Exploring a vulnerable side to dark personality: People with some dark triad features are gullible and show dysfunctional trusting

Hart, William; Breeden, Christopher J.; Lambert, Joshua T.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.111030

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…On the other hand, Machiavellian views (Monaghan et al, 2020), which is very similar to Machiavellian avoidance (Blötner & Bergold, 2022), was unrelated to gullibility and negatively related to trust both in authorities and strangers. Hart et al’s (2021) findings suggest that individuals high in Mach have difficulties in differentiating between whom they can (not) trust and, therefore, seem to contradict our findings. However, to assess gullibility, Hart et al (2021) asked their participants whether they believe to recognize fraudulent intentions in others, implying a response bias.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 92%

“…Employing a multifaceted measure of Mach, Hart et al (2021) found links between particular facets of Mach and gullibility to false information. Thereby, Machiavellian tactics (Monaghan et al, 2020), which is similar to the Machiavellian approach facet utilized in this study (Blötner & Bergold, 2022), was predictive of lower sensitivity to untrustworthy cues in others, unrelated to trust in authorities, but – paradoxically – to higher trust in strangers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hart et al's (2021) findings suggest that individuals high in Mach have difficulties in differentiating between whom they can (not) trust and, therefore, seem to contradict our findings. However, to assess gullibility, Hart et al (2021) asked their participants whether they believe to recognize fraudulent intentions in others, implying a response bias. Since our participants were instructed to discern profound from vacuous phrases, we had a more performance-related assessment, which is more robust against a self-report bias (e.g., Bainbridge et al, 2019).…”

Section: Machiavellianism Supernatural Beliefs and Superstitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver: Machiavellianism is associated with producing but not necessarily with falling for bullshit

Blötner

Bergold

2022

British J Social Psychol

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Machiavellianism is a personality trait emphasizing fraud at others' expense. It is yet unclear whether Machiavellianism is also predictive of less obvious deception, for example inaccurate or meaningless information supposed to gain advantages and to avoid disadvantages (i.e., bullshit). Similarly, it is unclear whether those high in Machiavellianism can recognize bullshit claims and valuable information as such (i.e., bullshit sensitivity). In this study, we investigated whether different facets of Machiavellianism are prone to the production of different sorts of bullshit and how these facets of Machiavellianism relate to bullshit sensitivity. In a sample of 525 participants (72% women), we found that the manipulative side of Machiavellianism (Machiavellian approach) was linked to persuasive bullshitting, that is, the production of bullshit intended to gain desired resources. Likewise, the distrustful side of Machiavellianism (Machiavellian avoidance) went along with higher evasive bullshitting, which means spreading information that ought to prevent individual disadvantages. Next, we found that those high in Machiavellian avoidance, but not Machiavellian approach, were better at differentiating information from bullshit. These links were robust irrespective of different levels of cognitive ability. Ultimately, we discussed future directions for research on bullshitting and disseminating deceptive information in general.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Machiavellianism Supernatural Beliefs and Superstitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver: Machiavellianism is associated with producing but not necessarily with falling for bullshit

Blötner

Bergold

2022

British J Social Psychol

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“…Second, narcissism might be linked to conspiracy beliefs due to higher gullibility—insensitivity to cues of untrustworthiness and propensity for being manipulated. For example, Hart et al (2021) found that those scoring high in narcissistic rivalry (although not admiration) were more likely to be gullible. Gullibility and paranoia might link especially the antagonistic aspect of grandiose as well as vulnerable narcissism to conspiracy beliefs (see Cichocka, Marchlewska et al, 2022; Kay, 2021).…”

Section: Two Types Of Self‐evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐Worth and Politics: The Distinctive Roles of Self‐Esteem and Narcissism

Cichocka

Marchlewska

Cislak

2023

Political Psychology

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One of the classic questions in political psychology has been whether feelings of self‐worth are relevant for politics. In this review, we summarize seven decades of research attempting to address this question, focusing on three sets of political outcomes: (1) political ideology, (2) political interest and engagement, and (3) intergroup relations. We rely on the distinction between self‐esteem (feelings of adequacy and satisfaction with oneself) and narcissism (feelings of entitled self‐importance and superiority over others). We argue that this distinction allows us to integrate the literature and explain the mixed effects observed in past research on self‐evaluation and politics. Our review points to a key role of narcissistic status pursuit and psychological defensiveness in predicting potentially problematic political attitudes and behaviors. We discuss practical implications these associations might have for democratic functioning and for understanding political leaders. We conclude by identifying outstanding questions and promising new research directions.

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“…Although narcissists are typically overconfident in their abilities, judgments, and intelligence [28], they tend to be naive and less likely to engage in cognitive reflection [16,29,30]. For example, Hart and colleagues [31] found that those scoring high in narcissistic rivalry/antagonism (but not admiration/agentic extraversion) were more gullible, that is insensitive to cues of untrustworthiness and vulnerable to being manipulated. Furthermore, studies consistently show that both grandiose (especially its antagonistic, but less consistently agentic extroversive, component [12]) and vulnerable (its antagonistic and neurotic components [12]) narcissism are associated with a predisposition towards odd and unusual beliefs [32,13,14].…”

Section: Gullibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%