Psychopathy and chronotype disposition: the mediating role of depression

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between dark triad personality traits and chronotype disposition, whilst incorporating the mediating role of anxiety and/or depression after excluding individuals presenting insomnia and/or physiological sleep-disorder symptoms. Members of the general population (N = 453) completed online measures of dark triad personality traits, chronotype, and anxious and depressive symptoms. Psychopathy and Machiavellianism were independently related to an evening chronotype disposition. However, after accounting for age, sex, anxiety and depression, psychopathy and depression remained the only significant predictors of chronotype. Therefore, whilst psychopathy was the strongest predictor of an evening chronotype preference, this relationship is partially mediated by depression. Individuals presenting an evening disposition may display increased psychopathic traits due to greater emotion dysregulation. This is potentially perpetuated by depressive symptoms stemming from a delayed or blunted affective rhythm. Interacting factors (e.g. reduced light exposure) may also contribute to alterations in the biological rhythm amongst evening-types, resulting in a negative feedback cycle. Targeting chronotype and depressive symptoms amongst individuals presenting psychopathic tendencies could increase the efficacy of existing sleep-based interventions for hostile behaviour.

Diurnal preference and depressive symptomatology: a meta-analysis

“…For abbreviations please see main text. Author Chronotype Age N Females (%) Sample Depression measure Akram et al 59 MEQ 24 453 75 Non-clinical HADS—depression subscale Asarnow et al 60 CSM 43 139 66 Clinical HRSD Aydin et al 61 MEQ 22 209 49 Non-clinical DASS-21 depression subscale Bakotic et al 62 CSM 21 1052 62 Non-clinical HADS—depression subscale Berdynaj et al 63 MEQ 21 86 78 Non-clinical DMS Chan et al 26 MEQ 51 253 84 Clinical BDI Coleman and Cain 64 rMEQ 46 424 73 Clinical HRSD Furusawa et al 65 …”

Self-disgust and the dark triad traits: The role of expressive suppression

“…Narcissistic individuals typically crave positive attention and present increased entitlement, superiority, dominance, self-love and an egocentric attitude . Evidence highlights the dark triad traits to be associated with antisocial behaviour and aggression in children and young adults (e.g., Muris, et al, 2013); violent tendencies and bullying (Baughman, Dearing, Giammarco, & Vernon, 2012;Carton & Egan, 2017;Pailing et al, 2014); risk taking and sensation-seeking activities (Crysel et al, 2013); an evening chronotype disposition ; and psychiatry difficulties including insomnia, anxiety and depression (Akram et al, 2018(Akram et al, , 2019.…”

Diurnal Preference and Correlates of Multidimensional Perfectionism, Type-D Personality, and Big Five Personality Traits

“…Personality may theoretically influence the nature of one’s diurnal preference. Indeed, various personality traits are differentially associated with a greater preference for the morning or evening [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ]. However, the literature remains sparse, often yielding mixed outcomes, perhaps due to methodological differences concerning the sample populations and scales used.…”

“…Moreover, whilst Hasler [ 6 ] failed to demonstrate a relationship between negative affect (i.e., an increased experience of negative emotions and poor self-concept) and evening preference in the general population, morningness was significantly related to increased positive affect. Several studies concur that increased psychopathy and Machiavellianism, aspects of the dark-triad traits, are associated with an evening preference amongst the UK general population [ 7 ], and amongst university students from the United Kingdom [ 8 ] and Germany [ 9 ]. However, most studies focus on the five-factor model of personality [ 10 ].…”

“…Therefore, this exploratory study aimed to determine: (i) the extent to which the dimensions of the five-factor model, Type-D personality, and multidimensional perfectionism are directionally associated with a diurnal preference in the general population; (ii) any empirically supported relationships that remained after accounting for the shared variance between the traits. Considering previous outcomes [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 ], it was hypothesized that eveningness is related to the negatively perceived aspects of personality. In contrast, we expected the preference for morningness to be associated with more positively oriented traits.…”