The Antagonistic Dark Core

Abstract

The dark core represents the commonalities across the dark triad (Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy). This study contributes to the dark core literature by examining Antagonism as the prime member accounting for the dark core and tests its relative ability in explaining the dark core as compared to other such factors namely, Primary Psychopathy, Honesty-Humility and Agreeableness. A pool of 270 prospective managers (157 males, 113 females, Mage = 25.7 yrs., SDage = 3.2 years) from a leading business school of India were selected for this study. The obtained data was subjected to Hierarchical Linear Regression, Relative Weights Analysis and Commonality Analysis in a bid to flesh out unique and common variance attributed to each predictor for comparing the ability of Antagonism in explaining the dark core in relation to other variables. Antagonism was found to outperform other predictors in accounting for the dark core and explaining variance associated with Narcissism. Honesty-Humility was found to be acting as a suppressor variable, thus increasing the predictive ability of Antagonism and Primary Psychopathy in accounting for the dark core. In short, dark traited people are antagonistic at core.