The dark core of personality

Moshagen, Morten; Hilbig, Benjamin E.; Zettler, Ingo

doi:10.1037/rev0000111

Cited by 519Personality Traits and PsychologyPsychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual OffendingEmotions and Moral Behavior

The dark core of personality

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Moshagen, Morten, Hilbig, Benjamin E., Zettler, Ingo·2018·Psychological Review

DOI 10.1037/rev0000111

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Abstract

> 2,500), we provide evidence in support of the theoretical conceptualization of D, show that dark traits can be understood as specific manifestations of D, demonstrate that D predicts a multitude of criteria in the realm of ethically, morally, and socially questionable behavior, and illustrate that D does not depend on any particular indicator variable included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

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ML Versus MI for Missing Data With Violation of Distribution Conditions
Yuan, K., Yang‐Wallentin, F., & Bentler, P. M. (2012) · Sociological Methods & Research · doi:10.1177/0049124112460373 · Cited by 106 · see citing works
What Lies Beneath the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen: Varied Relations with the Big Five
Jonason, P. K., Kaufman, S. B., Webster, G. D., & Geher, G. (2013) · Individual Differences Research · doi:10.65030/idr.11008 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Dishonest responding or true virtue? A behavioral test of impression management
Zettler, I., Hilbig, B. E., Moshagen, M., & de Vries, R. E. (2014) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.10.007 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Low self-control and the Dark Triad: Disentangling the predictive power of personality traits on young adult substance use, offending and victimization
Flexon, J. L., Meldrum, R. C., Young, J. T. N., & Lehmann, P. S. (2016) · Journal of Criminal Justice · doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2016.05.006 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
From personality to altruistic behavior (and back): Evidence from a double-blind dictator game
Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Hepp, J., Klein, S. A., & Zettler, I. (2014) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.12.004 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Reducing Socially Desirable Responses in Epidemiologic Surveys
Moshagen, M., Musch, J., Ostapczuk, M., & Zhao, Z. (2010) · Epidemiology · doi:10.1097/ede.0b013e3181d61dbc · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Evaluating the circumplexity of interpersonal traits and the manifestation of interpersonal traits in interpersonal trust.
Gaines, S. O., Panter, A. T., Lyde, M. D., Steers, W. N., Rusbult, C. E., Cox, C. L., & Wexler, M. O. (1997) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.73.3.610 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
On Congruence and Incongruence of Measures of Fit in Structural Equation Modeling
Moshagen, M., & Auerswald, M. (2018) · Psychological methods · doi:10.1037/met0000122 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Anonymity and incentives: An investigation of techniques to reduce socially desirable responding in the Trust Game
Thielmann, I., Heck, D. W., & Hilbig, B. E. (2016) · Judgment and Decision Making · doi:10.1017/s1930297500004605 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
The role of Social Value Orientation in response to an unfair offer in the Ultimatum Game
Karagonlar, G., & Kuhlman, D. M. (2013) · Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes · doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2012.07.006 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
D ark P ersonality in the W orkplace: Introduction to the Special Issue
Schyns, B. (2014) · Applied Psychology · doi:10.1111/apps.12041 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
The Role of Interpersonal Influence in Counterbalancing Psychopathic Personality Trait Facets at Work
Schütte, N., Blickle, G., Frieder, R. E., Wihler, A., Schnitzler, F., Heupel, J. M., & Zettler, I. (2015) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/0149206315607967 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
The statistical analysis of cheating paradigms
Moshagen, M., & Hilbig, B. E. (2016) · Behavior Research Methods · doi:10.3758/s13428-016-0729-x · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Empirical Correction to the Likelihood Ratio Statistic for Structural Equation Modeling with Many Variables
Yuan, K., Tian, Y., & Yanagihara, H. (2013) · Psychometrika · doi:10.1007/s11336-013-9386-5 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Defection in the dark? A randomized‐response investigation of cooperativeness in social dilemma games
Moshagen, M., Hilbig, B. E., & Musch, J. (2011) · European Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1002/ejsp.793 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
An Experimental Validation Method for Questioning Techniques That Assess Sensitive Issues
Moshagen, M., Hilbig, B. E., Erdfelder, E., & Moritz, A. (2013) · Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) · doi:10.1027/1618-3169/a000226 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
The two faces of cooperation: On the unique role of HEXACO Agreeableness for forgiveness versus retaliation
Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Klein, S. A., & Henninger, F. (2016) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2016.08.004 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Narcissistic self-promotion is not moderated by the strength of situational cues
Maaß, U., & Ziegler, M. D. (2016) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.09.008 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Das NEO Fünf-Faktoren-Inventar (NEO-FFI): Handanweisung
Borkenau, P., & Ostendorf, F. (1994) · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Indeterminacy of Factor Score Estimates In Slightly Misspecified Confirmatory Factor Models
Beauducel, A. (2011) · Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods · doi:10.22237/jmasm/1320120900 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
The Performance of Ten Modified Rescaled Statistics as the Number of Variables Increases
Yang, M., Jiang, G., & Yuan, K. (2017) · Structural Equation Modeling A Multidisciplinary Journal · doi:10.1080/10705511.2017.1389612 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Unpacking Evil: Claiming the Core of the Dark Triad
Book, A., Visser, B. A., & Volk, A. A. (2016) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.094 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Honesty and Humility
Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2015) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-08-097086-8.25068-x · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Pro-social or anti-social, or both? A within- and between-subjects study of social preferences
Zhang, L., & Ortmann, A. (2016) · Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics · doi:10.1016/j.socec.2016.03.001 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Who Punishes? Personality Traits Predict Individual Variation in Punitive Sentiment
Roberts, S. C., Vakirtzis, A., Kristjánsdóttir, L., & Havlı́ček, J. (2013) · Evolutionary Psychology · doi:10.1177/147470491301100117 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Using self‐ and informant reports in the assessment of personality pathology in clinical settings—An easy and effective 1–2 combination.
Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2015) · Clinical Psychology Science and Practice · doi:10.1111/cpsp.12090 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Introduction to the special issue on the Dark Triad and related traits
Veselka, L., & Vernon, P. A. (2014) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.03.027 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Evaluating the circumplexity of interpersonal traits and the manifestation of interpersonal traits in interpersonal trust.
Jr. Gaines Stanley, O., Panter, A. T., Lyde, M. D., Steers, W. N., & al, E. (1997) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.73.3.610 · Cited by 7 · see citing works

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 138 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Sorted by citations

Personality and prosocial behavior: A theoretical framework and meta-analysis.
Thielmann, I., Spadaro, G., & Balliet, D. P. (2019) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000217 · Cited by 689 · see citing works
“…findings are well in line with recent notions that dark personality traits do not simply reflect the negative pole of bright personality traits, even though dark and bright traits are strongly related (e.g., r .80 between honesty-humility and the dark core of personality; Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Result
Screening for Dark Personalities
Paulhus, D. L., Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., & Jones, D. N. (2020) · European Journal of Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1027/1015-5759/a000602 · Cited by 387 · see citing works
The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature
Kaufman, S., Yaden, D., Hyde, E., & Tsukayama, E. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00467 · Cited by 318 · see citing works
“There is an emerging consensus that the “dark core” (or so-called “heart of darkness”) of these dark traits consists of an antagonistic social strategy characterized by high levels of interpersonal manipulation and callous behavior (Jones and Figueredo, 2013; Marcus et al., 2018; Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Background
The "Why" and "How" of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit
Grapsas, S., Brummelman, E., Back, M. D., & Denissen, J. J. A. (2020) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691619873350 · Cited by 312 · see citing works
“, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism) share a common feature of antagonism, this feature seems to explain a relatively low proportion of variance in narcissism (Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Influential
The Nomological Net of the HEXACO Model of Personality: A Large-Scale Meta-Analytic Investigation
Zettler, I., Thielmann, I., Hilbig, B. E., & Moshagen, M. (2020) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691619895036 · Cited by 260 · see citing works
Experimental Games and Social Decision Making
van Dijk, E., & Dreu, C. K. W. D. (2020) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-081420-110718 · Cited by 228 · see citing works
Objections to the HEXACO Model of Personality Structure—and why those Objections Fail
Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2020) · European Journal of Personality · doi:10.1002/per.2242 · Cited by 224 · see citing works
“(A recent investigation by Moshagen, Hilbig, and Zettler, 2018, actually identified nine such characteristics.)”
Background
Measuring the dark core of personality.
Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2019) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/pas0000778 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
A Critical Appraisal of the Dark-Triad Literature and Suggestions for Moving Forward
Miller, J. D., Vize, C. E., Crowe, M. L., & Lynam, D. R. (2019) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0963721419838233 · Cited by 171 · see citing works
The Role of Personality in COVID-19-Related Perceptions, Evaluations, and Behaviors: Findings Across Five Samples, Nine Traits, and 17 Criteria
Zettler, I., Schild, C., Lilleholt, L., Kroencke, L., Utesch, T., Moshagen, M., Böhm, R., Back, M., & Geukes, K. (2021) · Social Psychology and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/19485506211001680 · Cited by 140 · see citing works
Who lies? A large-scale reanalysis linking basic personality traits to unethical decision making
Heck, D. W., Thielmann, I., Moshagen, M., & Hilbig, B. E. (2018) · Judgment and Decision Making · doi:10.1017/s1930297500009232 · Cited by 144 · see citing works
Agreeableness and Its Consequences: A Quantitative Review of Meta-Analytic Findings
Wilmot, M. P., & Ones, D. S. (2022) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/10888683211073007 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
“Agreeableness’ negative relations to the “dark traits” (Moshagen et al., 2018) have been subject to debate.”
Background
On the relation of boredom and sadistic aggression.
Pfattheicher, S., Lazarević, L. B., Westgate, E. C., & Schindler, S. (2020) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspi0000335 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
The “core” of the dark triad: A test of competing hypotheses.
Vize, C. E., Collison, K. L., Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2019) · Personality Disorders Theory Research and Treatment · doi:10.1037/per0000386 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
The Self-Perception and Political Biases of ChatGPT
Rutinowski, J., Franke, S., Endendyk, J., Dormuth, I., Roidl, M., & Pauly, M. (2024) · Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies · doi:10.1155/2024/7115633 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
Examining the Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) Across Models, Correlates, and Gender
Neumann, C. S., Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2021) · Assessment · doi:10.1177/1073191120986624 · Cited by 98 · see citing works
“Relatedly, Moshagen et al. (2018) found peculiar effects of the specific factors that conflicted with prevailing theory.”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluential
Meta-Analytic Investigations of the HEXACO Personality Inventory(-Revised)
Moshagen, M., Thielmann, I., Hilbig, B. E., & Zettler, I. (2019) · Zeitschrift für Psychologie · doi:10.1027/2151-2604/a000377 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Empathy at the heart of darkness: empathy deficits that bind the dark triad and those that mediate indirect relational aggression.
Heym, N., Firth, J., Kibowski, F., Sumich, A., Egan, V., & Bloxsom, C. A. J. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00095 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
“Finally, whilst our monads model without links between narcissism and IRA showed the best fit, recent bi-factorial modeling approaches suggest that the common core of dark traits might not depend on the individual DT traits but can be seen as a separate global construct (56, 57).”
Background
The HEXACO–100 Across 16 Languages: A Large-Scale Test of Measurement Invariance
Thielmann, I., Akrami, N., Babarović, T., Belloch, A., Bergh, R., Chirumbolo, A., Čolović, P., de Vries, R. E., Dostál, D., Егорова, М., et al. (2019) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1080/00223891.2019.1614011 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
Self-uncertainty and group identification: Consequences for social identity, group behavior, intergroup relations, and society
Hogg, M. A. (2021) · Advances in experimental social psychology · doi:10.1016/bs.aesp.2021.04.004 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Dark triads, tetrads, tents, and cores: Why navigate (research) the jungle of dark personality models without a compass (criterion)?
Kowalski, C. M., Rogoza, R., Saklofske, D. H., & Schermer, J. A. (2021) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103455 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Structure of Dark Triad Dirty Dozen Across Eight World Regions
Rogoza, R., Żemojtel-Piotrowska, M. A., Jonason, P. K., Piotrowski, J. P., Campbell, K. W., Gebauer, J. E., Maltby, J., Sedikides, C., Adamovic, M., Adams, B. G., et al. (2020) · Assessment · doi:10.1177/1073191120922611 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
“For example, in the context of Dark Triad, the general factor represents the common dark core, whereas group factors represents the traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism (Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Background
Development and Validation of the Certainty About Mental States Questionnaire (CAMSQ): A Self-Report Measure of Mentalizing Oneself and Others
Müller, S., Wendt, L. P., & Zimmermann, J. (2021) · Assessment · doi:10.1177/10731911211061280 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
“First, the dark core of personality (D16; Moshagen et al., 2018) is conceptualized as the dispositional tendency to “maximize one’s individual utility—disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others—accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications” (Moshagen et al.”
Background
Dark necessities? Candidates’ aversive personality traits and negative campaigning in the 2018 American Midterms
Nai, A., & Maier, J. (2020) · Electoral Studies · doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2020.102233 · Cited by 72 · see citing works
The relation between narcissism and aggression: A meta‐analysis
Du, T. V., Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2021) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12684 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
The role of personality in COVID-19 related perceptions, evaluations, and behaviors: Findings across five samples, nine traits, and 17 criteriaPreprint
Zettler, I., Schild, C., Lilleholt, L., Kroencke, L., Utesch, T., Moshagen, M., BOHM, R. M., Back, M. D., & Utesch, K. (2020) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/pkm2a · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Social distancing is the right thing to do: Dark Triad behavioral correlates in the COVID-19 quarantine
Triberti, S., Durosini, I., & Pravettoni, G. (2020) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110453 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Using Bifactor Models to Examine the Predictive Validity of Hierarchical Constructs: Pros, Cons, and Solutions
Zhang, B., Sun, T., Cao, M., & Drasgow, F. (2020) · Organizational Research Methods · doi:10.1177/1094428120915522 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
On the impact of Honesty-Humility and a cue of being watched on cheating behavior
Pfattheicher, S., Schindler, S., & Nockur, L. (2018) · Journal of Economic Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.joep.2018.06.004 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Age and gender differences in socially aversive (“dark”) personality traits
Hartung, J., Bader, M., Moshagen, M., & Wilhelm, O. (2021) · European Journal of Personality · doi:10.1177/0890207020988435 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Seeing me, seeing you: Testing competing accounts of assumed similarity in personality judgments.
Thielmann, I., Hilbig, B. E., & Zettler, I. (2018) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/pspp0000222 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Individuals with dark traits have the ability but not the disposition to empathize
Kajonius, P., & Björkman, T. (2019) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2019.109716 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Stability and Change: The Dark Factor of Personality Shapes Dark Traits
Zettler, I., Moshagen, M., & Hilbig, B. E. (2020) · Social Psychological and Personality Science · doi:10.1177/1948550620953288 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
“In line with this conceptualization of D vis-à-vis specific dark traits, Moshagen et al. (2018) explicitly conceptualized D as a fluid construct, similar to the g factor of intelligence (e.g., Jensen, 1998).”
BackgroundMethodInfluential
COVID-19 protective behaviors are forms of prosocial and unselfish behaviors
Dinić, B. M., & Bodroža, B. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.647710 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Sample Size Requirements for Bifactor Models
Bader, M., Jobst, L. J., & Moshagen, M. (2022) · Structural Equation Modeling A Multidisciplinary Journal · doi:10.1080/10705511.2021.2019587 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
“Across a broad range of disciplines, bifactor models are now routinely applied to study the latent structure of multidimensional data (e.g., Arens et al., 2021; Jorge-Botana et al., 2019; Moshagen et al., 2018; Shevlin et al., 2017; Waldman et al., 2020).”
Background
Political skill camouflages Machiavellianism: Career role performance and organizational misbehavior at short and long tenure
Blickle, G., Kückelhaus, B. P., Kranefeld, I., Schütte, N., Genau, H. A., Gansen-Ammann, D.-N., & Wihler, A. (2020) · Journal of Vocational Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103401 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Examining the conceptual and empirical distinctiveness of Agreeableness and “dark” personality items
Vize, C. E., Miller, J. D., & Lynam, D. R. (2020) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12601 · Cited by 62 · see citing works
CEO dark personality: A critical review, bibliometric analysis, and research agenda
Borgholthaus, C. J., White, J. V., & Harms, P. D. (2022) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2022.111951 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Beyond Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness: Testing links between lower-level personality traits and American political orientation.
Xu, X.-W., Soto, C., & Plaks, J. E. (2020) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12613 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
“Other recent research has examined personality-outcome associations using alternative trait frameworks, such as the HEXACO model and the Dark Triad (Ashton & Lee, 2007; Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Method
Ten steps toward a better personality science – how quality may be rewarded more in research evaluation
Leising, D., Thielmann, I., Glöckner, A., Gärtner, A., & Schönbrodt, F. D. (2022) · Personality Science · doi:10.5964/ps.6029 · Cited by 63 · see citing works
“…to denote different things (e.g., “narcissism”: Ackerman et al., 2019; Cain et al., 2008; “agreeableness”: Thielmann et al., in press; “autonomy”: Hmel & Pincus, 2002), and/or different terms to denote the same or highly overlapping things (e.g., Leising et al., 2013, 2016; Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Background
Agreeableness and the common core of dark traits are functionally different constructs
Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., Horsten, L. K., & Hilbig, B. E. (2020) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2020.103986 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Rethinking aversive personality: Decomposing the Dark Triad traits into their common core and unique flavors
Bader, M., Hilbig, B. E., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2022) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12785 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
The dark core of personality and socially aversive psychopathology
Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Klein, S. A., Moshagen, M., & Zettler, I. (2020) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12577 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
“…between these approaches can be expected once considering the common core of all dark traits—that is, the Dark Factor of Personality, D (Moshagen et al., 2018), which entails clear conceptual links to prominent instances of socially aversive psychopathology: D involves invoking…”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluential
The good, the bad, and the ugly: Revisiting the Dark Core
Dinić, B. M., Wertag, A., Sokolovska, V., & Tomašević, A. (2021) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-021-01829-x · Cited by 52 · see citing works
“Recently, Moshagen et al. (2018) have proposed the Dark Factor of Personality (D) as the basic disposition underlying broader constellation of dark traits, which in its operationalization (Moshagen et al., 2020) comprises 12 facets: amoralism-crudelia, amoralism-frustralia, egoism, greed,…”
Background
Abusive supervision as a trigger of malevolent creativity: do the Light Triad traits matter?
Malik, O. F., Asif, S., Waheed, A., & Yousaf, Z. (2020) · Leadership & Organization Development Journal · doi:10.1108/lodj-09-2019-0386 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Honesty-Humility, Beliefs, and Prosocial Behaviour: A Test on Stockpiling During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Columbus, S. (2021) · Collabra Psychology · doi:10.1525/collabra.19028 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
The Dispositional Essence of Proactive Social Preferences: The Dark Core of Personality vis-à-vis 58 Traits
Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2022) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/09567976221116893 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
“Discussion The common core of aversive traits, D, is conceptualized as the (fluid) underlying disposition from which aversive traits arise as specific, flavored manifestations (Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Background
Primary and secondary psychopathy relate to lower cognitive reappraisal: A meta-analysis of the Dark Triad and emotion regulation processes
Walker, S., Olderbak, S. G., Gorodezki, J., Zhang, M., Ho, C., & MacCann, C. (2021) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.111394 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
The Dark Triad and BIS/BAS: a Meta-Analysis
Włodarska, K. A., Zyskowska, E., Terebus, M. K., & Rogoza, R. (2019) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-019-00467-8 · Cited by 44 · see citing works
Emotional intelligence and the dark triad: A meta-analysis
Michels, M., & Schulze, R. (2021) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.110961 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the relationship between everyday sadism and aggression: Can subclinical sadistic traits predict aggressive behaviour within the general population?
Thomas, L., & Egan, V. (2022) · Aggression and Violent Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.avb.2022.101750 · Cited by 45 · see citing works
Personality Goes a Long Way (for Some). An Experimental Investigation Into Candidate Personality Traits, Voters’ Profile, and Perceived Likeability
Nai, A., Maier, J., & Vranić, J. (2021) · Frontiers in Political Science · doi:10.3389/fpos.2021.636745 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
“More recent studies suggest that humans, in addition to the rather positively valenced traits assessed via the BFI, can have socially aversive - yet nonpathological - traits (Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Background
No gain without pain: The psychological costs of dishonesty
Thielmann, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2018) · Journal of Economic Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.joep.2018.06.001 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
“One of these things is not like the others”: The associations between dark triad personality traits, work attitudes, and work-related motivation
Szabó, Z. P., Diller, S. J., Czibor, A., Restás, P., Jonas, E., & Frey, D. (2023) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2023.112098 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Measuring the Propensity to Trust in Automated Technology: Examining Similarities to Dispositional Trust in Other Humans and Validation of the PTT-A Scale
Scholz, D. D., Kraus, J., & Miller, L. (2024) · International journal of human computer interactions · doi:10.1080/10447318.2024.2307691 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
“Moreover, PTT-H might be related to the Dark Factor of Personality , which describes the tendency to maximize one’s own utility at the cost of others (Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Measuring the Dark Core of Personality in German: Psychometric Properties, Measurement Invariance, Predictive Validity, and Self-Other Agreement
Bader, M., Horsten, L. K., Hilbig, B. E., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2021) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1080/00223891.2021.1984931 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
“…aggression, insensitivity) and behavioral (e.g., sadistic tendencies, dishonesty) criteria related to aversive behavior, whereas specific aversive traits rarely yielded incremental validity in the prediction of these outcomes beyond D (Moshagen et al., 2018; Moshagen, Zettler, & Hilbig, 2020).”
BackgroundMethodInfluential
The primacy of trust within romantic relationships: Evidence from conjoint analysis of HEXACO-derived personality profiles
Mogilski, J. K., Vrabel, J. K., Mitchell, V. E., & Welling, L. L. M. (2019) · Evolution and Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.04.001 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Development and evaluation of the short Dark Triad – Chinese version (SD3-C)
Zhang, J., Ziegler, M. D., & Paulhus, D. L. (2019) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-019-00272-3 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Dark Knights: When and Why an Employee Becomes a Workplace Vigilante
DeCelles, K. A., & Aquino, K. F. (2019) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.2017.0300 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Illuminating the ‘dark core’: Mapping global versus specific sources of variance across multiple measures of the dark triad
Volmer, J., Koch, I. K., & Wolff, C. (2019) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2019.03.024 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
“We follow recommendations (Furnham et al., 2014; McLarnon & Tarraf, 2017; Moshagen et al., 2018) and choose bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (B-ESEM) as our analytical approach.”
MethodInfluential
Gender differences in eating behavior and environmental attitudes – The mediating role of the Dark Triad
Mertens, A., von Krause, M., Denk, A., & Heitz, T. (2020) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110359 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Theoretical and empirical dissociations between the Dark Factor of Personality and low Honesty-Humility
Horsten, L. K., Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2021) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104154 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Generalized Dispositional Distrust as the Common Core of Populism and Conspiracy Mentality
Thielmann, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2023) · Political Psychology · doi:10.1111/pops.12886 · Cited by 37 · see citing works
Caught in the Act: Predicting Cheating in Unproctored Knowledge Assessment
Steger, D., Schroeders, U., & Wilhelm, O. (2020) · Assessment · doi:10.1177/1073191120914970 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
“…practical terms, one might expect people who consciously lie about their knowledge to also boost their test scores by engaging in cheating behaviors, just as one would expect this behavior from people with high self-interest scores (a facet of the dark personality, see also Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Background
Research in Moral Education: The Contribution of P4C to the Moral Growth of Students
Moriyón, F. G., González-Lamas, J., Botella, J., Vela, J. G., Miranda-Alonso, T., Palacios, A., & Loro, R. R. (2020) · Education Sciences · doi:10.3390/educsci10040119 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Sexism, Moral Disengagement, and Dark Triad Traits on Perpetrators of Sexual Violence Against Women and Community Men
Navas, M. P., Maneiro, L., Cutrín, O., Fraguela, J. A. G., & Sobral, J. (2021) · Sexual Abuse · doi:10.1177/10790632211051689 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
“This scale has been proposed as a concise measure for overcoming the limitations of single long measures regarding time consumption while incorporating flexibility in assessing the dark triad as either a single (Moshagen et al., 2018) or three-dimensional construct (Navas et al., 2020a).”
Background
Screening for dark personalities in Portugal: Intra- and interpersonal correlates, reliability and invariance of the Short Dark Tetrad Portuguese version
Pechorro, P. S., Karandikar, S., Carvalho, B., DeLisi, M., & Jones, D. N. (2022) · Deviant Behavior · doi:10.1080/01639625.2022.2071655 · Cited by 34 · see citing works
“…individuals high in the Dark Triad are exploitative, unethical, and tend to harm others for selfish gain (Arvan 2011; Bartels and Pizarro 2011; Buckels, Jones, and Paulhus 2013; Jones and Paulhus 2011, 2009; Karandikar et al. 2018; Moshagen, Hilbig, and Zettler 2018; Paulhus and Williams 2002).”
Background
Dark personalities – dark relationships? An investigation of the relation between the Dark Tetrad and attachment styles
Nickisch, A., Palazova, M., & Ziegler, M. D. (2020) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110227 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Dark Triad Psychopathy Outperforms Self-Control in Predicting Antisocial Outcomes: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach
Pechorro, P. S., Curtis, S. R., DeLisi, M., Marôco, J. P., & Nunes, C. (2022) · European Journal of Investigation in Health Psychology and Education · doi:10.3390/ejihpe12060041 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
“We concur with prior researchers who similarly express concern that the Dark Triad features are not sufficiently distinct [58,66], even with the more recent Dark Tetrad, which adds a sadism facet [67], and the Dark Core, which expands it even further [68].”
Result
Incorporating prosocial vs. antisocial trait content in Big Five measurement: Lessons from the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2)
Denissen, J. J. A., Soto, C. J., Geenen, R., John, O. P., & van Aken, M. A. G. (2021) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2021.104147 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Who is healthier? A meta-analysis of the relations between the HEXACO personality domains and health outcomes
Pletzer, J. L., Thielmann, I., & Zettler, I. (2023) · European Journal of Personality · doi:10.1177/08902070231174574 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
“This might occur because both overlap substantially with aversive (dark) personality traits (Hodson et al., 2018; M. C. Howard & Van Zandt, 2020; Moshagen et al., 2018; Scholz et al., 2022).”
Background
Taking an elemental approach to the conceptualization and measurement of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy
Kay, C. S., & Arrow, H. (2022) · Social and Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/spc3.12662 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Exposing the darkness within: A review of dark personality traits, models, and measures and their relationship to insider threats
Harms, P. D., Marbut, A. R., Johnston, A. C., Lester, P. B., & Fezzey, T. N. A. (2022) · Journal of Information Security and Applications · doi:10.1016/j.jisa.2022.103378 · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Effect of Dark Personalities on Knowledge Hiding Behaviour at Higher Education Institutions
Karim, D. N. (2020) · Journal of Information & Knowledge Management · doi:10.1142/s0219649220500318 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
The HEX-ACO-18: Developing an Age-Invariant HEXACO Short Scale Using Ant Colony Optimization
Olaru, G., & Jankowsky, K. (2021) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1080/00223891.2021.1934480 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Bad Is Stronger Than Good
Harms, P. D. (2022) · Zeitschrift für Psychologie · doi:10.1027/2151-2604/a000496 · Cited by 31 · see citing works
Communal collective narcissism
Żemojtel-Piotrowska, M. A., Piotrowski, J. P., Sedikides, C., Sawicki, A. J., Czarna, A. Z., Fatfouta, R., & Baran, T. (2021) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12636 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“…distinct constructs, such as self-esteem and generalized self-efficacy ( r = .85 in a meta-analysis; Judge et al., 2002), anxiety and depression ( r = .78 and r = .61 after scale reconstruction; Moras et al., 1992), as well as the D-factor and honesty-humility ( r = −.80; Moshagen et al., 2018).”
Background
Small but Nontrivial: A Comparison of Six Strategies to Handle Cross-Loadings in Bifactor Predictive Models
Zhang, B., Luo, J., Sun, T., Cao, M., & Drasgow, F. (2021) · Multivariate Behavioral Research · doi:10.1080/00273171.2021.1957664 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“Although these broad factors have been shown to be robust predictors of important life outcomes (e.g., Luo et al., 2021; Moshagen et al., 2018; Schmidt & Hunter, 2004), it is also important to examine the incremental validity of narrow facets beyond the general factors (Lang & Kell, 2020).”
Background
Aversive Personality and COVID-19
Ścigała, K. A., Schild, C., Moshagen, M., Lilleholt, L., Zettler, I., Stückler, A., & Pfattheicher, S. (2021) · European Psychologist · doi:10.1027/1016-9040/a000456 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: How and When Machiavellian Leaders Demonstrate Strategic Abuse
Feng, Z., Keng, F. T., Yam, K. C., Chen, X.-P., & Hu, L. (2022) · Journal of Business Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10551-022-05132-y · Cited by 29 · see citing works
A Short Scale to Measure Self-Reported Aversive Personality in Political Elites
Maier, J., Oschatz, C., Stier, S., & Zettler, I. (2022) · Journal of Personality Assessment · doi:10.1080/00223891.2022.2130341 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Is it all about the money? A re-analysis of the link between Honesty-Humility and Dictator Game giving
Thielmann, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2018) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2018.07.002 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Personality and behavioral dishonesty
Hilbig, B. E. (2022) · Current Opinion in Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101378 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Moral disengagement and willingness to behave unethically against ex-partner in a child custody dispute
Clemente, M., Espinosa, P., & Padilla-Racero, D. (2019) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0213662 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
The effect of narcissistic admiration and rivalry on mental toughness
Manley, H., Jarukasemthawee, S., & Pisitsungkagarn, K. (2019) · Personality and Individual Differences · doi:10.1016/j.paid.2019.05.009 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
The impact of team moral disengagement composition on team performance: the roles of team cooperation, team interpersonal deviance, and collective extraversion
Ogunfowora, B., Stackhouse, M. R. D., Maerz, A., Varty, C. T., Hwang, C. C. H., & Choi, J. (2020) · Journal of Business and Psychology · doi:10.1007/s10869-020-09688-2 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Antiheroes fueled by injustice: dark personality traits and perceived group relative deprivation in the prediction of violent extremism
Pavlović, T., & Franc, R. (2021) · Behavioral Sciences of Terrorism and Political Aggression · doi:10.1080/19434472.2021.1930100 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“The composite score of dark personality traits is not new in personality studies, and some researchers have provided arguments in favor of its use (Book et al., 2016; Moshagen et al., 2018; Persson et al., 2019).”
Valuing humans over animals – Gender differences in meat-eating behavior and the role of the Dark Triad
Mertens, A., von Krause, M., Meyerhöfer, S., Aziz, C., Baumann, F., Denk, A., Heitz, T., & Maute, J. (2019) · Appetite · doi:10.1016/j.appet.2019.104516 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Dishonesty as a signal of trustworthiness: Honesty-Humility and trustworthy dishonesty
Ścigała, K. A., Schild, C., & Zettler, I. (2020) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.200685 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Does Machiavellianism meaningfully differ from psychopathy? It depends
Sharpe, B. M., Collison, K. L., Lynam, D. R., & Miller, J. D. (2021) · Behavioral Sciences & the Law · doi:10.1002/bsl.2538 · Cited by 27 · see citing works
Cheating to benefit others? On the relation between Honesty‐Humility and prosocial lies
Thielmann, I., Hilbig, B. E., Klein, S. A., Seidl, A., & Heck, D. W. (2023) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12835 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Shades of narcissistic dishonesty: Grandiose versus vulnerable narcissism and the role of self-conscious emotions
Schröder–Abé, M., & Fatfouta, R. (2018) · Journal of Economic Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.joep.2018.06.003 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Factor Mixture Analysis of the Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad
Dinić, B. M., Sadiković, S., & Wertag, A. (2020) · Journal of Individual Differences · doi:10.1027/1614-0001/a000331 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Network discovery and scanning strategies and the Dark Triad
Jones, D. N., Padilla, E., Curtis, S. R., & Kiekintveld, C. D. (2021) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.106799 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
The dark side of the mood. Candidate evaluation, voter perceptions, and the driving role of (dark) personality traits
Nai, A., Aaldering, L., da Silva, F. F., Garzia, D., & Gattermann, K. (2023) · Electoral Studies · doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102715 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Light and Dark core of personality and the adherence to COVID-19 containment measures: The roles of motivation and trust in government
Grežo, M., & Adamus, M. (2022) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2021.103483 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Who Are the “Dark” Politicians? Insights From Self-Reports of German State Parliament Candidates
Maier, J., Dian, M., & Oschatz, C. (2022) · Politics and Governance · doi:10.17645/pag.v10i4.5493 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
“…personality traits, measured via the big five framework or the HEXACO inventory, and aver‐ sive personality traits, both at the citizen level (e.g., Moshagen et al., 2018; Muris et al., 2017; O’Boyle et al., 2015; Schreiber & Marcus, 2020) but also among politi‐ cians (Nai, 2019a, 2019b, 2022;…”
BackgroundMethodInfluential
Beyond (low) Agreeableness: Toward a more comprehensive understanding of antagonistic psychopathology
Scholz, D. D., Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Moshagen, M., & Zettler, I. (2022) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12708 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Dealing with the devil: Combined effects of destructive leadership and Dark Triad personality on revenge, happiness and psychological detachment
Syed, F., Naseer, S., & Shamim, F. (2022) · Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l Administration · doi:10.1002/cjas.1660 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
The dark and light of human nature: Spanish adaptation of the light triad scale and its relationship with psychological well-being
Stavraki, M., Artacho-Mata, E., Bajo, M., & Díaz, D. (2022) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-022-03732-5 · Cited by 27 · see citing works

Dark versus light personality types and moral choice
Dickinson, D. L. (2025) · European Economic Review · doi:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105092 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Measuring the dark core of personality.
Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2019) · Psychological Assessment · doi:10.1037/pas0000778 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
The dark core of personality and socially aversive psychopathology
Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Klein, S. A., Moshagen, M., & Zettler, I. (2020) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/jopy.12577 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
The Dispositional Essence of Proactive Social Preferences: The Dark Core of Personality vis-à-vis 58 Traits
Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2022) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/09567976221116893 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Theoretical and Empirical Integration of “Dark” Traits and Socially Aversive Personality Psychopathology
Scholz, D. D., Zimmermann, J., Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2024) · Journal of Personality Disorders · doi:10.1521/pedi.2024.38.3.241 · Cited by 9 · see citing works

Authors: Moshagen, M., Hilbig, B. E., & Zettler, I.
Affiliations: Universität Ulm (DE)
University of Koblenz and Landau (DE)
University of Copenhagen (DK)
Corresponding author: Moshagen, Morten
ORCID: Moshagen, Morten
Hilbig, Benjamin E.
Zettler, Ingo
Venue: Psychological Review
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 2018-10
Volume: 125
Issue: 5
Pages: 656-688
ISSN: 0033-295X (ISSN-L)
1939-1471
DOI: 10.1037/rev0000111
OpenAlex: W2854454445
Cited by: 519
References: 138
Citations by year: 2026: 77 · 2025: 83 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 67 · 2022: 67 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 6 · 2016: 1
FWCI: 44.72
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
researchprofiles.ku.dk
Licence: other-oa
Locations: Psychological Review (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
Funders: German Research Foundation (MO 2830/1-1, HI 1600/1-2; HI 1600/6-1, ZE 948/1-1)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
Keywords: dark personality traits, dark core, personality structure, unethical behavior
MeSH terms: Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Female, Humans, Machiavellianism, Male, Middle Aged, Narcissism, Personality, Young Adult

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