The Allure of Dark Personality Traits

“Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always gotten there first, and is waiting for it.” - Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

It is difficult to explain why individuals with evident dark personality traits – from our former classroom bully to extremist political candidates – receive increasing attention and appreciation instead of being actively shunned. What makes them appealing and more importantly, to whom? While the evolutionary and socially adaptive value of having dark personality traits has been researched, we know comparatively little about the potential benefits of enabling them in our communities or even romanticizing them as potential role models.

Popular meme based on Star Wars implying that the dark side has appealing rewards—in this case, cookies.

Source: Darth Vader image from Star Wars movie

A recent study¹ following almost 7000 people in the UK for five decades found clear evidence that the so-called “playground bullies”, displaying more aggressive behaviors and impulsivity or temper outbursts throughout their school life ended up earning more later in life. The increase in earnings of nearly 4% for a given rise in conduct problems was close to the 6% advantage attributed to higher cognitive skills. This was not the case for the children with inattention problems or emotional difficulties, who, predictably, ended up earning less.

Classrooms are already competitive social environments, so the children armed with aggression to overcome (socially, not necessarily academically) end up being favored by the competitive work marketplace. And despite today’s workplace culture cultivating a sense of belonging and tolerance², high CEO dark traits still offer competitive advantages in “fiercely competitive business environments”³.

Zooming in for explanations at an interpersonal level, we find mixed evidence regarding who appreciates dark personalities. Intuitively, we could think that the “admirer” profile is the opposite of the dark personality, lacking the very attributes they idealize. People high in emophilia (a tendency to fall in love fast and often), also associated with anxious attachment, tend to be attracted to individuals high in dark traits.^4,5 However, it was shown that for long-term relationships, mostly people themselves high in Dark Triad traits can tolerate partners with high levels of similar Dark Triad traits⁶.

In fantasy realms, we find evidence that villains are mostly preferred by audiences with a high dark personality profile (especially psychopathy and Machiavellianism), who report enjoyment, identification, fascination, and empathy towards them⁷. The villain’s darkness activates an unmitigated agency (getting things done their way, unbalanced by communal concern), and this predicted the audience fascination and empathy beyond simply admiring their ability to “make things happen”. Increased similarity with accomplished dark heroes (“the attraction of a darker self”) minimizes self-threat because fictitious worlds exist separated from reality⁸. The authors mention, however, the possibility that the implications extend beyond the stories and fiction realms. When real-life others become “fictionalized” or living heroes, the perceived similarity becomes less threatening and even to some degree appealing.

Blended image of Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter.

Source: Harry Potter, art based on the movie - from posterazzi.com

As Lord Voldemort tells Harry Potter:

“There are strange likenesses between us, after all. Even you must have noticed. . . We even look something alike”.

“I don’t think I’m like him!” said Harry, more loudly than he’d intended.

The picture gets even more intriguing when we return to reality realms, reflecting on how a preference for dark traits is reflected in people’s political options. Populist voters (holding attitudes that reflect support for “sovereignty of the people, opposition to the elite, and the Manichean division between ‘good’ and ‘evil’”⁹), shown to display higher levels of dark personalities and low Agreeableness⁸, are more likely to have positive perceptions of dark personality candidates¹⁰.

The authors propose that across cultures as diverse as Australia, Brazil, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Turkey, or the United States, a universal mechanism linking anti-elite attitudes in the public with the success of political candidates with harsher and more uncompromising personalities might be the key to explaining such preferences.

Interestingly, experiencing a strong emotional divide between political groups and expressing distrust, dislike, or even hatred toward opposing groups (known as affective polarization) is more pronounced in people with higher narcissism¹¹. This was shown to be especially due to the rivalry component of this trait, generating an “antagonistic entitlement”, focused on defending the self from (perceived) out-group threat. It could not be tracked down to the admiration component of narcissism, suggesting that it is not mainly their feeling of superiority and self-importance which justifies the preference¹². The reverse is also valid – candidates with higher dark personalities tend to amplify affective polarization, as evidenced by a recent large-scale study including information for more than 90 leading candidates having competed in 40 elections worldwide¹³.

To sum up, we found various explanations to justify a fascination with darker personalities, which can be translated into a romanticized image, a favorable vote, or a higher salary or power position. One mechanism is the perceived similarity, enabling the fulfillment of a “darker self” in the realms of fantasy or imagination, not constrained by the common interest, and without the negative perceived consequences. In interpersonal relationships, it seems to be the hallmark of endorsing a similar fast-life strategy in the emotional (emophilia) or pragmatic (sharing similar agentic goals) domains, which makes the high dark trait individuals attractive partners. Finally, in the political arena, it seems to be mainly driven by perceived self-threat and hostility, further amplified by the narratives offered by political candidates high in dark traits themselves.

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The lure of the “dark side” creates feelings of increased in-group cohesion with others who admire the alluring dark personalities. However, over time it can also generate alienation from non-affiliated ones and even dissociation from the brighter aspects of self and one’s past. Just like the fascination of the dark power from Lord of the Rings, the appeal of the dark side has costs for the individual. When Sam tries to distract Frodo from his solitary meditation by asking him about familiar good times in the Shire: “Do you remember that bit of rabbit, mr. Frodo?”, he gets a rather gloomy answer:

Source: Lord of the Rings (movie)

“No, I am afraid not, Sam," said Frodo. "At least, I know that such things happened, but I cannot see them. No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I begin to see it even with my waking eyes, and all else fades.”