A Series of Studies on the Dark Triad of Personality
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Durham E-Theses Deep into that darkness, peering: A series of studies on the Dark Triad of personality CARTER, GREGORY,LOUIS,KERRY,FRANC How to cite: CARTER, GREGORY,LOUIS,KERRY,FRANC (2015) Deep into that darkness, peering: A series of studies on the Dark Triad of personality, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11282/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Gregory Louis Kerry Francis Carter Deep into that darkness, peering: A series of studies on the Dark Triad of personality Abstract This submission spans my work undertaken over the course of recent years on sub-clinical narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sub-clinical psychopathy: The Dark Triad of personality. Across this thesis, I present a series of published and unpublished materials that cover these overlapping yet distinct personality traits in relation to their attractiveness to women, short- and long-term mating preferences, broader personality and lifestyle correlates, general and sexual competitiveness (in women), verbal and non-verbal behavioural outcomes in a mate- attraction scenario, and health-related behaviours and longevity. I also apply a form of scale analysis to establish how well these traits are measured across sex and age groups by a short inventory that has seen widespread use in the field. Broadly, I consider these issues against a backdrop of evolutionary psychology, individual differences in personality, sex- and age- related differences, and the perception and measurement of personality traits. Specifically, I consider the need to look beyond self-reports, especially when over-claiming is a serious risk, to simultaneously evaluate sex similarities, as well as sex differences, to develop an understanding of the particular behaviours that are demonstrated by individuals with personalities associated with higher levels of mating success, and the need to subject inventories to rigorous scrutiny, across both classical, and item response testing. In each chapter, I have sought to contribute to the on-going discussions that researchers active in this field are engaged with regarding the future of this rapidly-advancing area of study. Interest in this personality constellation shows no sign of abating – its rise to prominence within evolutionary and personality psychology to date has been swift – and I conclude with thoughts and suggestions as to which areas future research could explore in order to further our understanding of the Dark Triad. 2 Deep into that darkness, peering: A series of studies on the Dark Triad of personality Gregory Louis Kerry Francis Carter Submitted for the qualification Doctor of Philosophy Psychology Department University of Durham 2015 3 Table of Contents Acknowledgments 6 Preface 8 Chapter 1 Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy: The Dark Triad - Evolutionary Psychology, Personality, and Individual Differences 12 Chapter 2 The Dark Triad personality: Attractiveness to women 70 Chapter 3 The Dark Triad and mating preferences 108 Chapter 4 The Dark Triad: Beyond a ‘male’ mating strategy 143 Chapter 5 Women’s sexual competition and the Dark Triad 181 Chapter 6 Less-than candid camera: A preliminary study of the verbal and nonverbal behaviors of Dark Triad individuals in dating-profile videos 216 Chapter 7 Dorian Gray without his portrait: Psychological, social, and physical health costs associated with the Dark Triad 248 Chapter 8 The Dark Triad ‘Dirty Dozen’: A Mokken analysis of sex and age differences in item structure 278 Chapter 9 General Discussion 314 4 Statement of copyright “The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged.” 5 Acknowledgements Completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the advice and counsel of my supervisor, Professor Anne Campbell. For the past eight years, as a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and now PhD student, she has steered me through every project I have undertaken. Whatever guidance I have required, she has provided, and without her support, I could not have undertaken the work contained in this submission. Over the course of the best part of a decade, understandably, not all months or years have run smoothly for me, but her understanding and encouragement have enabled me to overcome them and reach this point. I sincerely hope that we will have opportunities to work together again in the future. I would also like to extend my thanks to my second supervisor, Dr. Harriet Rosenthal, who has been of invaluable help at times when I have needed it most, particularly over recent weeks, as I have advanced towards submission. In addition, I have received advice at various points throughout this undertaking from Dr. Steven Muncer and Dr. Bob Williams, both of whom I would like to thank for that provision. Recognition is also due for the work undertaken in a largely unseen capacity by the technical and secretarial staff who have always been on hand over the past four years. Their professionalism and support in navigating areas of programming and documentation has been much appreciated, and I thank them for their assistance in bringing this project to completion. Lastly, it is no understatement to acknowledge that this entire undertaking would not have been possible without the unending support of my parents - and my wider family - who never gave up on me, or the research I was conducting. I will be eternally grateful to them for the opportunity they have afforded me in helping me pursue this otherwise-unfunded research (although I do feel that asking a research student “how long have you got left” should be regarded as akin to asking a woman her age). 6 For Katherine; For Louis 7 Preface From the early days of psychoanalysis, the side of human personality perceived to be ‘darker’ has attracted considerable attention. A century ago, Sigmund Freud wrote On Narcissism (Freud, 1914/1956); today, literature on the Dark Triad of subclinical narcissism, Machiavellianism, and subclinical psychopathy1 is growing at an exponential rate. Even since Furnham, Richards, and Paulhus (2013) published a ten-year review of the subject, the number of studies in the field has expanded drastically; the last quarter of 2014 saw the publication of a special edition of a journal on the subject (Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 67). The focus of this submission, is, at its core, the Dark Triad (DT), this trio of moderately inter-correlated yet distinguishable personality traits that has been studied for a little over a decade (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). This submission primarily consists of seven chapters that centre on empirical studies I have undertaken. Six have either been published, or are currently under review. Because these span a number of areas (i.e., attractiveness, mating strategies, lifestyle orientation, sexual competitiveness, self- presentation, and the assessment and conceptualisation of DT with a popular brief inventory), literature that pertains to these domains is reviewed within each chapter. I examine the general background literature for narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, as well as the relationship between personality and evolutionary psychology in my first chapter. I conclude with a brief overview of the DT as a trait constellation. Essentially, this chapter aims to address the traits relative to their adaptive/maladaptive correlates and outcomes, and explain why individual differences in them have persisted over evolutionary time. Additional background and reflection sections serve to extend my papers further. These encompass material that could not be included for reasons of word count, or research that has been published since, but warrants inclusion in this submission. In this way, Chapters 1 Hereafter, I use the terms ‘narcissism’ and ‘psychopathy’ to refer to these sub-clinical, spectrum- based personality traits unless otherwise noted. 8 2 through 8 constitute a series of self-contained yet connected studies, with the logic and theoretical impetus for each presented prior to copies of the relevant manuscript. The running order is as follows: Chapter 1: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy: The Dark Triad; Evolutionary Psychology, Personality, and Individual Differences. Literature review. Chapter 2: The Dark Triad personality: Attractiveness to women. Published as: Carter, G. L., Campbell, A. C., & Muncer, S. (2014a). The Dark Triad personality: Attractiveness to women. Personality and Individual Differences 56, 57-61. Chapter 3: The Dark Triad and mating preferences. Unpublished manuscript. Chapter 4: The Dark Triad: Beyond a ‘male’ mating strategy. Published as: Carter, G. L., Campbell, A. C., & Muncer, S. (2014). The Dark Triad: Beyond a ‘male’ mating strategy. Personality and Individual Differences, 56, 159-164. Chapter 5: Women’s sexual competition and the Dark Triad. Published as: Carter, G. L., Montanaro, Z., Linney, C., & Campbell, A. C. (2015). Women’s sexual competition and the Dark Triad. Personality and Individual Differences, 74, 275-279. 9 Chapter 6: Less-than candid camera: A preliminary study of the verbal and nonverbal behaviors of Dark Triad individuals in dating-profile videos. Manuscript submitted for publication. Chapter 7: Health, social, and psychological outcomes of the Dark Triad. Published as: Jonason, P. K., Baughman, H.