Thread by @pmarca

"The Dark Triad comprises the personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. They are called dark because of their malevolent qualities."

"People scoring high on the three Dark Triad traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy are more likely to commit crimes, cause social distress, and create severe problems for organizations."

"People scoring high on the three Dark Triad traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy also tend to be less compassionate, agreeable, empathetic, satisfied with their lives, and less likely to believe they and others are good."

"Narcissism is characterized by grandiosity, pride, egotism, and a lack of empathy."

"Machiavellianism is characterized by manipulation and exploitation of others, an absence of morality, unemotional callousness, and a higher level of self interest."

"Psychopathy is characterized by continuous antisocial behavior, impulsivity, selfishness, callous and unemotional traits, and remorselessness."

"The dark core of personality or D-factor is the personality trait proposed to underlie all other dark personality traits."

"Several researchers have suggested expanding the Dark Triad to contain a fourth dark trait: sadism. It is defined as the enjoyment of cruelty, and is the most common addition."

"Sadism shares common characteristics with psychopathy and antisocial behavior (lack of empathy, readiness for emotional involvement, inflicting suffering), although sadism distinctively predicts unprovoked aggression separate from psychopathy."

"People exhibiting traits of sadism derive a sense of pleasure from acts of cruelty. Sadism encompasses distinctly cruel traits not covered by the rest of the Dark Triad, therefore deserving of its position within the Dark Tetrad."

"The Vulnerable Dark Triad comprises three related and similar constructs: vulnerable narcissism, sociopathy, and borderline personality disorder."

"The Dark Triad is negatively correlated with life satisfaction, conscientiousness, agreeableness, self-transcendent values, compassion, empathy, a quiet ego, a belief that humans are good and a belief that one’s own self is good."

"Morten Moshagen and his colleagues propose that a D-factor exists, which they define as the basic tendency to maximize one's own utility at the expense of others, accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications for one's malevolent behaviors."

"The D-factor is associated with self-centeredness, dominance, impulsivity, insensitivity, power, aggression, and negatively associated with nurturance, internalized moral identity, perspective taking, sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance and modesty."

"It's dangerous to be in any kind of relationship-a friendship, an intimate affair, or a business association-with someone with a Dark Triad personality profile. These individuals are hardwired to exploit and will proceed to do so, regardless of how much you want them to change."

"The personality traits that make up a Dark Triad are deeply ingrained in their psyche and highly resistant to any sort of challenge that would manifest a change. The best strategy is to move away from them as quickly as possible."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad
blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-mind…
blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-mind…
health.com/condition/anti…