Understanding “Evil”: A Closer Look at the Dark Tetrad’s Relations With HEXACO and Big Five
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47152/ziksi2022035Keywords:
Dark Tetrad, HEXACO, Big Five, Honesty-Humility, AgreeablenessAbstract
We aimed to explore to what extent the Dark Tetrad traits are represented by basic personality traits framed by HEXACO (Study 1; 150 participants, Mage = 32.15, SDage = 8.41) and the Big Five model (Study 2; 215 participants, Mage = 35.59, SDage = 13.65). Alongside correlation analysis, we employed a quasi-canonical analysis of covariance. The results showed that the core features of the Dark Tetrad are mapped on the negative poles of Agreeableness and Honesty-Humility from the HEXACO and Agreeableness from the Big Five. Despite the somewhat distinctive nature of Narcissism compared to other dark traits, the common features of the Dark Tetrad are partially represented in both models, but to a larger extent in HEXACO. In conclusion, we recommend using the HEXACO model as a proxy for assessing the core features of the Dark Tetrad in large-scale studies where measuring both basic and dark personality traits is not feasible.
References
Aluja, A., García, Ó., García, L. F., & Seisdedos, N. (2005). Invariance of the NEO-PI-R factor structure across exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(8), 1879–1889. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.11.014
Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2001). A theoretical basis for the major dimensions of personality. European Journal of Personality, 15(5), 327–353. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/per.417
Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2007). Empirical, theoretical, and practical advantages of the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 150–166. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868306294907
Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2008). The HEXACO model of personality structure and the importance of the H factor. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(5), 1952–1962. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00134.x
Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2009). The HEXACO-60: A short measure of the major dimensions of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(4), 340–345. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890902935878
Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., & de Vries, R. E. (2014). The HEXACO honesty-humility, agreeableness, and emotionality factors: A review of research and theory. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 18(2), 139–152. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868314523838
Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., & Visser, B. A. (2019). Where’s the H? Relations between BFI-2 and HEXACO-60 scales. Personality and Individual Differences, 137, 71–75. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.08.013
Book, A., Visser, B. A., & Volk, A. A. (2015). Unpacking “evil”: Claiming the core of the dark triad. Personality and Individual Differences, 73, 29–38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.09.016
Book, A., Visser, B. A., Blais, J., Hosker-Field, A., Methot-Jones, T., Gauthier, N. Y., Volk, A., Holden, R. R., & D’Agata, M. T. (2016). Unpacking more “evil”: What is at the core of the dark tetrad? Personality and Individual Differences, 90, 269–272. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.11.009
Bulut, T. (2017). The concept of sadism in the current empirical literature. Zbornik Instituta za kriminološka i sociološka istraživanja, 36(1), 23–41.
Chabrol, H., Bouvet, R., & Goutaudier, N. (2017). The dark tetrad and antisocial behavior in a community sample of college students. Journal of Forensic Psychology Research and Practice, 17(5), 295–304. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/24732850.2017.1361310
Chabrol, H., Van Leeuwen, N., Rodgers, R., & Séjourné, N. (2009). Contributions of psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sadistic personality traits to juvenile delinquency. Personality and Individual Differences, 47(7), 734–739. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.06.020
Christensen, A. P., Cotter, K. N., & Silvia, P. J. (2019). Reopening openness to experience: A network analysis of four openness to experience inventories. Journal of Personality Assessment, 101(6), 574–588. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2018.1467428
Crowe, M. L., Lynam, D. R., & Miller, J. D. (2019). The structure of antagonism. In J. D. Miller & D. R. Lynam (Eds.), The handbook of antagonism: Conceptualizations, assessment, consequences, and treatment of the low end of agreeableness (pp. 53–65). Elsevier Academic Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814627-9.00004-9
de Holanda Coelho, G. L., Hanel, P. H. P., Monteiro, R. P., Vilar, R., & Gouveia, V. V. (2021). The dark side of human values: How values are related to bright and dark personality traits. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 24, Article e11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/SJP.2020.58
De Raad, B. (2000). The Big Five personality factors: The psycholexical approach to personality. Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.
Dinić, B. M., Wertag, A., Sokolovska, V., & Tomašević, A. (2021). The good, the bad, and the ugly: Revisiting the dark core. Current Psychology, 1–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01829-x
Dinić, B. M., Allred, T. B., Petrović, B., & Wertag, A. (2020). A test of three sadism measures: Short Sadistic Impulse Scale, varieties of sadistic tendencies, and assessment of sadistic personality. Journal of Individual Differences, 41(4), 219–227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000319
Dinić, B. M., Petrović, B., & Jonason, P. K. (2018). Serbian adaptations of the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen (DTDD) and Short Dark Triad (SD3). Personality and Individual Differences, 134, 321–328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.06.018
Ellen, B. P., III, Alexander, K. C., Mackey, J. D., McAllister, C. P., & Carson, J. E. (2021). Portrait of a workplace deviant: A clearer picture of the Big Five and Dark Triad as predictors of workplace deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(12), 1950–1961. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000880
Feher, A., & Vernon, P. A. (2021). Looking beyond the Big Five: A selective review of alternatives to the Big Five model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 169, Article 110002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110002
Fernández-del-Río, E., Ramos-Villagrasa, P. J., & Escartín, J. (2021). The incremental effect of dark personality over the Big Five in workplace bullying: Evidence from perpetrators and targets. Personality and Individual Differences, 168, Article 110291. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.110291
Furnham, A., Richards, S. C., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). The dark triad of personality: A 10 year review. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(3), 199–216. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12018
Gaughan, E. T., Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2012). Examining the utility of general models of personality in the study of psychopathy: A comparison of the HEXACO-PI-R and NEO PI-R. Journal of Personality Disorders, 26(4), 513–523. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.2012.26.4.513
Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative “description of personality”: The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216
Howard, M. C., & Van Zandt, E. C. (2020). The discriminant validity of honesty-humility: A meta-analysis of the HEXACO, Big Five, and Dark Triad. Journal of Research in Personality, 87, Article 103982. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2020.103982
John, O. P., Donahue, E. M., & Kentle, R. L. (1991). The Big Five Inventory – Versions 4a and 54. University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Personality and Social Research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/t07550-000
Jonason, P. K., & McCain, J. (2012). Using the HEXACO model to test the validity of the Dirty Dozen measure of the Dark Triad. Personality and Individual Differences, 53(7), 935–938. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.07.010
Jonason, P. K., Kaufman, S. B., Webster, G. D., & Geher, G. (2013). What lies beneath the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen: Varied relations with the Big Five. Individual Differences Research, 11(2), 81–90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.65030/idr.11008
Jonason, P. K., Webster, G. D., Schmitt, D. P., Li, N. P., & Crysel, L. (2012). The antihero in popular culture: Life history theory and the Dark Triad personality traits. Review of General Psychology, 16(2), 192–199. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027914
Jones, D. N., & Figueredo, A. J. (2013). The core of darkness: Uncovering the heart of the Dark Triad. European Journal of Personality, 27(6), 521–531. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1893
Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2011). The role of impulsivity in the Dark Triad of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 51(5), 679–682. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.04.011
Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A brief measure of dark personality traits. Assessment, 21(1), 28–41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191113514105
Kajonius, P. J., & Johnson, J. A. (2019). Assessing the structure of the Five Factor Model of personality (IPIP-NEO-120) in the public domain. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 15(2), 260–275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v15i2.1671
Knežević, G. D., & Momirović, K. (1996). Algoritam i program za analizu relacija kanoničke korelacijske analize i kanoničke analize kovarijansi kovarijansi [Algorithm and program for the analysis of the relations between the canonical correlation analysis and canonical analysis of covariance]. In P. Kostić (Ed.), Merenje u psihologiji 2 (pp. 57–73). Institut za kriminološka i sociološka istraživanja/IKSI.
Lazarević, L. B., Knežević, G., & Bosnjak, M. (2021). Does the disposition towards psychotic-like experiences incrementally predict grandiose narcissism? Representative evidence from Germany. Current Psychology, 1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02112-9
Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2004). Psychometric properties of the HEXACO personality inventory. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 39(2), 329–358. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr3902_8
Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2005). Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism in the Five Factor Model and the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(7), 1571–1582. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.016
Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2014). The Dark Triad, the Big Five, and the HEXACO model. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 2–5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.048
Lee, K., & Ashton, M. C. (2020). Authors’ response: Why six factors, why it matters. European Journal of Personality, 34(4), 562–579.
Malesza, M., & Kalinowski, K. (2021). Willingness to share, impulsivity and the Dark Triad traits. Current Psychology, 40(8), 3888–3896. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00351-5
Marcus, D. K., Preszler, J., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2018). A network of dark personality traits: What lies at the heart of darkness? Journal of Research in Personality, 73, 56–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2017.11.003
Međedović, J., & Bulut, T. (2017). Expanding the nomological network of Dark Tetrad: The case of cynicism, aggressive humor and attitudes towards immigrants. Zbornik Instituta za kriminološka i sociološka istraživanja, 36, 7–19.
Međedović, J., & Petrović, B. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Structural properties and location in the personality space. Journal of Individual Differences, 36(4), 228–236. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000179
Međedović, J., Čolović, P., Dinić, B. M., & Smederevac, S. (2019). The HEXACO Personality Inventory: Validation and psychometric properties in the Serbian language. Journal of Personality Assessment, 101(1), 25–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2017.1370426
Miller, J. D., Dir, A., Gentile, B., Wilson, L., Pryor, L. R., & Campbell, W. K. (2010). Searching for a vulnerable dark triad: Comparing factor 2 psychopathy, vulnerable narcissism, and borderline personality disorder. Journal of Personality, 78(5), 1529–1564. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2010.00660.x
Miller, J. D., Gaughan, E. T., Maples, J., & Price, J. (2011). A comparison of agreeableness scores from the Big Five Inventory and the NEO PI-R: Consequences for the study of narcissism and psychopathy. Assessment, 18(3), 335–339. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191111411671
Miller, J. D., Hyatt, C. S., Maples-Keller, J. L., Carter, N. T., & Lynam, D. R. (2017). Psychopathy and Machiavellianism: A distinction without a difference? Journal of Personality, 85(4), 439–453. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12251
Morey, L. C. (1988). The categorical representation of personality disorder: A cluster analysis of DSM-III–R personality features. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97(3), 314–321. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-843X.97.3.314
Moshagen, M., Hilbig, B. E., & Zettler, I. (2018). The dark core of personality. Psychological Review, 125(5), 656–688. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000111
Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2020). Measuring the dark core of personality. Psychological Assessment, 32(2), 182–196. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000778
Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., Otgaar, H., & Meijer, E. (2017). The malevolent side of human nature: A meta-analysis and critical review of the literature on the dark triad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(2), 183–204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616666070
Myers, W. C., Chan, H. C., Vo, E. J., & Lazarou, E. (2010). Sexual sadism, psychopathy, and recidivism in juvenile sexual murderers. Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 7(1), 49–58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jip.113
Nedeljković, B., & Opačić, G. (2021). Mapping the dark core of personality within the space of value orientations: Psychometric properties and factor structure of Serbian translation of D-70. In Proceedings of the XXVII Scientific Conference Empirical Studies in Psychology (pp. 32–35). Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade.
Oljača, M., Sadiković, S., Dinić, B. M., & Baić, V. (2021). Dark tetrad and psychological distress among male violent offenders and male community adults. Primenjena psihologija, 14(4), 509–537. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.2021.4.509-537
Pailing, A., Boon, J., & Egan, V. (2014). Personality, the dark triad and violence. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 81–86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.11.018
Paulhus, D. L., & Jones, D. N. (2015). Measures of dark personalities. In G. J. Boyle, D. H. Saklofske, & G. Matthews (Eds.), Measures of personality and social psychological constructs (pp. 562–594). Elsevier Academic Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-386915-9.00020-6
Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 556–563. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6
Paulhus, D. L., Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., & Jones, D. N. (2021). Screening for dark personalities: The Short Dark Tetrad (SD4). European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 37(3), 208–222. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759/a000602
Petrović, B., & Međedović, J. (2016). Personality and behavioural characteristics of dark and light narcissism. Zbornik Instituta za kriminološka i sociološka istraživanja, 35, 7–33.
Plouffe, R. A., Smith, M. M., & Saklofske, D. H. (2019). A psychometric investigation of the assessment of sadistic personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 140, 57–60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.01.002
Rogoza, R., & Cieciuch, J. (2020). Dark Triad traits and their structure: An empirical approach. Current Psychology, 39(4), 1287–1302. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9834-6
Rose, L., Sleep, C. E., Lynam, D. R., & Miller, J. D. (2022). Welcome to the jangle: Comparing the empirical profiles of the “dark” factor and antagonism. Assessment, Article 10731911221124847. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911221124847
Schönbrodt, F. D., & Perugini, M. (2013). At what sample size do correlations stabilize? Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), 609–612. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.05.009
Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2009). Ten facet scales for the Big Five Inventory: Convergence with NEO PI-R facets, self-peer agreement, and discriminant validity. Journal of Research in Personality, 43(1), 84–90. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2008.10.002
Tucaković, L., & Nedeljković, B. (2022). Personality and affective correlates of openness to experience from Big Five and HEXACO personality models: The dual nature of Big Five openness. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1–11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2022.2117047
van Geel, M., Goemans, A., Toprak, F., & Vedder, P. (2017). Which personality traits are related to traditional bullying and cyberbullying? A study with the Big Five, Dark Triad and sadism. Personality and Individual Differences, 106, 231–235. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.10.063
Van Til, K., Vize, C., Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2022). Agreeableness explains the factor structure of the self-report psychopathy scale, fourth edition. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 13(2), 144–152. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000493
Vize, C. E., Collison, K. L., Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2020a). The “core” of the dark triad: A test of competing hypotheses. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 11(2), 91–99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000386
Vize, C. E., Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2020b). Examining the conceptual and empirical distinctiveness of agreeableness and “dark” personality items. Journal of Personality. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/kf85p
Wertag, A., & Bratko, D. (2019). In search of the prosocial personality: Personality traits as predictors of prosociality and prosocial behavior. Journal of Individual Differences, 40(1), 55–62. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000276
Wiernik, B. M., Yarkoni, T., Giordano, C. A., & Raghavan, M. (2020). Two, five, six, eight (thousand): Time to end the dimension reduction debate. European Journal of Personality, 34(4), 559-560. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/d7jye


