Could Anything Be Worse Than the Dark Triad?

If you’re familiar with the dark triad, you know that its potent combination of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy spells trouble for anyone who comes in the path of a person with this set of traits. Manipulative, exploitative, and- even worse, lacking remorse, such individuals can threaten your well-being in ways that you definitely would not see coming.

Perhaps you’re unlucky enough to have a work history with someone who fits the definition. You’ve been thwarted more times than you care to remember in achieving your goals as they stab you in the back. Could anything or anyone be worse?

The Dark Triad’s Evolution in Personality Research

Psychologists who follow what’s known as the trait tradition are quite convinced that there are five (in the five-factor model [FFM]) or perhaps six (in the HEXACO model) categories of enduring dispositions that make up personality. The FFM was the dominant model until authors of the HEXACO model added “honesty-humility” to the mix of agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism (emotional stability), and openness. The “H” factor was thought to capture qualities that can fall into the dark side of personality (low humility and honesty). Trying to capture more completely the unpleasant side of human nature, inventors of the dark triad terminology believed that an entirely new definition was needed to get the full scope of malevolence.

According to University of Amsterdam’s Minnie She and colleagues (2024), understanding a form of malevolence known as workplace deviance, a behavior of interest within the field of organizational psychology, requires a rethinking of the dark triad concept. Rather than study it in isolation, the dark triad needs to be integrated into a more general model of personality. Choosing the HEXACO model, with its added sixth factor compared to the FFM, seemed to be the right way to go.

The path toward an integrated model of workplace deviance, She et al. argue, begins by turning to a conceptualization known as the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits (CPM) model. This approach makes it possible to shift the focus “from the infuence of individual personality traits to the person and the configuration of personality (e.g., profiles)” (p. 2).

Profiles make it possible to pick people out by their combinations of traits, a much more useful approach when you’re trying to figure out who’s going to be a bad actor. A deviant individual in the workplace (or anywhere) could now be identified by a pattern of traits rather than noting that the person is, for example, “high on narcissism,” etc.

Defining the Dark Personality Profile

Across a series of three studies on nearly 800 participants, culled online and from undergraduate, the authors refined the measurement of the dark personality profiles. In the third of these studies, the online sample of participants in the first study (averaging 37 years old) completed five behavioral tasks designed to determine whether the profiles could predict behaviors comparable to workplace deviance. The authors also measured self-reported prosocial behaviors, such as the ability to take the perspective of others, show empathic concern, be altruistic, and identify with high levels of morality.

Before getting to the results of the experimental component of the study, let’s take a look at the personality profiles the authors identified in the CPM analysis. These are summarized here with their labels, descriptions, self-reported deviant behaviors, and distribution within the sample:

Dark social recluse: dispositions that could predispose them to engage in potentially toxic or damaging acts to others; high levels of workplace deviance (27 percent)

Social narcissist: self-centered, entitled, and attention-seeking as well as being highly sociable; low in workplace deviance and moderate in levels of prosocial behaviors (23 percent)

Socially considerate: warm personality traits; considerate and not likely to manipulate others; lowest levels of workplace deviance and highest levels of prosocial behaviors (20 percent)

All-round malevolent: very sociable, manipulative, and self-serving; highest levels of workplace deviance and lowest levels of prosocial behaviors (16 percent)

Emotional dysregulated: emotionally unstable and prone to anxiety; low levels of workplace deviance and lower than average in prosocial tendencies (15 percent)

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Turning to the experiments, they included giving participants the opportunity to cheat (e.g., reporting on the results of a die roll), show cooperativeness in a “hawk and dove” game (dividing resources with a partner), take risks, and decide on how much of a reward to allocate to a fictional partner.

Although, as predicted, the all-round malevolent participants behaved in ways consistent with their profile, surprising findings emerged related to the behavior of the social narcissists. Despite sharing characteristics with the socially considerate, this narcissistic profile was associated with behaviors that were just as selfish and manipulative as those of the malevolent. They are, as the authors note, “inclined to disguise their self-interested orientation when self-reporting, or when the stakes are low, yet [do] cheat and act competitively when there is an opportunity.” In short, such an individual is “something of a self-interested social chameleon.”

Lessons Learned: Who to Stay Away From

As you can see from the findings, it’s not the blatantly malevolent you need to steer clear of. That person at work who undercuts you at every opportunity is someone you can easily identify once you’ve been burned. Strangely, it may be the people who seem nice that can present the real danger. Because the social narcissist shares traits with the socially cooperative, though, what can tip you off?

The results of the behavioral component of the University of Amsterdam study suggest that, unfortunately, you may have to wait until this person cheats or otherwise behaves selfishly for you to have clear evidence. When that happens, don’t let that outer guise of sociality fool you.

From a theoretical perspective, the She et al. study reinforces the idea that it’s the combination of traits that can produce a more, in the researchers' words, “holistic” approach to understanding what makes people tick. This conclusion also meshes well with common sense. When you size someone up, it’s unlikely that you run through the entire HEXACO, FFM, or even dark triad list of traits. You see them in their entirety.

To sum up, you may be stuck with a social narcissist in situations that are outside of your control. When your own interests are at stake, these findings suggest that you look closely not just at how someone seems but how they act.