Cold hearts playing with fire: the dark triad, risk-taking and empathy.
Open accessAbstract
Background: The Dark Triad personalities have been well studied, however, it is not often linked with empathy and risk-taking intentions. The present study aims to address this gap by examining the association between the Dark Triad personality traits, empathy and risk-taking intentions in the five domains – ethical, financial, health/safety, social, and recreational. Method: A sample of 160 young adults residing in Malaysia (Male=69, Female=99, Mage=22.01, SD=2.03) completed the Short Dark Triad Questionnaire, Empathy Scale, and Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale through an online survey. Results: Machiavellianism and Psychopathy were positively associated with the five domains of risk-taking, including social, ethical, financial, recreational and health/safety domains, and negatively associated with empathy. Narcissism, on the contrary, was positively correlated to all risk-taking domains except for recreational risk-taking, and showed no significant relationship to empathy. Empathy was a significant predictor in social risk-taking whereas Machiavellianism and Psychopathy were significant predictors in ethical risk-taking intentions. Conclusion: This study expanded existing knowledge on the Dark Triad personalities by demonstrating a link between each Dart Triad trait, potential risk-taking behaviours and empathy.
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The escalation of narcissistic traits leads to increased criminal behavior with relevant public concern.
“Narcissistic traits are escalating in western society with a 30% rise in the past 30 years (53) leading to increased criminal behavior with relevant public concern.”
From The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder (2023) · cites this paper as [53]
The Literature review (page unavailable) says the Dark Triad, which includes narcissism, is associated with criminality such as fraud and shoplifting. It does not report a 30% rise in narcissistic traits in Western society, show that rising narcissism causes increased crime, or discuss the claimed public concern. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredNarcissistic traits are escalating in western society with a 30% rise in the past 30 years.
“Narcissistic traits are escalating in western society with a 30% rise in the past 30 years (53) leading to increased criminal behavior with relevant public concern.”
From The dark side of empathy in narcissistic personality disorder (2023) · cites this paper as [53]
The Dark Triad and Empathy section reports a cross-cultural difference: regions with greater individualism generally exhibited more narcissism. It does not report a rise in narcissistic traits in Western society over the past 30 years, or quantify such a rise at 30%. Searches for the claimed percentage and time trend found no supporting passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.75)
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References 56 · Cited by 4
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Hodges SD, Myers MW. Empathy. In: Baumeister RF & Vohs KD, eds. Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 2007:296-8.
- Richardson DR, Hammock GS, Smith SM, Gardner W, Signo M. Empathy as a cognitive inhibitor of interpersonal aggression. Aggress Behav. 1994;20(4):275-89.
- Kaukiainen A, Björkqvist K, Lagerspetz K, Österman K, Salmivalli C, Rothberg S, et al. The relationships between social intelligence, empathy, and three types of aggression. Aggress Behav. 1999;25(2):81-9.
- Blais AR, Weber EU. A Domain-Specific Risk-Taking (DOSPERT) scale for adult populations. Judgm Decis Mak. 2006;1(1):33-47.
- Tangney JP, Dearing RL. Shame and Guilt. New York, NY: Guilford Press. 2002.
- Authors
- Yap, J. Y., & Elizaveta, B.
- Affiliations
- Sunway University (MY)
- Venue
- Journal of Health and Translational Medicine
- Publisher
- Univ. of Malaya
- Published
- 2021-09-24
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 76-85
- ISSN
- 1823-7339 (ISSN-L)
- 2289-392X
- OpenAlex
- W3204977036
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 0.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Health and Translational Medicine (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
- Keywords
- Dark Triad, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, empathy, financial risk-taking, social risk-taking, young adults
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