Social appearance anxiety among the dark tetrad and self-concealment

This study analyzed the effects of the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism) and self-concealment on social appearance anxiety. Empirical investigations on which personality traits influence social appearance anxiety are yet missing. In this study, a sample of N = 1186 Chinese students performed a questionnaire-based survey assessing different personality facets and social appearance anxiety tendencies. Measures included the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale, the Machiavellian Personality Scale, the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale, the Self-concealment Scale, and the Social Appearance Anxiety Scale. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that psychopathy, Machiavellianism, sadism, and self-concealment positively predicted social appearance anxiety and narcissism negatively predicted social appearance anxiety. Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism, and self-concealment were positive predictors of social appearance anxiety, whereas narcissism was a negative predictor. These findings provide insight into the complex nature of the Dark Tetrad and their influence on social appearance anxiety.

Struggling or Liberating? The Effects of Machiavellianism on Break-Up Distress

Negative emotions caused by break-up are the key work of university students' psychological intervention. It is important to explore the specific factors of break-up distress for university students' psychological intervention. Therefore, we investigated 869 university students to examine the effect of Machiavellianism and psychological capital on break-up distress, as well as its gender difference. The results indicated that high Machiavellians experience more break-up distress. Moreover, through structural equation models, we found that as for female university students, psychological capital mediated the relationship between Machiavellianism and break-up distress. However, as for male university students, the mediation effect was not significant. It means that for female university students, psychological capital acted as the mechanism to connect Machiavellianism and break-up distress.

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

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. Schizotypy added incrementally to the Dark Tetrad in predicting both self-report and behaviorally measured aggression.

Unhealthy parenting strategies: Situational (Dis-)Incentives, Machiavellian personality, and their interaction on misuse of ADHD medication for healthy children

Some parents engage in the potentially unhealthy and morally debateable parenting practice of giving prescription stimulant drugs to healthy children to boost their school and extracurricular performance. However, the parents' underlying reasoning remains unexamined. This web-based study (N_Respondents = 1360) simultaneously investigates eight experimentally-varied situational (dis-)incentives (e.g., financial gains and drug properties) within a factorial vignette survey (N_Vignettes = 256), Machiavellianism as a measured socially relevant personality trait, and possible interaction effects. Results show that approximately 40% of the described situations (N_Evaluations = 5440) provoked some willingness to medicate healthy children. Multilevel mixed-effect models revealed that this willingness was higher, for example, with increasing financial gains and weaker side effects. Machiavellians disclosed a higher willingness. They were more responsive to financial gains and threats (e.g., probable side effects). Respondents' sex, age, ethnicity, and experience with prescription drugs also had effects. Prevention measures might emphasize the dangers and limited potential of prescription drugs for healthy children.

As cold as a fish? Relationships between the Dark Triad personality traits and affective experience during the day: A day reconstruction study

The Dark Triad of personality is a cluster of three socially aversive personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. These traits are associated with a selfish, aggressive and exploitative interpersonal strategy. The objective of the current study was to establish relationships between the Dark Triad traits (and their dimensions) and momentary affect. Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism and the dimensions of the Triarchic model of psychopathy (namely, boldness, meanness and disinhibition) were examined. We used the Day Reconstruction Method, which is based on reconstructing affective states experienced during the previous day. The final sample consisted of 270 university students providing affective ratings of 3047 diary episodes. Analyses using multilevel modelling showed that only boldness had a positive association with positive affective states and affect balance, and a negative association with negative affective states. Grandiose narcissism and its sub-dimensions had no relationship with momentary affect. The other dark traits were related to negative momentary affect and/or inversely related to positive momentary affect and affect balance. As a whole, our results empirically demonstrated distinctiveness of the Dark Triad traits in their relationship to everyday affective states. These findings are not congruent with the notion that people with the Dark Triad traits, who have a dispositional tendency to manipulate and exploit others, are generally cold and invulnerable to negative feelings. The associations between the Dark Triad and momentary affect were discussed in the contexts of evolutionary and positive psychology, in relation to the role and adaptive value of positive and negative emotions experienced by individuals higher in Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy.

Perceptions of Close Relationship Through the Machiavellians´ Dark Glasses: Negativity, Distrust, Self-Protection Against Risk and Dissatisfaction

It is commonly known from the literature that Machiavellian individuals have negative attitudes towards people and in general towards the world´s affairs. They are distrustful of the intentions of others, and they get cautiously involved into interpersonal interactions and take risks only if that may not have any severe negative consequence. It is also a fact that there are few ventures in life that potentially involve as much insecurity and personal vulnerability as the establishment and maintenance of close relationships. In our study, we were seeking the answer to the question: do people with high levels of Machiavellianism show a generally negative, distrustful and cautious attitude in their intimate relationships, as well? What effect their pessimistic approaches have on the other consequences of the relationship (satisfaction, commitment, investment, quality of alternatives)? This question was investigated on a dyadic sample of heterosexual couples (N = 101 pairs) with Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). The results of the correlations and actor effects show that men with high levels of Machiavellianism perceive in a negative way not just people in general, but their romantic partners and relationships as well and they experience an increased level of distrust, risk, and dissatisfaction into their close relationships. Women with high levels of Machiavellianism are less negativistic and feel less discontent towards their intimate partner and relationship, but even they are unable to put their distrust and precaution aside. The results of partner effects have revealed that women's Machiavellianism undermines men's trust, while men's Machiavellianism has the effect of minimizing women's investment into their relationship.

Dark malevolent traits and everyday perceived stress

Stress is a factor that greatly impacts our lives. Previous research has examined individual differences in relation to stress. However, research regarding malevolent personality traits in relation to how stress is perceived is limited. The purpose of the present study was to investigate relationships between dark malevolent personality traits; psychopathy (EPA), Machiavellianism (MACH-IV), vulnerable narcissism (HSNS), grandiose narcissism (NPI-13), and perceived stress (PSS-10) in a community sample (N = 346). The results showed a strong positive relationship between vulnerable narcissism and perceived stress, while grandiose narcissism and psychopathy showed a small negative relationship with perceived stress. The discussion centers on that narcissism should be treated as two separate traits, and that psychopathy and Machiavellianism overlap in relation to the experience of stress in everyday life.

Schizotypal Traits and the Dark Triad From an Ecological Perspective: A Nonclinical Sample Study

The Dark Triad is a collection of socially aversive personality traits, namely subclinical psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and subclinical narcissism. These deviant traits, however, contribute to the success of individuals with dark personality traits. Therefore, Dark Triad traits can be conceived as pseudopathologies. Schizotypal traits have also been studies from the perspective of behavioral adaptations. In this study, we investigated whether schizotypal traits were associated with the Dark Triad traits and how schizotypal symptoms can be considered as parts of dark interpersonal strategies that contribute to the individual success of people with dark personality traits. A sample of 277 university students (198 females and 79 males; M_age = 20.64; SD_age = 2.15) were recruited to fill out the Short Dark Triad and the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised. Statistical analyses revealed that Machiavellianism was positively associated with restricted emotional and social life. Narcissism was negatively associated with interpersonal problems. Psychopathy was positively associated with distorted perceptions/cognitions and disorganization. Results of the study are discussed within a behavioral ecology framework. This perspective emphasizes the adaptive values connected to schizotypal personality traits. We further discuss how these adaptive traits fit into strategies of individuals with Dark Triad traits, and how these schizotypal traits might restrict or further promote their individual success.

The Dark Cube: dark character profiles and OCEAN

BACKGROUND

The Big Five traits (i.e., openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism: OCEAN) have been suggested to provide a meaningful taxonomy for studying the Dark Triad: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Nevertheless, current research consists of mixed and inconsistent associations between the Dark Triad and OCEAN. Here we used the Dark Cube (Garcia & Rosenberg, 2016), a model of malevolent character theoretically based on Cloninger's biopsychosocial model of personality and in the assumption of a ternary structure of malevolent character. We use the dark cube profiles to investigate differences in OCEAN between individuals who differ in one dark character trait while holding the other two constant (i.e., conditional relationships).

METHOD

Participants (N = 330) responded to the Short Dark Triad Inventory and the Big Five Inventory and were grouped according to the eight possible combinations using their dark trait scores (M, high Machiavellianism; m, low Machiavellianism; N, high narcissism; n, low narcissism; P, high psychopathy; p, low psychopathy): MNP "maleficent", MNp "manipulative narcissistic", MnP "anti-social", Mnp "Machiavellian", mNP "psychopathic narcissistic", mNp "narcissistic", mnP "psychopathic", and mnp "benevolent".

RESULTS

High narcissism-high extraversion and high psychopathy-low agreeableness were consistently associated across comparisons. The rest of the comparisons showed a complex interaction. For example, high Machiavellianism-high neuroticism only when both narcissism and psychopathy were low (Mnp vs. mnp), high narcissism-high conscientiousness only when both Machiavellianism and psychopathy were also high (MNP vs. MnP), and high psychopathy-high neuroticism only when Machiavellianism was low and narcissism was high (mNP vs. mNp).

CONCLUSIONS

We suggest that the Dark Cube is a useful tool in the investigation of a consistent Dark Triad Theory. This approach suggests that the only clear relationships were narcissism-extraversion and psychopathy-agreeableness and that the malevolent character traits were associated to specific OCEAN traits only under certain conditions. Hence, explaining the mixed and inconsistent linear associations in the Dark Triad literature.

A life less lonely: the state of the art in interventions to reduce loneliness in people with mental health problems

PURPOSE

There is growing evidence of significant harmful effects of loneliness. Relatively little work has focused on how best to reduce loneliness in people with mental health problems. We aim to present an overview of the current state of the art in loneliness interventions in people with mental health problems, identify relevant challenges, and highlight priorities for future research and implementation.

METHODS

A scoping review of the published and grey literature was conducted, as well as discussions with relevant experts, to propose a broad classification system for types of interventions targeting loneliness.

RESULTS

We categorised interventions as 'direct', targeting loneliness and related concepts in social relationships, and 'indirect' broader approaches to well-being that may impact on loneliness. We describe four broad groups of direct interventions: changing cognitions; social skills training and psychoeducation; supported socialisation or having a 'socially-focused supporter'; and 'wider community approaches'. The most promising emerging evidence appears to be in 'changing cognitions', but, as yet, no approaches have a robust evidence base. Challenges include who is best placed to offer the intervention, how to test such complex interventions, and the stigma surrounding loneliness.

CONCLUSIONS

Development of clearly defined loneliness interventions, high-quality trials of effectiveness, and identifying which approaches work best for whom is required. Promising future approaches may include wider community initiatives and social prescribing. It is important to place loneliness and social relationships high on the wider public mental health and research agenda.