense of superiority toward others.Narcissism positively correlates with extraversion and openness, and negatively correlates with agreeableness (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).Machiavellianism is characterized by cold and manipulative behavior toward others.It negatively correlates with agreeableness and conscientiousness (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).Sadism is characterized by aggression, cruelty, and demeaning behavior toward others (Chabrol et al., 2009).Sadistic individuals find it pleasurable to inflict pain on other people (Chester et al., 2019).Sadism positively correlates with extraversion and negatively correlates with agreeableness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness.All four traits of the dark tetrad correlate negatively with the honesty-humility scale (Book et al., 2016).
There is a high degree of overlap within dark tetrad traits, with correlations existing between all four traits.Most notably, psychopathy and narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, as well as psychopathy and sadism are strongly correlated with one another (Bonfá-Araujo et al., 2022;Paulhus & Williams, 2002;Persson, 2019).Such similarity between the constructs has led to speculation over the existence of an overall "dark factor," rather than the tetrad comprising four separate constructs (Neumann et al., 2022).
Each trait within the dark tetrad has been linked with certain behaviors.Individuals who score highly in dark tetrad traits are found to be more prone to lying (Forsyth et al., 2021); cyberbullying (Brown et al., 2019); domestic abuse (Carton & Egan, 2017); relationship control (Hughes & Samuels, 2021); risk taking (Stanwix & Walker, 2021); and sensation seeking (Crysel et al., 2013).They are also more likely to follow a fast life history strategy, placing more resources into frequent mating patterns rather than parenting (Figueredo & Jacobs, 2011;Furnham et al., 2013).Dark tetrad traits manifest as higher rates of sexual and aggressive behaviors.Specifically, narcissism and psychopathy have been associated with sexual ideation and a preference for short-term sexual encounters (Baughman et al., 2014;Jonason et al., 2009Jonason et al., , 2012)).Machiavellianism and psychopathy have been associated with a higher propensity for aggressive encounters (Jones & Neria, 2015).Sadism has not been associated with fast life history strategy (Davis et al., 2019), although sadism is defined by taking pleasure from violence.It therefore manifests as more frequent incidents of aggressive behavior (Buckels et al., 2013).

The Dark Triad and Dreams
Lyons et al. (2019) investigated whether dark triad personality traits-narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism (Paulhus & Williams, 2002), manifested as behaviors in dreams.Psychopathy and narcissism were found to predict frequency of sexual dreams and Machiavellianism and psychopathy predicted aggressive dreams.This was the first study relating the dark triad of personality traits with dream activity and their findings support the continuity hypothesis and the simulation hypotheses; the thoughts and preoccupations of the waking life were maintained in the dreams, and both social and threatening situations were replicated.
Yu (2014) investigated a plethora of relationships between healthy and pathological traits and dream content.Yu ran 675 correlations between variables, with notable findings including positive relationships between narcissism and grandiosity dreams, as well as between antisocial traits and sexual dreams.These findings are salient because narcissism is partly defined by grandiose characteristics (Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001), therefore Yu demonstrates continuity of grandiosity from waking life into dreams.Yu did not measure dark triad traits, though they do manifest as antisocial behaviors (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).The relationship between antisocial traits and sexual dreams may echo findings from Lyons et al. (2019), who found psychopathy and narcissism to predict sexual dreams.Lyons et al. (2019) and Yu (2014) provide evidence that characteristics of dark triad traits are present in the dreams of those who possess them.Other studies investigating the relationship between personality traits and dreams have demonstrated mixed results, although there is a body of evidence suggesting that Big Five personality traits are reflected within dreams (Aumann et al., 2012;Bernstein & Roberts, 1995;Cann & Donderi, 1986;König et al., 2016;Lang & O'Connor, 1984;Samson & De Koninck, 1986).The novelty of Lyons et al. and Yu's findings alongside the relationships between dark tetrad traits and the Big Five (Buckels et al., 2013;Paulhus & Williams, 2002) justifies a need for further research in this field.

The Present Study
The present study sets out to replicate and build on findings from Lyons et al. (2019) and Yu (2014), seeking to clarify their results and implement more measures of personality traits and dream content to provide a more robust test of the idea that personality traits, particularly those of the dark tetrad, are reflected in dream content.As in Lyons et al. (2019), the present study will investigate relationships between psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism and sexual and fighting dreams.Two additional variables will also be added to the study design.Sadism will be measured alongside the dark triad traits, completing the "dark tetrad" quaternity of personality traits (Buckels et al., 2013).Grandiosity in dream content will also be measured, alongside sex and fighting (Yu, 2012).
Sadism has not been previously studied in relation to dreams and its inclusion will allow for the study of the dark tetrad as a whole.Grandiosity is a belief of superiority to others and involves self-centeredness, condescension toward others and entitlement (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).It is a definitive factor within narcissism (Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001), and has also been associated with psychopathy (Klipfel & Kosson, 2018).
The present study has three primary hypotheses.Firstly, based on Lyons et al. (2019), and the association between sadism and dispositional aggression (Buckels et al., 2013), we hypothesize that psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism will be positively associated with fighting dreams.Secondly, based on Lyons et al. (2019), that psychopathy and narcissism will be positively associated with sexual dreams.Thirdly, based on Lyons et al. (2019) and the association between grandiosity and psychopathy and narcissism (Klipfel & Kosson, 2018), psychopathy and narcissism will be positively associated with grandiosity dreams.

Method Participants
One hundred thirty-seven participants (101 female, 32 male, four nonbinary, M age 31.88,SD 11.11) completed the study.One hundred fifty-six participants began the study, 19 were excluded for not completing the entire questionnaire.Participants were recruited through convenience sampling and social media.

Materials
Three questionnaires were administered to participants and demographic information for age and gender was collected.
Sex, Fighting and Grandiosity subscales from the Dream Motif Scale (DMS) (Yu, 2012) were modified to measure dream content.Items from the original scales that were deemed to be most reflective of sexual experiences, acts of violence, and a grandiose sense of self were selected to measure dream content.The revised sex subscale consists of two items: "sexual experiences" and "having a sexual relationship with a big wheel or celebrity," r(136) = .41(p , .001).The revised Fighting subscale (α = .75)consists of three items "killing someone," "shooting or remote attacks" (e.g., firing a gun, shooting an arrow, vacuum surge fist, qigong attacks, etc.), and "hitting something or someone."The revised Grandiosity subscale (α = .86)consists of eight items: "having superior knowledge or mental ability," "having magical powers (other than flying, soaring, or floating through the air)," "being in a movie, fiction or drama," "becoming a certain form of deity," "becoming a big wheel or celebrity," "living in a very big home," "having a superior status," and "coming into contact with a big wheel or celebrity."Each subscale is a 5-point Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 = never to 5 = once a month or more often.Responses for each subscale were summed to give a total score for each type of dream content.
The Short Dark Triad (SD3) (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) is a 27-item questionnaire used to assess psychopathy (α = .73),narcissism (α = .78),and Machiavellianism (α = .76).It is a 5-point Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 = disagree strongly to 5 = agree strongly.Each trait had nine items which include: "payback needs to be quick and nasty" (psychopathy); "many group activities tend to be dull without me" (narcissism); and "most people can be manipulated" (Machiavellianism).Mean scores for each trait were calculated and used for analysis.
The Assessment of Sadistic Personalities (α = .83;Plouffe et al., 2017) was administered to assess sadism.Plouffe et al. used factor analysis with both short dark triad and assessment of sadistic personality to find four distinct constructs, giving evidence that these two questionnaires could be used in conjunction with one another as a measure of dark tetrad traits.The Assessment of Sadistic Personalities is a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = disagree strongly to 5 = agree strongly.There are nine items which include "I would hurt somebody if it meant that I would be in control." The mean score was calculated and used for analysis.

Procedure
Participants completed the study online with Experimentum (DeBruine, 2019).They were first presented with the information sheet and consent form.The Short Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, 2014) and Assessment of Sadistic Personalities (Plouffe et al., 2017) were then presented as one questionnaire with their items randomized.This was followed by the revised Sex, Fighting, and Grandiosity subscales from the DMS (Yu, 2012) with items in sequence.Participants were presented with a debrief form upon completion of the questionnaires.

Design and Data Analysis
The study was of correlational design with the relationships between dark tetrad traits and dream content being measured.Sum scores were used for Sex, Fighting, and Grandiosity subscales of dream content and mean scores were used for psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism.Spearman's correlation analyses were carried out to determine strength of correlations.The Benjamini and Hochberg (1995) method was chosen to correct for multiple comparisons.This is due to the correlations within dark tetrad traits and the ability of this method to control for false discovery rate.Three separate linear multiple regressions were run to investigate whether dark tetrad traits (psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism), with gender as a control variable, predicted fighting, sex and grandiosity dream content respectively.Data was analyzed with R Studio.

Correlations Between All Variables
Spearman's correlations of the dark tetrad traits with dream content revealed significant, weak, positive correlations between all dark tetrad traits and fighting, sex, and grandiosity dream content.Significant, moderate to strong correlations were found between each of the dark tetrad traits.Significant, moderate correlations were found between fighting, sex, and grandiosity dream frequency when using the full DMS subscales.Table 1 displays the mean and standard deviations for each variable, as well as correlations between all variables.

Hypothesis 2-Psychopathy and Narcissism Will Be Positively Associated With Sexual Dreams
In line with Hypothesis 2, psychopathy and narcissism were positively correlated with sexual dreams.Additionally, Machiavellianism and sadism were positively correlated with sexual dreams which were not hypothesized relationships.Regression analyses found that sadism was significantly associated with sexual dream frequency (β = .24,p = .03).

Hypothesis 3-Psychopathy and Narcissism Will Be Positively Associated With Grandiosity Dreams
In line with Hypothesis 3, psychopathy and narcissism were positively correlated with grandiosity dreams.Additionally, Machiavellianism and sadism were positively correlated with grandiosity dreams, which were not hypothesized relationships.Regression analyses found that sadism was significantly associated with grandiosity dream frequency (β = .36,p = .03).

Discussion
The present study provides evidence that dark tetrad personality traits may be reflected in dream content and partially confirms the initial hypotheses.Dark tetrad traits and fighting, sexual, and grandiosity dreams were well correlated with one another.Linear multiple regressions revealed that psychopathy and gender predicted fighting dreams, and that sadism was a unique predictor of both sexual and grandiosity dreams.Positive relationships between the dark tetrad traits and fighting, sexual, and grandiosity dream themes were as expected.This confirms previous correlational relationships between dark triad traits and fighting, sexual, and grandiosity dreams (Lyons et al., 2019;Yu, 2014).The results are congruent with studies demonstrating personality traits being reflected in dream contents through behavior more broadly.Lang and O'Connor (1984) found people higher in extraversion to dream more of people, aligning with the notion that extraverts are more sociable.Likewise, König et al. (2016) found extraverts dreamt more of social interactions between the dreamer and other people.Both studies affirm behavioral correlates of personality within dreams, in keeping with the findings of the present study.The continuity of extraversion into dreams is particularly salient due to its correlations with psychopathy and sadism (Book et al., 2016;Paulhus & Williams, 2002).The appearance of waking life behavioral patterns in dreams suggest some continuity between waking and dreaming personality.
Relationships between dark tetrad traits and fighting, sexual, and grandiosity dream content align with theory; dark tetrad traits manifest behaviorally as more sexual promiscuity and fantasies (Baughman et al., 2014;Furnham et al., 2013;Jonason et al., 2009Jonason et al., , 2012)); greater propensity toward violence (Buckels et al., 2013;Jones & Neria, 2015) and a grandiose sense of self (Klipfel & Kosson, 2018).The continuity hypothesis (Bell & Hall, 1971) explains that waking life preoccupations, concerns, and interests often appear in dreams.The expression of aggressive, sexual, and grandiose motifs in the dreams of those scoring highly on dark tetrad traits may therefore be due to the presence of thoughts and behaviors from waking life.
Correlations revealed not only that dark tetrad traits were related to the proposed dream themes, but also, they were highly correlated with one another-particularly psychopathy, sadism, and Machiavellianism.This high degree of overlap has been alluded to in previous research (Neumann et al., 2022;Persson, 2019;Persson et al., 2017), and adds further to the question of whether the dark tetrad does, in fact, contain four separate constructs.High degrees of overlap between psychopathy and Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism, and psychopathy and sadism suggests these may be different facets of the same construct.Future research is needed to clarify this, although was beyond the scope of the present study.
The present study conducted regression analyses to better understand the association between the respective dark tetrad traits and dream content.Psychopathy and gender were unique predictors of fighting dreams, while sadism uniquely predicted sexual and grandiosity dreams.Psychopathy is associated with aggression (Jones & Neria, 2015), and men have been found to have more aggressive dreams (Domhoff, 1996;Schredl et al., 1998) and express more direct, violent forms of aggression (Björkqvist, 2018;Im et al., 2018) than women.Men are also more likely to exhibit dark tetrad traits than women (Chiorri et al., 2019), though it is not yet clear how this relates to nonbinary people.The continuity hypothesis (Bell & Hall, 1971) can explain representation of waking life phenomena in dreams: if males and individuals who score highly in psychopathy are prone to violent ideation within waking life, this is also expressed in their dreams.The threat simulation theory (Revonsuo, 2000) may also explain these findings; fighting dreams help prepare the dreamer for these situations in waking life.The threat simulation theory is limited, however, because it is unable to explain the multitude of nonthreatening occurrences which take place within dreams.
Theoretically, it is unclear why sadism, over psychopathy, and narcissism, would uniquely predict sexual and dreams given that psychopathy and narcissism are associated with sexual activity and grandiosity (Baughman et al., 2014;Klipfel & Kosson, 2018), and sadism is not.It may well be that due to the large degree of overlap within these factors, they are manifestations of the same construct.Sadism is highly correlated with psychopathy, both in the present study and others (Bonfá-Araujo et al., 2022;Johnson et al., 2019), which may explain why it was associated with sexual and grandiosity dreams.As this is a novel finding, further research should investigate the association between sadism and sexual and grandiosity dreams.Alternatively, it may be that the continuity hypothesis provides only a partial explanation for dream content.Freud (1900Freud ( /1997) differentiated between manifest and latent content of a dream; manifest content refers to the actual imagery of a dream, and latent content is subjective and contains meanings unique to the dreamer.It may be that dreams have some aspects that are continuous with waking life, and some which are not (c.f.Erdelyi, 2017).
By demonstrating that elements of dark tetrad traits from waking life are found in dreams, the present study shows the dreamer may share aspects of the same personality between waking life and in dreams.Dreams can help to illuminate conscious and unconscious thoughts and feelings and have been advocated for interpretation in psychological therapy (Hill, 1996;Pesant & Zadra, 2004).Dreamwork is a key feature of psychoanalytic therapy, whereby the client and therapist discuss, and seek to deduce meanings from the dream.In doing so, the client may gain more insight about themselves and their relationships, and more involvement in the therapeutic process (Pesant & Zadra, 2004).Developing a greater awareness of the contents of dreams may therefore offer valuable insight into waking life.

Limitations and Future Directions
The study was subject to several limitations which may have impacted the results.Firstly, when indicating dream frequency with the DMS, the most frequent option that participants can opt for-4 "once a month or more often" is a broad category.A participant who dreams of violence every night would not be distinguished from someone who dreams of it once a month.This could confound results, given the commonality of violent dreams in everyday samples (Hall & Van de Castle, 1966).
Secondly, the present study did not validate whether people thought more or even engaged in the behaviors that they were said to be dreaming about.The hypotheses were based upon the assumption that dark tetrad traits implied certain behaviors and attitudes.While this may be the case, measures to validate this could prove useful in explaining how dreams relate to personality.
Finally, limitations were present in the sample of the study.The gender split was 74% female.Men have been found to have more aggressive and sexual dreams than women (Domhoff, 1996;Schredl et al., 1998).Men have also been found to score higher on dark triad measures than women (Chiorri et al., 2019).A potentially greater frequency of participants scoring more highly on dark tetrad traits may demonstrate a more substantial effect in the results.Further, the sample size was relatively small, meaning that the study was underpowered.The results should therefore be interpreted with caution.
Future research should seek to further understand the role of sadism and the dark tetrad within dream content.Research could seek to implement dream diaries in order to improve dream recall (Reed, 1973;Schredl, 2002) and a more precise method to measure dream frequency.Recruitment of an even gender split would be adequate to accurately represent the population mean and a greater number of participants to ensure that the study is sufficiently powered.Further, some validation that participants are thinking about and engaging in the behaviors that are being quantified would allow for a greater understanding of how waking life maps onto dream content.Qualitative research could also be used to explore how waking life thoughts, feelings and behaviors translate into dreams.

Conclusion
The present study provides evidence that dark tetrad personality traits are reflected within dream content.Most notably, psychopathy, along with gender, predicted fighting dreams, and sadism predicted sexual and grandiosity dreams.Dark tetrad traits are highly correlated with one another; therefore, our conclusions are tentative and must be replicated by future research.The findings should be treated with caution, due to the small sample size and limitations with measuring dream content.Nonetheless, they are an indication that waking life dark tetrad traits continue their expression within dreams.