Subclinical Sadism and the Dark Triad

Johnson, Laura K.; Plouffe, Rachel A.; Saklofske, Donald H.

doi:10.1027/1614-0001/a000284

Cited by 69 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…That is, someone may have a psychopathic disorder, or may be Machiavellian or narcissistic, without choosing to seek pleasure by causing suffering to others. Supporting its specificity, sadism predicts unique variance in its correlates even after controlling for other dark traits (e.g., Johnson et al, 2019;Moshagen et al, 2018).…”

Section: A Motivational Perspective On Sadismmentioning

confidence: 93%

On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression.

Pfattheicher¹,

Lazarević²,

Westgate³

et al. 2021

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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What gives rise to sadism? While sadistic behavior (i.e., harming others for pleasure) is welldocumented, past empirical research is nearly silent regarding the psychological factors behind it. We help close this gap by suggesting that boredom plays a crucial role in the emergence of sadistic tendencies. Across nine diverse studies, we provide correlational and experimental evidence for a link between boredom and sadism. We demonstrate that sadistic tendencies are more pronounced among people who report chronic proneness to boredom in everyday life (Studies 1A-1F, N=1780). We then document that this relationship generalizes across a variety of important societal contexts, including online trolling; sadism in the military; sadistic behavior among parents; and sadistic fantasies (Studies 2-5, N=1740). Finally, we manipulate boredom experimentally and show that inducing boredom increases sadistic behavior (i.e., killing worms; destroying other participants' pay; Studies 6-9, N=4097). However, alternatives matter: When several behavioral alternatives are available, boredom only motivates sadistic behavior among individuals with high dispositional sadism (Study 7). Conversely, when there is no alternative, boredom increases sadistic behavior across the board, even among individuals low in dispositional sadism (Studies 8&9). We further show that excitement and novelty seeking mediate the effects of boredom, and that boredom not only promotes sadistic (proactive) aggression, but reactive aggression as well (Study 9). Overall, the present work contributes to a better understanding of sadism and highlights the destructive potential of boredom. We discuss implications for basic research on sadism and boredom, as well as applied implications for society at large.

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Section: A Motivational Perspective On Sadismmentioning

confidence: 93%

On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression.

Pfattheicher¹,

Lazarević²,

Westgate³

et al. 2021

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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“…The term refers to those who experience pleasure from inflicting or witnessing the suffering of others. The "everyday" qualifier highlights the idea that, like the triad members, this variant is broadly distributed in normal samples and socially tolerated (Foulkes, 2019;Johnson et al, 2019). It is most commonly manifested in the enjoyment of violent films, video games, and sports (Paulhus, 2014).…”

Section: The Dark Triad and Tetradmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dark or disturbed?: Predicting aggression from the Dark Tetrad and schizotypy

Paulhus

Gupta

Jones

2021

Aggressive Behavior

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Research on the personality foundations of aggression typically implicates either (a) aspects of the so-called "Dark Tetrad" or (b) severe mental disturbance (psychosis).The appearance of psychotic symptoms in general populations is termed schizotypy.We conducted two studies to compare the effects of dark personalities and schizotypy on aggression. Study 1 used standard inventories to investigate the overlap of Dark Tetrad traits with schizotypy in a sample of 977 undergraduates. All tetrad traits except narcissism were positively associated with schizotypy, but only at moderate levels. Study 2 administered the same personality battery to 303 members of an online community sample: Aggression outcomes were measured with both self-reports and a behavioral measure-the Voodoo Doll Task. Regression analyses determined the unique contributions of the five personality variables. Two dark traits-psychopathy and sadism-were strong predictors of self-report aggression.

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“…In personality psychology, in turn, stable dispositions toward socially and ethically aversive behavior are typically summarized under the umbrella terms aversive or "dark" traits, with the "Dark Triad" (Paulhus & Williams, 2002) components (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) as the most prominent examples. Research interest in "dark" traits has peaked in recent years (Muris et al, 2017), and a growing number of such traits with sometimes rather subtle differences has been introduced (e.g., Johnson et al, 2019;Marcus et al, 2014;Marcus & Zeigler-Hill, 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Themes of the dark core of personality.

Bader¹,

Härtung²,

Hilbig³

et al. 2021

Psychological Assessment

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Enduring patterns of socially aversive behavior are ascribed to stable personality disorders (such as narcissistic or antisocial tendencies) in clinical psychology or to so called "dark" traits in personality psychology. As recently shown, the substantial overlap among the latter constructs is attributable to a single underlying disposition, called the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Whereas evidence supports the conceptualization of D as the core of aversive traits, the structure of the specific factors of D received less empirical attention so far. To this end, this study further scrutinizes the internal structure of D with items stemming from 12 different aversive traits assessed in three large and heterogeneous samples (total N > 160,000). Specifically, we (a) explored the bifactor structure of D using a modified "bass-ackwards" approach, (b) cross-validated the identified factor solutions via confirmatory factor analyses, and (c) examined the empirical relation of D and the specific factors to five criterion measures. Results indicate that a bifactor structure modeling D along with five specific factors-or themeslabeled Callousness, Deceitfulness, Narcissistic Entitlement, Sadism, and Vindictiveness, best describes the internal structure of D. Public Significance StatementThe present study further explores the internal structure of the common core of socially and ethically aversive traits, the Dark Factor of Personality (D). Findings suggest that five specific factors labeled Callousness, Deceitfulness, Narcissistic Entitlement, Sadism, and Vindictiveness best describe the themes of D.

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Subclinical Sadism and the Dark Triad

Cited by 69 publications

References 34 publications

On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression.

On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression.

Dark or disturbed?: Predicting aggression from the Dark Tetrad and schizotypy

Themes of the dark core of personality.

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