Dark Parenting: Parents Who Score as High in the Dark Triad Demonstrate Sub-Optimal Parenting Styles

Abstract

The Dark Triad of personality, including the traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism, have been shown to strongly predict a broad array of social and behavioral outcomes-particularly in the domain of mating. From an evolutionary perspective, the parenting domain of life is just as critical as is the mating domain: Parenting behaviors bear directly on long-term reproductive success. In spite of this fact, little past research has examined the relationship between the Dark Triad and parenting behaviors. We administered a measure of the Dark Triad along with three different parenting style measures to 251 parents (211 women, 39 men; mean age = 39.15, SD = 9.63). Participants also completed a measure of the Big Five personality scale and adult attachment styles. Analyses revealed that each facet of the Dark Triad was predictive of at least one of the non-authoritative parenting styles (including neglectful/uninvolved). Implications regarding the social psychology of parenting are discussed.

Pet attachment and owner personality

“…One might have expected some of the Dark Triad traits to have served as significant predictors of people's strength of attachment to their pets, particularly considering the correlation (albeit modest) that was unearthed between Machiavellianism and LAPS scores. The Dark Triad has been associated with various indicators of parenting style, with authoritative parenting being negatively correlated with Dark Triad tendencies and authoritarian and detached parenting more positively correlated with these traits (69). Vonk and colleagues (70) also found that people who were high in grandiose narcissism [as assessed by the 'Pathological Narcissism Inventory, (71)] were more attached to their 'traditional' pets (e.g.…”