Dark Triad, Empathy and the Role of Emotion-Related Inhibition Control

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Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Master’s thesis

A. Maghsoudi

ANR 803735

13 September 2016

Research on empathy in Dark Triad individuals and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

First supervisor: dr. M. Giletta

Second supervisor: dr. J.J. Sijtsema

Word count: 7564 Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between the Dark Triad (of personality), emotion-related inhibition control (EIC) and empathy. Prior studies report mixed findings regarding the association between Dark Triad and cognitive and emotional empathy.

A possible mediation by EIC in this association has not been studied before. Data were collected for 58 Dutch university students (ages 17-30). The measures used were the Dirty

Dozen for the Dark Triad (narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism) and the

Interpersonal Reactivity Index for empathy (cognitive and emotional empathy). Participants also completed a Go/NoGo task with emotional stimuli to measure EIC. The associations between Dark Triad and empathy were analyzed using linear regression. Only psychopathy was significantly associated with empathy, with a small negative association for cognitive empathy and a moderate negative association for emotional empathy. Also, a marginally significant association was found between the overall score on Dark Triad and emotional empathy. Only psychopathy was found to make a marginally significant unique contribution to the prediction of emotional empathy. Possible mediation effect by EIC was tested using mediation analysis by Preacher and Hayes method (2004). With psychopathy as the independent variable, EIC was not found to mediate the association between psychopathy and empathy. However, the findings suggested that individuals with lower EIC also score lower on both cognitive and emotional empathy. These findings contribute to more consensus on empathy deficits for the Dark Triad and could be implemented in (the development of) therapy or treatment of such individuals.

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Various everyday information sources, be it television or books, tell people that several severe mental and personality disorders are characterized by a deficit in empathy. For instance, a common (mis)belief is that individuals with psychopathic characteristics do not have empathy at all, they do not feel the pain or anguish of others. They supposedly are also not able to feel remorseful after doing something bad. However, not all these beliefs are scientifically correct. As described in the next paragraphs, for each disorder the distinction between the type of empathy and the different emotions prove to be important. Also, some mechanisms that play a role in the empathy process will be discussed. This way, we hope to gain insight in the workings of the empathy process of people with disorders that are associated with limited empathy.

The Dark Triad personalities, Narcissism, Psychopathy and Machiavellianism, share limited empathy as a common feature (Jonason & Krause, 2013; Wai & Tiliopoulos, 2012).

However, there have been mixed findings in whether this applies to cognitive empathy (taking perspective in the emotions of others) and/or emotional empathy (being able to experience the emotions of others with them) (Ali, Amorim, & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2009; Blair, 2005;

Jonason & Krause, 2013; Ritter et al., 2011). Also, in recent years the importance of emotion- related inhibition control (EIC) in the empathy process has been highlighted in several studies

(Hinnant & O'Brien, 2007; Padilla-Walker & Christensen, 2011). EIC is a part of emotion(- related) regulation and is the act of being able to control or withhold a predominant response to an emotional stimuli, it is grounded in the executive functioning (Eisenberg, Spinrad, &

Eggum, 2010). Evidence suggests a negative association between the Dark Triad personalities and EIC (Baskin-Sommers, Zeier, & Newman, 2009; Jonason & Tost, 2010) while positive associations between EIC and empathy have been found (Rothbart, 2007). Thus, it may be

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

possible that EIC mediates the association between the Dark Triad personalities and empathy.

The current work examined with linear regression analysis the associations between the Dark

Triad personalities and cognitive- and emotional empathy. Whether EIC functions as a mediator was examined with multiple regression analysis.

Dark Triad and empathy

The Dark Triad (of personality) consists of narcissism, psychopathy and

Machiavellianism (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Narcissism can be defined as having an inflated view of oneself (Twenge & Campbell, 2003) and maintaining this self-view by dominating others (Carroll, 1987) or attributing failure to external factors (Campbell, Reeder,

Sedikides, & Elliot, 2000). Psychopathy refers to characteristics like low anxiety level, lack of guilt, dishonesty, self-absorption and being unable to form close emotional bonds (Hare,

1991). Machiavellianism is described as a personality trait characterized by deceit, manipulation, lack of morality and lack of affect in social links (Christie, 1970; McHoskey,

Worzel, & Szyarto, 1998).

As seen above, the lack of affect and/or empathy does seem to be a major theme in the

Dark Triad. Empathy can be defined as an affective or emotional reaction in an observer due to the affective state of the observed individual. For instance, seeing someone cry or be sad makes most people experience (some) feelings of sadness themselves. There are different sorts of empathy which are partially distinctive from another on neural and cognitive level: cognitive empathy, emotional empathy and motoric empathy (Blair, 2005; Shamay-Tsoory,

Aharon-Peretz, & Perry, 2009). Cognitive empathy is the ability to interpret the emotions of the others correctly while affective empathy is the ability to experience and take part in the emotions of others (Hogan, 1969; Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972). Motoric empathy can be described as mimicking another’s body position or facial expression (Blair, 2005).

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Prior research findings suggest that each of the Dark Triad personalities is related to a different pattern of empathy deficits. For instance, researchers found an association between narcissism and limited emotional empathy while psychopathy was negatively associated with overall empathy (Jonason & Krause, 2013). In another research a similar pattern was found for cognitive and emotional empathy in patients with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).

The patients with NPD had significant deficits in emotional empathy in comparison to the control group, while their cognitive empathy seemed unaffected (Ritter et al., 2011). There is also empirical support for both overall empathy deficits and cognitive empathy deficits in

Machiavellians or individuals with psychopathic characteristics (Ali, Amorim, & Chamorro-

Premuzic, 2009). In contrast, there is also evidence for intact cognitive empathy and emotional empathy deficits in individuals with psychopathic characteristics (Dadds et al.,

2009). Another study found evidence for intact cognitive empathy but diminished emotional empathy for all Dark Triad personalities (Wai & Tiliopoulos, 2012). So while there is evidence for empathy deficits in individuals with Dark Triad personality characteristics, there are mixed findings regarding whether the deficits occur for cognitive and/or emotional empathy. Thus, to clarify this issue, more studies are needed examining the associations between the Dark Triad and cognitive and emotional empathy.

Dark Triad and emotion-related inhibition control

As seen above, there seems to be an association between the Dark Triad of personality and empathy, but what about an association between the Dark Triad and emotion-related inhibition control? Emotion-related-inhibition control is a concept used synonymously with

(emotion-related) self-regulation or effortful control (Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Eggum, 2010).

From here on only the terms emotion-related inhibition control or EIC will be used to avoid confusion.

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Several studies have demonstrated the association between the Dark Triad and EIC.

Psychopathic individuals were found to be less responsive to cues that should trigger EIC and thus these individuals showed poor inhibition responses (Baskin-Sommers, Zeier, &

Newman, 2009). The negative association between psychopathy and EIC also explains the impulsivity seen in psychopathic individuals (Jones & Paulhus, 2011). Other studies found a more direct association between Dark Triad and EIC. A negative association was found between narcissistic personality disorder and EIC when controlling for gender (Claes,

Vertommen, Smits, & Bijttebier, 2009). Another study highlights that only the vulnerable form of pathological narcissism, in contrast to the grandiose form, is associated with low EIC which leads to negative emotional experiences and interpersonal problems (Zeigler-Hill &

Besser, 2011). Nevertheless, individuals with narcissistic personality (overall) were indeed found to have low EIC (Rose, 2007). Yet, in another study psychopathy and

Machiavellianism were associated with low EIC but narcissism was not (Jonason & Tost,

2010). Thus, although numerous studies suggest that individuals with Dark Triad personalities show lower EIC, some findings suggest the opposite for narcissism.

Emotion-related inhibition control and empathy

Empathy is influenced by many factors. For example, researchers have found gender differences in empathy with females scoring higher on empathy tests than men. There are also situational factors that may influence empathy. Bad mood, fatigue or alcohol use could lower an individual’s empathy temporary (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004; Davis, 1980).

Likewise, intrinsic differences like intentions, motivations and self-regulation influence the extent of one’s empathic experience (Decety & Michalska, 2010). Empathy is neither an automated nor a spontaneous experience, it is flexible and adaptive (Decety, 2011b).

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

As emotion-related inhibition control (EIC) has to do with controlling or inhibiting response to emotional stimuli, an association between EIC and empathy could be possible.

Higher levels of EIC have indeed been linked to the growth of conscience and empathy

(Gardner, Dishion, & Connell, 2007; Rothbart, Sheese, & Posner, 2007). There is a positive association between EIC and empathy (Hinnant & O'Brien, 2007; Padilla-Walker &

Christensen, 2011). However, few studies have made a distinction between the different sorts of empathy while examining the association between EIC and empathy, or only focusing on cognitive empathy (Blair & Razza, 2007; Carlson, Moses, & Breton, 2002; Decety, 2010).

There is also a possible clinical implication for this study. As seen in prior studies, the

Dark triad is characterized by deficits in empathy (Jonason & Krause, 2013; Wai &

Tiliopoulos, 2012). Unsurprisingly, the Dark Triad is also associated with several disagreeable interpersonal outcomes like aggressive tendencies, impulsivity and limited self- control (Jonason, Lyons, Bethell & Ross, 2013; Jonason & Tost, 2010; Jones & Paulhus,

2010). After all, empathy has been theorized to be of importance in moral development and prosocial behavior (Decety & Michalska, 2010), while individuals with higher (emotional) empathy are supposedly more helpful and mindful of not hurting others (Tangney, Stuewig, &

Mashek, 2007). Considering individuals with Dark Triad personality characteristics are reported to have less empathy than others, they might also be less prone to display prosocial or helpful behavior and care about hurting others. This is notably in the light of the findings that individuals with Dark Triad personality characteristics score lower on EIC (Hinnant &

O'Brien, 2007; Padilla-Walker & Christensen, 2011), while it is argued that EIC could influence maladjustment via modulation of empathy and behavior (Eisenberg, Spinrad, &

Eggum, 2010). So, examining the possible mediation of EIC in the association between the

Dark Triad and empathy could lead to gaining insight in the maladjusted behaviors by

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

individuals with Dark Triad personality and contribute to (development of) treatment or therapy for them.

On basis of the described studies above, an association between the three Dark Triad personalities and cognitive and/or emotional empathy and an association between Dark Triad and EIC is proposed. However, as described in the previous paragraphs, there are mixed findings regarding these associations. Furthermore, there is abundant support for the positive association between EIC and empathy (Hinnant & O'Brien, 2007; Padilla-Walker &

Christensen, 2011). These findings lend support to the possibility of EIC (partially) explaining the association between the Dark Triad (of personality) and empathy. As of date the effect of

EIC on the association between the Dark Triad and empathy has not been researched. In the current study, the role of EIC on the association between empathy and Dark Triad will be examined by researching a) the association between the three Dark Triad personalities and cognitive and emotional empathy and b) whether there is a mediating effect by EIC for these associations.

The current study

The first aim of the current study is to research the association between the Dark Triad and empathy, while making a distinction between cognitive and emotional empathy. Both the overall score on the Dark Triad as the score on narcissism, psychopathy and

Machiavellianism were used. This will contribute to more consensus about the associations between the Dark Triad personalities and cognitive and emotional empathy.

The first aim of the current study is to examine the mediation of EIC in the association between the Dark Triad and empathy. This is the first reported study to research the possible

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

mediation of EIC in the association between the Dark Triad and empathy deficits, and also the first study to examine the association between EIC and emotional empathy (see Figure 1.).

The research (sub)questions and subsequent hypotheses in the current study are:

1) What is the association between the Dark Triad and cognitive empathy?

Sub-question: Is there a negative association between the Dark Triad and cognitive

empathy?

Hypothesis: Considering the mixed findings in prior research regarding the association between the Dark Triad and cognitive empathy, only tentative hypotheses could be formulated. Both psychopathy and Machiavellianism are expected to be associated with limited cognitive empathy. However, narcissism is not expected to be associated with limited cognitive empathy. Dark Triad is overall expected to be associated with limited cognitive empathy (Ali et al., 2009; Dadds et al., 2009; Jonason & Krause, 2013; Ritter et al., 2011; Wai

& Tiliopoulos, 2012).

2) What is the association between the Dark Triad and emotional empathy?

Sub-question: Is there a negative association between the Dark Triad and emotional

empathy?

Hypothesis: Considering the mixed findings in prior research regarding the association between the Dark Triad and emotional empathy, only tentative hypotheses could be formulated. All Dark Triad personalities, narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, are expected to be associated with limited emotional empathy. Thus, Dark Triad is overall expected to be associated with limited emotional empathy (Ali et al., 2009; Dadds et al., 2009;

Jonason & Krause, 2013; Ritter et al., 2011; Wai & Tiliopoulos, 2012).

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

3) Does emotion-related inhibition control (EIC) mediate the association between the Dark

Triad personality characteristics and cognitive and/or emotional empathy?

Hypothesis: There are mixed results in prior research regarding the association between narcissism and EIC and there are presently no studies regarding the association between EIC and emotional empathy. Thus, only hypotheses regarding mediation by EIC in the associations between psychopathy, Machiavellianism and (cognitive) empathy could be formulated (Baskin-Sommers et al., 2009; Claes et al., 2009; Jonason & Tost, 2010; Jones &

Paulhus, 2011; Rose, 2007; Zeigler-Hill & Besser, 2011). The expectation is that EIC mediates both the association between psychopathy and Machiavellianism and (cognitive) empathy (Blair & Razza, 2007; Carlson, Moses, & Breton, 2002; Decety, 2010). Tentative hypotheses are formulated regarding narcissism, expecting EIC to also mediating the association between narcissism and (cognitive) empathy and the associations between all the

Dark Triad personalities and emotional empathy.

Figure 1. The theoretical framework of the current study

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Methods

Participants

Bachelor students from Tilburg University were invited to participate in the study, through the official website of Tilburg University for participating in Social Science studies

(http://uvtapp.uvt.nl/fswjpb/spits.purs_lib.frmstudent) and through online advertisement on

Facebook. They could enroll themselves for the study or contact the researchers for an appointment. Data from 58 students from Social Sciences studies (N = 58; 65.5% female; Mage

= 19.7 years; SDage = 2.12) between the ages of 17 and 30 years was gathered. The only exclusion criteria was participation in another study which was being conducted at the same time as the current study. Here, the same go/nogo task with emotional stimuli was used, so participants from this particular study were excluded to prevent any practice effects. In Table

1 (see appendices) extensive demographic information about the participants in the current study are presented.

Procedure

Participants were required to complete two parts for this study: an online questionnaire and a go/nogo task. After applying for the study through the official website of Tilburg

University for participating in Social Science studies or clicking the web link in the online advertisement on Facebook, the participants gained access to the web link for the online questionnaires. The participants could decide to complete the questionnaire before or during the appointment with the researcher at Tilburg University.

By opening the questionnaire, the participants were informed about the study and its procedure. By clicking further to the next question they agreed to the electronic consent form.

After agreeing to the electronic consent form, the participants were given instructions to

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

compose a personal code from their surname, last name, date and month of birth to enable matching the data from the questionnaire and the go/nogo task. After filling this personal code in, the questionnaires were presented

After completing the questionnaires, it was required to make an appointment with the researcher for completing the the go/nogo task. This was done automatically when the participants used the official website for participating in Social Science studies, in which the participant could decide themselves on the date and time of the appointment.

The go/nogo task for measuring the emotion-related inhibition control was presented on a Tilburg University issued laptop. The same laptop was used for all the participants, in order to equalize the range of error for reaction time. The same instructions for the personal code (as with the questionnaires) was given at the start of the go/nogo task, which the participants could fill in before starting the task. Completing the questionnaire took around 10 minutes and completing the go/nogo task took around 20 minutes. Thus, upon completing both the online questionnaire and the go/nogo task, the participants received 0.5 hour of research as compensation for their participation.

Materials

All materials used are self-report measures, apart from the go/nogo task for measuring the emotion-related inhibition control.

The Dark Triad of personality

To measure the Dark Triad personality characteristics the Dutch version of the Dirty

Dozen was used (Jonason & Webster, 2010; Klimstra, Sijtsema, Henrichs, & Cima, 2014).

The Dirty Dozen or DD is a self-report questionnaire with 12 items and measures Narcissism

(e.g., ‘I tend to seek prestige or status’), Psychopathy (e.g., ‘I tend to lack remorse’) and

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Machiavellianism (e.g., ‘I tend to manipulate others to get my way’). Each personality of the

Dark Triad is measured with 4 items and rated on a 9-point scale ranging from 1 (‘strongly disagree’) to 9 (‘strongly agree’). For an overall score on the Dark Triad the score on all 12 questions was averaged per participant. For the score on narcissism, psychopathy and

Machiavellianism, the corresponding scores on the DD were averaged per participant.

This brief version was tested and found to have good a construct, convergent validity, discriminant validity and test-retest reliability (Jonason and Webster, 2010). In the current study the (mean) scores on the DD were examined (Jonason & McCain, 2012). In the current study, the Cronbach alpha coefficients for the Machiavellianism, Psychopathy and Narcissism subscales were respectively 0.773, 0.684 and 0.752. Overall, the Cronbach alpha coefficients for DD was 0.830.

Emotional and cognitive empathy

Emotional and cognitive empathy was measured using the Dutch version of the

Interpersonal Reactivity Index or IRI (Davis, 1983). The IRI is a self-report questionnaire, with 28 items and 4 subscales: Perspective Taking (PT), Empathic Concern (EC), Personal

Distress (PD) and Fantasy (FS) (Davis, 1980, 1983). The subscales PT and FS measure the cognitive component of empathy. PT measures the reported tendency to unconsciously understand the perspective of other individuals and see things from their point of view (‘I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things looks from their perspective’). FS measures the reported tendency to identify yourself with fictional characters

(‘When I am reading an interesting story or novel I imagine how I would feel if the events in the story were happening to me’) (Cusi, MacQueen, & McKinnon, 2010; Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2009; Shamay-Tsoory, Harari, Aharon-Peretz, & Levkovitz, 2010). The PT subscale was found to be frequently associated with measures of social functioning, social competence and

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

high self-confidence but not with emotional empathy (Davis,1983). There was also a high relation between FS and verbal measures and intellectual abilities, notably verbal intelligence.

There was a positive correlation between both PT and FS scales and the Hogan empathy scale, as with other validated measures of cognitive empathy (Hogan, 1969). This indicated that both PT and FS surely measure cognitive empathy (Davis, 1983).

The subscales EC and PD measure the emotional component of empathy. EC measures the reported feelings of affection, sympathy and worry for others (e.g. ‘I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me’) while PD assesses self-oriented feelings of anxiety and discomfort as a result of witnessing another’s negative experience (e.g.

‘Being in a tense emotional situation scares me’) (Cusi et al., 2010; Shamay-Tsoory et al.,

2009; Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2010).

The IRI-items are scored on a on a 5-point Likert scale with a range from 1 (does not describe me well) to 5 (describes me very well) (Cusi et al., 2010). The scores were mirrored and recoded, as per instruction of the manual of IRI. For assessing cognitive empathy the scores on the PT and FS subscales were averaged per participant. For assessing emotional empathy the score on the ED and PD subscales were averaged per participant. Each scale measures a distinct component of empathy hence full-scale scores of IRI will not be used

(Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2009).

A correlation for the IRI with other measures of empathy was found, supporting the construct validity of IRI (Davis, 1983). The IRI has overall good internal consistency, with

Cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.68 to 0.79 (Christopher, Owens, & Stecker, 1993;

Davis, 1983). The Dutch version of the IRI has also been validated (De Corte et al., 2007). In the current study, the Cronbach alpha coefficients for the cognitive and emotional subscales were respectively 0.818 and 0.643.

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Emotion-related inhibition control

To measure emotion-related inhibition control (EIC), the participants participated in a go/nogo task with emotional stimuli. The emotional stimuli used were validated frontal pictures of adult models emitting neutral, sad, fearful and angry facial expressions, acquired from the Radboud Faces Database (Langner et al., 2010). The pictures were altered digitally using Photoshop image-editing software to fit into the frame for the go/nogo program.

Afterwards, the best models expressing neutral, sad, fearful and angry facial expression were selected for the go/nogo task. This resulted in 40 pictures with 10 models in total, with each model emitting all 4 facial expressions. This was to ensure that the differences in models would not affect the reaction of the participants to the emotional stimuli or to equalize the effect for all participants.

The participants were required to complete 6 runs of the go/nogo task with each facial expression as a target and as a non-target. A facial expression as a target would require the participant to react and press the button as fast as possible, in this case the spacebar on the laptop. A facial expression as a non-target would require the participant to not react and thus to inhibit reacting and pressing the spacebar. Each run consisted of two emotional stimuli, one as target and the other as non-target. In every run the neutral facial expressions were paired with one of the other three facial expressions. Also, as with most go/nogo tasks, in each run there were more targets than non-targets, with around 75% targets in each run. This was to make reacting to an emotional stimuli a predominant response while making inhibiting a reaction to an emotional stimuli rare (Hare et al., 2008; Réveillon et al., 2013). An example of a run would be with the angry facial expressions as a target and the neutral facial expressions as a non-target (see figure 2.). The order of the runs was counterbalanced across participants.

To control for the display order in each run the targets and the non-targets were

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

pseudorandomized, to establish an equal number of targets in the first, middle and last part of the runs. Each trial began with the presentation of a fixation cross on a white screen, followed by a target or a non-target.

The participants were first given instructions on the laptop. This included short information about the task itself and instructions about the run: to press the spacebar as fast as possible when a certain emotional stimuli (a target) is presented and not to press when any other emotional stimuli (a non-target) is presented and not to make mistakes. They would do 4 practice trials afterwards. When the practice trials were completed, the actual task began. In case participants needed instruction again in between the runs, a printed paper with the same instruction as at the beginning of the task laid within their sight. Before each run the participant was given instruction about for which emotional stimuli they should press the spacebar. They were also reminded that they should react as fast as possible and not to make mistakes. The participants got the opportunity to take a break after completing 3 runs. As soon as they clicked further, they got to complete the second half of the go/nogo task.

The data acquired from each participant after completing the the go/nogo task, were the total of false alarms (the participant pressed the spacebar when presented with a non- target), misses (the participant did not press the spacebar when presented with a target) and the number of correct reactions per run. Also, data on the reaction time for every correct reaction was gathered per run, averaged across stimuli. The data used to assess EIC in the current study was the total of false alarms in the runs with the sad, angry or fearful facial expressions as targets. Thus, to assess EIC the total false alarms in all runs with emotional stimuli as targets were computed per participants and used as a measure for EIC.

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Figure 2. An example of a run with angry facial expressions as target and the neutral facial expressions as non-target

Results

All statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 22 with α = 0.05.

The descriptive statistics for the scores on the self-report measures DD and IRI are presented in Table 2. A significant effect for gender was found for the overall score on Dark Triad, with male participants scoring higher (t(56) = 2.96, p < .01, d = 0.83). The same was found for the

Dark triad subscales psychopathy (t(56) = 3.31, p < .01, d = 1.13) and Machiavellianism

(t(56) = 2.41, p < .05, d = 0.95). However, female participants scored higher on emotional empathy (t(56) = -2.31, p < .05, d = -.23).

The association between the Dark Triad personality and cognitive empathy was inspected using linear regression analysis, with Dark Triad and its subscales as independent variables and cognitive empathy as dependent variable, controlling for gender and emotional empathy. Preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure no violation of the assumptions of

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

normality, linearity, multicollinearity, and homoscedasticity. The correlation coefficients between the variables here are presented in Table 3. Analysis shows that the overall score on

Dark Triad is not significantly associated with cognitive empathy, Pearson’s r(58) = -.002, p

= .49. Likewise, subscales narcissism (Pearson’s r(58) = .15, p = .13) and Machiavellianism were not significantly associated with cognitive empathy (Pearson’s r(58) = .088, p = .26).

However, a small negative association was found between psychopathy and cognitive empathy, Pearson’s r(58) = -.24, p < .05 (Cohen, 1988).

The association between the Dark Triad personality and emotional empathy was inspected using linear regression analysis, with Dark Triad and its subscales as independent variables and emotional empathy as dependent variable, controlling for gender and cognitive empathy. Preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity, multicollinearity, and homoscedasticity. The correlation coefficients between the variables here are presented in Table 3. Analysis shows that the association between overall score on Dark Triad and emotional empathy is marginally significant or approaching significance, Pearson’s r(58) = -.21, p = .054. Subscales narcissism (Pearson’s r(58) = -.085, p = .26) and Machiavellianism (Pearson’s r(58) = -.043, p = .37) were not significantly associated with emotional empathy. Yet, a moderate negative association was found between psychopathy and emotional empathy, Pearson’s r(58) = -.39, p < .01 (Cohen,

1988).

To examine a possible mediation effect by EIC in the association between Dark Triad and cognitive or emotional empathy, mediation analyses were performed. The mediation analyses were tested using the bootstrapping method with bias-corrected confidence estimates

(MacKinnon, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004; Preacher & Hayes, 2004). In the current study,

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

the 95% confidence interval of the indirect effects was obtained with 5000 bootstrap resamples (Preacher & Hayes, 2008).

1) What is the association between the Dark Triad and cognitive empathy?

Sub-question: Is there a negative association between the Dark Triad and cognitive

empathy?

The model with Dark Triad as a predictor (along with gender and emotional empathy as control variables) was found to explain a significant 13% of the variance in cognitive

2 2 empathy (F(3, 54) = 3.94, p < .05, R Adjusted = .13). Here, the adjusted R Square (R Adjusted) instead of R Square (R2) is used as the measure of the variance in the dependent variable explained by the predictor(s). Considering the small sample size of the current study, the adjusted R Square is a better estimation of the true value in the population (Pallant, 2007).

However, Dark Triad was not found to make a significant unique contribution to the prediction of cognitive empathy (beta = .11, t(57) = .86, p = .40). Similar results were found for the Dark Triad subscales. The model with the narcissism subscale as a predictor explained

2 a significant 16% of the variance in cognitive empathy (F(3, 54) = 4.63, p < .01, R Adjusted

= .16), while narcissism was not found to make a significant unique contribution to the prediction of cognitive empathy (beta = .19, t(57) = 1.57, p = .12). The model with the psychopathy subscale as a predictor explained a significant 13% of variance in cognitive

2 empathy (F(3, 54) = 3.83, p < .05, R Adjusted = .13) while psychopathy was not found to make a significant unique contribution to the prediction of cognitive empathy (beta = -.096 , t(57) =

-.68, p = .50). Again, the model with the Machiavellianism subscale as a predictor explained

2 14% amount of variance in cognitive empathy, (F(3, 54) = 4.05, p < .05, R Adjusted = .14) while Machiavellianism was not found to make a significant unique contribution to the prediction of cognitive empathy (beta = .13 , t(57) = 1.01, p = .32). Other information on the

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

results of the linear regression analysis with Dark Triad and its subscales as independent variables and cognitive empathy as dependent variable are presented in Table 4.

The tentative hypotheses regarding a negative association between both psychopathy and Machiavellianism and cognitive empathy is confirmed for only psychopathy. A small negative association was found between psychopathy and cognitive empathy. However, psychopathy, as with Dark Triad and its other subscales, did not make a significant unique contribution to the prediction of cognitive empathy while each model with these variables explained a significant amount of variance in cognitive empathy. Furthermore, narcissism was not expected to be associated with limited cognitive empathy, which was confirmed by the findings on the correlation between narcissism and cognitive empathy.

2) What is the association between the Dark Triad and emotional empathy?

Sub-question: Is there a negative association between the Dark Triad and emotional

empathy?

The model with Dark Triad as a predictor (along with gender and cognitive empathy as control variables) was found to explain a significant 20% of the variance in emotional

2 empathy, F(3, 54) = 5.67, p < .01, R Adjusted = .20. Yet, Dark Triad was not found to make a significant unique contribution to the prediction of emotional empathy (beta = -.15, t(57) = -

1.14, p = .26). The model with the narcissism subscale as a predictor explained a significant

2 19% of the variance in emotional empathy (F(3, 54) = 5.46, p < .01, R Adjusted = .19), while narcissism was not found to make a significant unique contribution to the prediction of emotional empathy (beta = -.11, t(57) = -.90, p = .38). The model with the psychopathy subscale as a predictor explained a significant 23% of the variance in emotional empathy

2 (F(3, 54) = 6.71, p < .01, R Adjusted = .23) while psychopathy was found to make a marginally

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

significant unique contribution to the prediction of emotional empathy (beta = -.25 , t(57) = -

1.93, p = .059). Again, the model with the Machiavellianism subscale as a predictor explained

2 a significant 18% of the variance in emotional empathy, (F(3, 54) = 5.12, p < .01, R Adjusted

= .18) while Machiavellianism was not found to make a significant unique contribution to the prediction of emotional empathy (beta = -.004 , t(57) = -.028, p = .98).

The tentative hypotheses regarding a negative association between Dark Triad and all its subscales with emotional empathy has only been confirmed for psychopathy. A moderate negative association was found between psychopathy and emotional empathy. Likewise, a marginally significant association between the overall score on Dark Triad and emotional empathy was found. Also, psychopathy was found to make a marginally significant unique contribution to the prediction of emotional empathy, with a negative regression coefficient.

Other information on the results of the linear regression analysis with Dark Triad and its subscales as independent variables and emotional empathy as dependent variable are presented in Table 5.

3) Does emotion-related inhibition control (EIC) mediate the association between the Dark

Triad personality characteristics and cognitive and/or emotional empathy?

A possible mediation by emotion-related inhibition control (EIC) for the link between the Dark Triad and empathy was inspected using the Preacher and Hayes method (2004) who based their work on Baron and Kenny (1986). For this method to be used, three conditions had to be met. First, there had to be a significant correlation between the independent and the dependent variable, which is pathway C (see Figure 3.). Second, there had to be a significant correlation between the independent variable and the mediator (pathway A) and third, between the mediator and the dependent variable (pathway B). Lastly, to achieve full mediation, the association between the independent and the dependent variable should not be

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

significant when the mediator is included in the model (pathway c’). Otherwise, a partial mediation is in effect.

Figure 3. The proposed mediation model with pathways

As the results for the first research question indicated, condition 1 is not met for the overall score on the Dark Triad nor the subscales narcissism and Machiavellianism, for both the associations with cognitive and emotional empathy. However, this is not the case for subscale psychopathy. A small negative association between psychopathy and cognitive empathy was found, Pearson’s r(58) = -.24, p < .05. Additionally, a moderate negative association between psychopathy and emotional empathy was found, Pearson’s r(58) = -.39, p

< .01 (Cohen, 1988). These findings remained constant when controlling for gender and the scores on the other empathy subscale. Thus, while the Preacher and Hayes method (2004) cannot be used for the overall scores on the Dark Triad, the narcissism and Machiavellianism subscales, a possible mediation by EIC for the association between psychopathy as the independent variable and cognitive and emotional empathy as the dependent variables could be tested.

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Multiple regression analysis were conducted to assess each component of the proposed mediation model with cognitive empathy as the dependent variable. First, a small negative and marginally significant association was found between psychopathy and cognitive empathy (B = -.092, t (56) = -1.87, p = .066). Second, a non-significant association was found between psychopathy and total false alarms in all runs with emotional stimuli as targets (B =

-.013, t (56) = -.036, p = .97). Lastly, a small negative association were found between total false alarms in all runs with emotional stimuli as targets as targets and cognitive empathy (B =

-.041, t (56) = -2.36, p < .05). Thus, as a significant association was found for pathway B but not for pathway A, a mediation effect by EIC for the association between psychopathy and cognitive empathy could not be confirmed. Also, results of the mediation analysis did not confirm a mediating role of EIC in the association between psychopathy and cognitive empathy, with 0 falling into the range of the 95% confidence interval, as presented in Table 6.

Multiple regression analysis was conducted to assess each component of the proposed mediation model with emotional empathy as the dependent variable. First, a small negative association was found between psychopathy and emotional empathy (B = -.11, t (56) = -3.14, p < .01). Second, a non-significant association was found between psychopathy and total false alarms in all runs with emotional stimuli as targets (B = -.013, t (56) = -.036, p = .97). Lastly, a small negative and marginally significant association was found between total false alarms in all runs with emotional stimuli as targets and emotional empathy (B = -.022, t (56) = -1.80, p = .077). Again, as a marginally significant association was found for pathway B but not for pathway A, a mediation effect by EIC for the association between psychopathy and emotional empathy could not be confirmed. Also, results of the mediation analysis did not confirm a mediating role of EIC in the association between psychopathy and cognitive empathy, with 0 falling into the range of the 95% confidence interval, as presented in Table 7. This is not in

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

accordance with the formulated hypothesis that EIC mediates the relationship between psychopathy and cognitive or emotional empathy.

Discussion

The focus of the current study was 1) the association between the Dark Triad and cognitive and emotional empathy and 2) the mediation effect by emotion-related inhibition control. The first two research (sub-)questions stated a (negative) association between Dark

Triad personality characteristics and cognitive and emotional empathy. This was tested for the overall score on the Dark Triad and for each of the Dark Triad subscales (narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism). A small, negative association between psychopathy and cognitive empathy was found. Also, a moderate negative association between psychopathy and emotional empathy was found (see Table 3). This is partially in accordance with the tentatively formulated hypotheses in the current study. It was expected for psychopathy and

Machiavellianism to be associated with less cognitive empathy and for all Dark Triad traits to be associated with less emotional empathy.

For the other associations between Dark Triad and empathy to be non-significant may be due to the small sample size, as the significance of a correlation coefficient is strongly influenced by the size of the sample (Pallant, 2007). After all, the small negative association between the overall scores on the Dark Triad and emotional empathy was marginally significant. With a bigger sample size this association may be found to be significant. Also, the current findings for the psychopathy subscale of the Dark Triad offer a possible explanation for deficits in overall empathy in individuals scoring high on psychopathy, as they score lower on both cognitive and emotional empathy (Ali, Amorim, & Chamorro-

Premuzic, 2009; Jonason & Krause, 2013). Also, each regression model with the Dark Triad and its subscales as predictors were found to explain a significant amount of the variance in

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

both cognitive and emotional empathy. However, only psychopathy was found to make a marginally significant unique contribution to the prediction of emotional empathy. For Dark

Triad or the other subscales as predictors, no significant unique contribution to the prediction of cognitive or emotional empathy was found. As there was no violation of the assumption of multicollinearity (among others), this could be explained by the significant unique contribution of the control variable cognitive empathy to the prediction of emotional empathy and vice versa (see Table 4 and Table 5). As seen in Table 3, there was a moderate positive association found between cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. Also, a negative association was found between psychopathy and cognitive and emotional empathy.

The mediation effect by emotion-related inhibition control (EIC) could not be tested for the overall score on Dark Triad nor for narcissism and Machiavellianism as the associations with cognitive and emotional empathy were found to be non-significant. This was the first of the three conditions to be met for the mediation analysis by the Preacher and

Hayes method (2004). The mediation analysis was used to examine possible mediation by

EIC for the associations between psychopathy and cognitive and emotional empathy. For both associations no mediation by EIC was found, contradicting the tentatively formulated hypotheses. Notably, the association between psychopathy and EIC was found to be non- significant. This suggests that in this sample no relationship was found between psychopathy and total false alarms in all runs with emotional stimuli as targets. This could be explained by the type of facial expressions used. After all, individuals with psychopathy traits are characterized by overall emotion recognition deficits as well as emotion recognition deficits for the emotions of fear, sadness, disgust, anger and happiness (Brook & Kosson, 2013). In the current study only sad, fearful and angry emotional stimuli were used.

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Also, a small negative association was found between total false alarms in all runs with emotional stimuli as targets and empathy, although this was only marginally significant for the association with emotional empathy. This suggests that individuals whom pressed the spacebar when presented with non-targets and hence could be argued had less emotion-related inhibition control, scored a little lower on both cognitive and emotional empathy. These two associations are in accordance with previous study findings as it was expected that lower EIC

(in this case more false-alarms in total) was associated with lower empathy (Hinnant &

O'Brien, 2007; Padilla-Walker & Christensen, 2011). However, the concerning coefficients are very small. As explained above, this could be related to the type of facial expressions.

Psychopathy is associated with overall emotion recognition deficits as well as for fear, sadness, disgust, anger and happiness (Brook & Kosson, 2013). Furthermore, there is an indication for an effect between the specific emotion used and EIC. For instance, the emotion of fear was found to be contributing to (the development of) EIC (Rothbart, Sheese, & Posner,

2007), which is an interesting finding as psychopaths are characterized by low anxiety level

(Hare, 1991). This is an important key point for further research on this topic, considering the complex associations between EIC and empathy may depend on the type of measures used

(Hinnant & O'Brien, 2007).

Overall, the findings in the current study contribute to more consensus on empathy deficits for the Dark Triad. These findings show that there are negative associations between psychopathy and cognitive and emotional empathy, with a stronger negative association for the latter. Psychopathy was also found to make a marginally significant unique contribution to the prediction of emotional empathy. These findings implicate that individuals with psychopathic characteristics have less empathy, in particular less emotional empathy. No mediation by EIC for the association between psychopathy and empathy was found, however

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

a small negative association was found between EIC and empathy. This finding implicate that individuals whom score less on EIC, score lower on empathy. These findings should be taken into account in (the development of) therapy or treatment of individuals with psychopathic characteristics or individuals scoring low on EIC.

Apart from the small sample size, another limitation of the current study is its reliance on a student based sample as they are not representative for the relevant population here

(forensic and psychiatric patient population). Subsequently, the gender ratio in the current study is also not representative for the relevant population considering there are more male patients in the forensic patient population. Males scored significantly higher on the Dark

Triad (as measured by the Dirty Dozen) while females scored significantly higher on empathy

(as measured by IRI) (Davis, 1980; De Corte et al., 2007; Jonason, Li, Webster, Schmitt,

2009; Jonason et al., 2013).

Another limitation of this study is the usage of self-report measures. While using IRI as a self-reporting measure has its advantages, with it being able to assess both cognitive and emotional empathy in a timely manner, the content of some items suggest that IRI may measure broader concepts than just empathy. The contents of especially some items in the FA and PD subscales may be linked with empathy but they do not measure empathy itself (Baron-

Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004). A similar problem occurs with the usage of the Dirty Dozen for measuring the Dark Triad personality characteristics. The Dirty Dozen consists of only 12 items and it takes little time to fill it in. However, it does not include the full characteristics of the Dark Triad. It also measures subclinical levels of Dark Triad personality characteristics, so any findings using the Dirty Dozen may be difficult to generalize to clinical psychopaths or narcissists (Klimstra et al., 2014). It is especially not recommended for the Dirty Dozen to be used as a single measure for psychopathy (Miller at al., 2012). Although it could not be

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

analyzed, the usage of only three basic emotional expressions in the go/nogo task is another limitation of this study, however this was opted in order to reduce the effects of fatigue on the participants’ performance. So far, the current study is the first one to study the mediation effect of emotion-related inhibition control on the link between Dark Triad and cognitive and emotional empathy.

The first suggestions for further research on this topic would be to duplicate this study in a forensic or psychiatric setting, in order to ensure generalization and representativeness of the sample, with the usage of all basic emotional expressions in the go/nogo task to gain insight in the empathy process and empathy deficits of individuals with Dark Triad personality (Ekman & Friesen, 1971). Empathy is a process which does indirectly affect behavior and by gaining insight in the process it may be of help in the development or implementing (behavioral) interventions for individuals with Dark Triad traits (Eisenberg et al, 2009; Eisenberg et al., 2010).

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

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Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Appendices

Table 1.

Extensive demographic information

Variable n (%) Gender (N=58) Male 20 (34.5%) Female 38 (65.5%) Ethnicity (N=58) Dutch 48 (82.8%) Turkish 1 (1.7%) Moroccan 1 (1.7%) Surinamese 1 (1.7%) Another European country 3 (5.2%) Another non-European country 4 (6.9%) Study year (N=58) First year 47 (81.0%) Second year 6 (10.3%) Third year 3 (5.2%) Fourth year or higher 2 (3.4%)

Table 2

Descriptive statistics of the scores on DD, IRI and the go/nogo task (per gender)

M (SD) M (SD) Variable Male Female Dark Triad 4.05 (0.14) 4.59 (1.05) ** 3.76 (1.00) Narcissism 5.40 (1.28) 5.66 (1.16) 5.26 (1.33) Psychopathy 2.94 (1.35) 3.69 (1.40) ** 2.55 (1.15) Machiavellianism 3.80 (1.49) 4.43 (1.64)* 3.47 (1.31)

Cognitive empathy 2.37 (0.067) 2.26 (0.61) 2.43 (0.44) Emotional empathy 1.90 (0.049) 1.75 (0.39) 1.98 (0.34) *

Total False Alarms 5.52 (3.62) 5.50 (3.44) 5.53 (3.75) (emotional stimuli as targets) Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Table 3

Correlation coefficients between the variables

DT DT_Narc DT_Psy DT_Mach Cog_Emp DT_Narc .75*** DT_Psy .77*** .32** DT_Mach .85*** .48*** .49*** Cog_Emp -.002 .15 -.24* .088 Emo_Emp -.21 -.085 -.39** -.043 .41** Note. DT = Dark Triad; DT_Narc = narcissism; DT_Psy = psychopathy;

DT_Mach = Machiavellianism; Cog_Emp = cognitive empathy; Emo_Emp = emotional empathy

* p < .05 (one-tailed) , ** p < .01 (one-tailed) , *** p < .001 (one-tailed)

Table 4

Results of the linear regression analysis with Dark Triad and its subscales as predictors and cognitive empathy as dependent variable, controlling for gender and emotional empathy

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4

Predictors B SE B SE B SE B SE

Dark Triad .054 .063 ------

Narcissism - - .077 .049 - - - -

Psychopathy - - - - -.036 .054 - -

Machiavellianism ------.044 .044

Gender .084 .15 .072 .14 .011 .15 .088 .14

Emotional empathy .56** .18 .55** .17 .50** .19 .53** .18

R Squared (R2) .18 .20 .18 .18 Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Table 5

Results of the linear regression analysis with Dark Triad and its subscales as predictors and emotional empathy as dependent variable, controlling for gender and cognitive empathy

Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4

Predictors B SE B SE B SE B SE

Dark Triad -.050 .044 ------

Narcissism - - -.032 .036 - - - -

Psychopathy - - - - -.069 .036 - -

Machiavellianism ------.001 .032

Gender .14 .10 .17 .095 .11 .099 .18 .10

Cognitive empathy .28** .088 .29** .090 .24** .088 .27** .090

R Squared (R2) .24 .23 .27 .22 Note. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

Table 6

Results mediation analysis with Psychopathy as independent variable, cognitive empathy as dependent variable and total false alarms in all runs with emotional targets as mediator A B C C’ Results Bootstrap indirect effects Model B SE B SE B SE B SE B SE 95% CI 1 -.013 .36 -.041* .018 -.092 .049 -.092 .047 .002 .015 -.028 - .037 Note. A = effect psychopathy → mediator, B = effect mediator → cognitive empathy, C = total effect psychopathy → cognitive empathy, C'= partial effect psychopathy and mediator → cognitive empathy; B = unstandardized regression coefficient, SE = standard error; 95% CI = 95% confidence interval, *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001

Dark Triad, empathy and the role of emotion-related inhibition control

Table 7

Results mediation analysis with Psychopathy as independent variable and emotional empathy as dependent variable total false alarms in all runs with emotional targets as mediator A B C C’ Results Bootstrap indirect effects Model B SE B SE B SE B SE B SE 95% CI 1 -.013 .36 -.022 .012 -.11** .034 -.11** .033 .0009 .009 -.018 - .021 Note. A= effect psychopathy → mediator, B= effect mediator → emotional empathy, C= total effect psychopathy → emotional empathy, C'= partial effect psychopathy and mediator → emotional empathy; B = unstandardized regression coefficient, SE = standard error; 95% CI = 95% confidence interval, *p<.05, **p<.01, ***p<.001