What "dark" and "not so dark" personality traits have in common

What is it about?

We did a meta-study of all research that related personality traits comprising the "dark triad" (psychopathy, machiavellianism, narcissism) with more positively valued traits from established personality models that claim to describe personality comprehensively. We found that people high in dark traits share a common element with those low in traditional honesty-humility, whereas other traditional traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, emotional stability, openness to experience) are more losely linked to the dark triad.

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Why is it important?

The dark triad received enormous attention by scholars of personality in recent years. We need to understand whether there is really something special ore new about these traits, in order to avoid re-inventing the wheel. Our findings portray dark traits as somewhere in between a novel discovery and old wine in new bottles. This helps, for example, understanding causes of bad behavior or the utility of those traits for practical uses in clinical psychology or in HR management.

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