#dark-triad — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #dark-triad, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: September 8, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People with narcissistic traits generate more original and malicious ideas for revenge, study finds
People who have previously used their imagination to harm others or who possess highly narcissistic traits tend to generate more original and malicious ideas for revenge. These findings indicate that past actions and personality shape how individuals apply their problem-solving skills during interpersonal conflicts. The research was published in The Journal of Intelligence.
Creativity is typically viewed as a positive force in society, driving art, science, and innovation. But creativity also has a dark side, known as malevolent creativity. This involves the application of original ideas to purposely harm, deceive, or manipulate others. It is essentially creative problem-solving with malicious intent, evident in everything from everyday pranks to complex criminal activities.
To understand why some people use their imagination for harm, psychologists often refer to a framework called the AMORAL model. This model suggests that dark creativity results from a combination of personal traits, such as a natural propensity for creativity or certain personality types, and environmental factors, such as a provoking situation.
Among personality types, the dark triad traits are particularly relevant. These include psychopathy (a lack of empathy and high impulsivity), Machiavellianism (a tendency to be strategic and manipulative), and narcissism (a sense of grandiosity, egocentrism, and a strong need for admiration). People high in narcissism tend to be especially reactive to social slights or threats to their ego. A 2021 meta-analysis found that among these dark traits, narcissism has the most consistent relationship with self-reported general creativity.
“Society generally views creativity as a good thing, but some people use their creativity to harm others,” Natalie Ceballos, a professor of psychology at Texas State University, told PsyPost. “I’m interested in the individual and environmental factors that might influence someone to steer their creativity toward antisocial ends.”
The current research, conducted by Ceballos alongside cognitive neuroscientist Carmen E. Westerberg and pre-med student Ruby N. Sweet, aimed to untangle how a person’s history of malicious behavior influences their current ability to devise revenge plots, above and beyond their everyday problem-solving skills and personality.
“We aimed to determine what factors are most relevant for understanding when creative people may use their skills for nefarious purposes,” Ceballos said. “Studies have shown that the dark triad personality traits predict malevolently creative ideology, but how other factors like history of creative malevolence or reaction to acute provocation might interact with dark triad traits is an area that requires further research.”
The research team recruited 248 undergraduate students for an online survey. The participants were predominantly young women, with an average age of 20. First, the students answered questions about their demographics and rated their own potential for everyday creative problem-solving on a simple five-point scale.
Next, participants completed a questionnaire assessing their past malevolent creativity. They rated how often they had engaged in behaviors like fabricating lies to simplify a problem, thinking up ways to take revenge, or playing tricks on others. They also completed a standard personality test to measure their levels of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
To measure malicious ideation in real time, the researchers used a task built around a hypothetical conflict. Participants read a vignette in which a neighbor asked for help with apartment renovations and promised to pay them. In the scenario, the participant does the work, but the neighbor later denies that any agreement took place and refuses to pay. The participants were instructed to type out as many original ideas as possible to get back at the neighbor.
“Some of the participants’ ideas were malevolent but not very creative, like simply physically assaulting the neighbor,” Ceballos noted. “Other ideas, like seeding the neighbor’s lawn with invasive plants, were more original and showed an appreciation for the long game.”
After generating their ideas, the students rated how provoked they would feel if the situation happened in real life. Two independent raters then evaluated the participants’ responses. They calculated a fluency index, which was the total number of malicious ideas generated. They also calculated a malevolence index, counting ideas that were rated as at least slightly harmful, and a composite score, which only counted ideas that were both harmful and highly original.
The researchers found that different personal factors predicted different types of creative output. A participant’s self-perception of their everyday problem-solving skills predicted their fluency index. People who viewed themselves as good at solving regular problems came up with a larger quantity of revenge ideas, regardless of how original or harmful those ideas actually were.
When it came to the quality of the revenge ideas, personality and past behavior played a larger role. High levels of narcissism and a history of past malevolent behavior predicted both the malevolence index and the overall composite score. This means that individuals who were highly narcissistic or who had a habit of playing tricks and seeking revenge in the past generated ideas that were more harmful and more unique.
Interestingly, past malevolent behavior contributed to the generation of harmful and original ideas independently of everyday problem-solving skills and narcissistic traits. While feeling provoked by the scenario correlated with generating darker ideas, the level of provocation did not uniquely predict the task outcomes once past behavior and personality were factored into the statistical models. Psychopathy and Machiavellianism also did not emerge as unique predictors in the final analyses.
“We were a bit surprised that provocation level didn’t have a larger effect on malevolent creativity,” Ceballos said. “In our study, it appears that past behaviors and personality traits were more closely tied to malevolently creative ideation.”
The findings align with research covered by PsyPost in 2023, which found that dark personality traits and a history of malicious actions relate to generating novel ways to harm others. They also fit with a 2021 study covered by PsyPost indicating that narcissism helps explain variations in malevolent creativity, though the new study specifically measured idea generation in real time rather than just relying on general behavioral tendencies.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The study relied on a cross-sectional design, meaning the data was collected at a single point in time. Because of this, the researchers cannot determine cause and effect. It is not possible to say that past malicious behavior directly causes a person to generate better revenge ideas today, only that the two are associated.
The participant pool also consisted mostly of female college students in the United States. The results might not generalize to older adults, men, or people from different cultural backgrounds, especially since dark personality traits often vary across age and gender. Additionally, the study relied on self-reports for past bad behavior, which can be skewed if participants want to present themselves in a positive light.
The measure for everyday creativity was also based on a single question, which might not capture the full scope of a person’s creative abilities.
“What leads a person to use their creative abilities to harm others? I think the take-home message is that a complex mixture of personality, lived experiences, and current circumstances all come together to create a perfect storm of malevolent creativity,” Ceballos explained. “Our study included only a small subset of the factors that might contribute to malevolent creativity. A lot of open questions remain for future work, but our results suggest that it’s not a simple explanation.”
For instance, future studies could track people over time to see if a habit of malicious creativity builds on itself through positive reinforcement, eventually creating an automatic cognitive strategy for dealing with conflict.
“My collaborators and I have backgrounds in neuroscience, so our natural next step involves the exploration of potential neurophysiological correlates of malevolent creativity,” Ceballos said. “We’re particularly interested in how different kinds of acute and chronic stress, and even factors like sleep quality, might influence malevolent creativity and which therapeutic strategies might help to reduce negative outcomes.”
The study, “Self-Reports of Past Malevolent Behavior and Narcissism as Predictors of Malevolent Creativity on a Real-World Ideation Task,” was authored by Natalie A. Ceballos, Ruby N. Sweet, and Carmen E. Westerberg.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MalevolentCreativity #Narcissism #DarkTriad #RevengeIdeas #CreativeProblemSolving #PsychologyResearch #AMORALModel #DarkPersonalityTraits #MalevolentBehavior #IdeationTask
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DATE: September 8, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People with narcissistic traits generate more original and malicious ideas for revenge, study finds
People who have previously used their imagination to harm others or who possess highly narcissistic traits tend to generate more original and malicious ideas for revenge. These findings indicate that past actions and personality shape how individuals apply their problem-solving skills during interpersonal conflicts. The research was published in The Journal of Intelligence.
Creativity is typically viewed as a positive force in society, driving art, science, and innovation. But creativity also has a dark side, known as malevolent creativity. This involves the application of original ideas to purposely harm, deceive, or manipulate others. It is essentially creative problem-solving with malicious intent, evident in everything from everyday pranks to complex criminal activities.
To understand why some people use their imagination for harm, psychologists often refer to a framework called the AMORAL model. This model suggests that dark creativity results from a combination of personal traits, such as a natural propensity for creativity or certain personality types, and environmental factors, such as a provoking situation.
Among personality types, the dark triad traits are particularly relevant. These include psychopathy (a lack of empathy and high impulsivity), Machiavellianism (a tendency to be strategic and manipulative), and narcissism (a sense of grandiosity, egocentrism, and a strong need for admiration). People high in narcissism tend to be especially reactive to social slights or threats to their ego. A 2021 meta-analysis found that among these dark traits, narcissism has the most consistent relationship with self-reported general creativity.
“Society generally views creativity as a good thing, but some people use their creativity to harm others,” Natalie Ceballos, a professor of psychology at Texas State University, told PsyPost. “I’m interested in the individual and environmental factors that might influence someone to steer their creativity toward antisocial ends.”
The current research, conducted by Ceballos alongside cognitive neuroscientist Carmen E. Westerberg and pre-med student Ruby N. Sweet, aimed to untangle how a person’s history of malicious behavior influences their current ability to devise revenge plots, above and beyond their everyday problem-solving skills and personality.
“We aimed to determine what factors are most relevant for understanding when creative people may use their skills for nefarious purposes,” Ceballos said. “Studies have shown that the dark triad personality traits predict malevolently creative ideology, but how other factors like history of creative malevolence or reaction to acute provocation might interact with dark triad traits is an area that requires further research.”
The research team recruited 248 undergraduate students for an online survey. The participants were predominantly young women, with an average age of 20. First, the students answered questions about their demographics and rated their own potential for everyday creative problem-solving on a simple five-point scale.
Next, participants completed a questionnaire assessing their past malevolent creativity. They rated how often they had engaged in behaviors like fabricating lies to simplify a problem, thinking up ways to take revenge, or playing tricks on others. They also completed a standard personality test to measure their levels of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
To measure malicious ideation in real time, the researchers used a task built around a hypothetical conflict. Participants read a vignette in which a neighbor asked for help with apartment renovations and promised to pay them. In the scenario, the participant does the work, but the neighbor later denies that any agreement took place and refuses to pay. The participants were instructed to type out as many original ideas as possible to get back at the neighbor.
“Some of the participants’ ideas were malevolent but not very creative, like simply physically assaulting the neighbor,” Ceballos noted. “Other ideas, like seeding the neighbor’s lawn with invasive plants, were more original and showed an appreciation for the long game.”
After generating their ideas, the students rated how provoked they would feel if the situation happened in real life. Two independent raters then evaluated the participants’ responses. They calculated a fluency index, which was the total number of malicious ideas generated. They also calculated a malevolence index, counting ideas that were rated as at least slightly harmful, and a composite score, which only counted ideas that were both harmful and highly original.
The researchers found that different personal factors predicted different types of creative output. A participant’s self-perception of their everyday problem-solving skills predicted their fluency index. People who viewed themselves as good at solving regular problems came up with a larger quantity of revenge ideas, regardless of how original or harmful those ideas actually were.
When it came to the quality of the revenge ideas, personality and past behavior played a larger role. High levels of narcissism and a history of past malevolent behavior predicted both the malevolence index and the overall composite score. This means that individuals who were highly narcissistic or who had a habit of playing tricks and seeking revenge in the past generated ideas that were more harmful and more unique.
Interestingly, past malevolent behavior contributed to the generation of harmful and original ideas independently of everyday problem-solving skills and narcissistic traits. While feeling provoked by the scenario correlated with generating darker ideas, the level of provocation did not uniquely predict the task outcomes once past behavior and personality were factored into the statistical models. Psychopathy and Machiavellianism also did not emerge as unique predictors in the final analyses.
“We were a bit surprised that provocation level didn’t have a larger effect on malevolent creativity,” Ceballos said. “In our study, it appears that past behaviors and personality traits were more closely tied to malevolently creative ideation.”
The findings align with research covered by PsyPost in 2023, which found that dark personality traits and a history of malicious actions relate to generating novel ways to harm others. They also fit with a 2021 study covered by PsyPost indicating that narcissism helps explain variations in malevolent creativity, though the new study specifically measured idea generation in real time rather than just relying on general behavioral tendencies.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The study relied on a cross-sectional design, meaning the data was collected at a single point in time. Because of this, the researchers cannot determine cause and effect. It is not possible to say that past malicious behavior directly causes a person to generate better revenge ideas today, only that the two are associated.
The participant pool also consisted mostly of female college students in the United States. The results might not generalize to older adults, men, or people from different cultural backgrounds, especially since dark personality traits often vary across age and gender. Additionally, the study relied on self-reports for past bad behavior, which can be skewed if participants want to present themselves in a positive light.
The measure for everyday creativity was also based on a single question, which might not capture the full scope of a person’s creative abilities.
“What leads a person to use their creative abilities to harm others? I think the take-home message is that a complex mixture of personality, lived experiences, and current circumstances all come together to create a perfect storm of malevolent creativity,” Ceballos explained. “Our study included only a small subset of the factors that might contribute to malevolent creativity. A lot of open questions remain for future work, but our results suggest that it’s not a simple explanation.”
For instance, future studies could track people over time to see if a habit of malicious creativity builds on itself through positive reinforcement, eventually creating an automatic cognitive strategy for dealing with conflict.
“My collaborators and I have backgrounds in neuroscience, so our natural next step involves the exploration of potential neurophysiological correlates of malevolent creativity,” Ceballos said. “We’re particularly interested in how different kinds of acute and chronic stress, and even factors like sleep quality, might influence malevolent creativity and which therapeutic strategies might help to reduce negative outcomes.”
The study, “Self-Reports of Past Malevolent Behavior and Narcissism as Predictors of Malevolent Creativity on a Real-World Ideation Task,” was authored by Natalie A. Ceballos, Ruby N. Sweet, and Carmen E. Westerberg.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MalevolentCreativity #Narcissism #DarkTriad #RevengeIdeas #CreativeProblemSolving #PsychologyResearch #AMORALModel #DarkPersonalityTraits #MalevolentBehavior #IdeationTask
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DATE: September 8, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: People with narcissistic traits generate more original and malicious ideas for revenge, study finds
People who have previously used their imagination to harm others or who possess highly narcissistic traits tend to generate more original and malicious ideas for revenge. These findings indicate that past actions and personality shape how individuals apply their problem-solving skills during interpersonal conflicts. The research was published in The Journal of Intelligence.
Creativity is typically viewed as a positive force in society, driving art, science, and innovation. But creativity also has a dark side, known as malevolent creativity. This involves the application of original ideas to purposely harm, deceive, or manipulate others. It is essentially creative problem-solving with malicious intent, evident in everything from everyday pranks to complex criminal activities.
To understand why some people use their imagination for harm, psychologists often refer to a framework called the AMORAL model. This model suggests that dark creativity results from a combination of personal traits, such as a natural propensity for creativity or certain personality types, and environmental factors, such as a provoking situation.
Among personality types, the dark triad traits are particularly relevant. These include psychopathy (a lack of empathy and high impulsivity), Machiavellianism (a tendency to be strategic and manipulative), and narcissism (a sense of grandiosity, egocentrism, and a strong need for admiration). People high in narcissism tend to be especially reactive to social slights or threats to their ego. A 2021 meta-analysis found that among these dark traits, narcissism has the most consistent relationship with self-reported general creativity.
“Society generally views creativity as a good thing, but some people use their creativity to harm others,” Natalie Ceballos, a professor of psychology at Texas State University, told PsyPost. “I’m interested in the individual and environmental factors that might influence someone to steer their creativity toward antisocial ends.”
The current research, conducted by Ceballos alongside cognitive neuroscientist Carmen E. Westerberg and pre-med student Ruby N. Sweet, aimed to untangle how a person’s history of malicious behavior influences their current ability to devise revenge plots, above and beyond their everyday problem-solving skills and personality.
“We aimed to determine what factors are most relevant for understanding when creative people may use their skills for nefarious purposes,” Ceballos said. “Studies have shown that the dark triad personality traits predict malevolently creative ideology, but how other factors like history of creative malevolence or reaction to acute provocation might interact with dark triad traits is an area that requires further research.”
The research team recruited 248 undergraduate students for an online survey. The participants were predominantly young women, with an average age of 20. First, the students answered questions about their demographics and rated their own potential for everyday creative problem-solving on a simple five-point scale.
Next, participants completed a questionnaire assessing their past malevolent creativity. They rated how often they had engaged in behaviors like fabricating lies to simplify a problem, thinking up ways to take revenge, or playing tricks on others. They also completed a standard personality test to measure their levels of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
To measure malicious ideation in real time, the researchers used a task built around a hypothetical conflict. Participants read a vignette in which a neighbor asked for help with apartment renovations and promised to pay them. In the scenario, the participant does the work, but the neighbor later denies that any agreement took place and refuses to pay. The participants were instructed to type out as many original ideas as possible to get back at the neighbor.
“Some of the participants’ ideas were malevolent but not very creative, like simply physically assaulting the neighbor,” Ceballos noted. “Other ideas, like seeding the neighbor’s lawn with invasive plants, were more original and showed an appreciation for the long game.”
After generating their ideas, the students rated how provoked they would feel if the situation happened in real life. Two independent raters then evaluated the participants’ responses. They calculated a fluency index, which was the total number of malicious ideas generated. They also calculated a malevolence index, counting ideas that were rated as at least slightly harmful, and a composite score, which only counted ideas that were both harmful and highly original.
The researchers found that different personal factors predicted different types of creative output. A participant’s self-perception of their everyday problem-solving skills predicted their fluency index. People who viewed themselves as good at solving regular problems came up with a larger quantity of revenge ideas, regardless of how original or harmful those ideas actually were.
When it came to the quality of the revenge ideas, personality and past behavior played a larger role. High levels of narcissism and a history of past malevolent behavior predicted both the malevolence index and the overall composite score. This means that individuals who were highly narcissistic or who had a habit of playing tricks and seeking revenge in the past generated ideas that were more harmful and more unique.
Interestingly, past malevolent behavior contributed to the generation of harmful and original ideas independently of everyday problem-solving skills and narcissistic traits. While feeling provoked by the scenario correlated with generating darker ideas, the level of provocation did not uniquely predict the task outcomes once past behavior and personality were factored into the statistical models. Psychopathy and Machiavellianism also did not emerge as unique predictors in the final analyses.
“We were a bit surprised that provocation level didn’t have a larger effect on malevolent creativity,” Ceballos said. “In our study, it appears that past behaviors and personality traits were more closely tied to malevolently creative ideation.”
The findings align with research covered by PsyPost in 2023, which found that dark personality traits and a history of malicious actions relate to generating novel ways to harm others. They also fit with a 2021 study covered by PsyPost indicating that narcissism helps explain variations in malevolent creativity, though the new study specifically measured idea generation in real time rather than just relying on general behavioral tendencies.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The study relied on a cross-sectional design, meaning the data was collected at a single point in time. Because of this, the researchers cannot determine cause and effect. It is not possible to say that past malicious behavior directly causes a person to generate better revenge ideas today, only that the two are associated.
The participant pool also consisted mostly of female college students in the United States. The results might not generalize to older adults, men, or people from different cultural backgrounds, especially since dark personality traits often vary across age and gender. Additionally, the study relied on self-reports for past bad behavior, which can be skewed if participants want to present themselves in a positive light.
The measure for everyday creativity was also based on a single question, which might not capture the full scope of a person’s creative abilities.
“What leads a person to use their creative abilities to harm others? I think the take-home message is that a complex mixture of personality, lived experiences, and current circumstances all come together to create a perfect storm of malevolent creativity,” Ceballos explained. “Our study included only a small subset of the factors that might contribute to malevolent creativity. A lot of open questions remain for future work, but our results suggest that it’s not a simple explanation.”
For instance, future studies could track people over time to see if a habit of malicious creativity builds on itself through positive reinforcement, eventually creating an automatic cognitive strategy for dealing with conflict.
“My collaborators and I have backgrounds in neuroscience, so our natural next step involves the exploration of potential neurophysiological correlates of malevolent creativity,” Ceballos said. “We’re particularly interested in how different kinds of acute and chronic stress, and even factors like sleep quality, might influence malevolent creativity and which therapeutic strategies might help to reduce negative outcomes.”
The study, “Self-Reports of Past Malevolent Behavior and Narcissism as Predictors of Malevolent Creativity on a Real-World Ideation Task,” was authored by Natalie A. Ceballos, Ruby N. Sweet, and Carmen E. Westerberg.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MalevolentCreativity #Narcissism #DarkTriad #RevengeIdeas #CreativeProblemSolving #PsychologyResearch #AMORALModel #DarkPersonalityTraits #MalevolentBehavior #IdeationTask
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DATE: August 30, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Emotional infidelity is linked to a surprising mix of dark and light personality traits
A recent study indicates that the tendency to become emotionally and mentally preoccupied with someone outside of a romantic relationship is driven by a complex mix of personality traits and relationship dynamics. The research suggests that this type of infidelity is not just tied to dark or impulsive personality traits, but also to generally positive characteristics like emotional sensitivity. The findings were published in Psychological Reports.
Infidelity is a common issue in romantic relationships, often leading to emotional distress and couples therapy. Historically, people have defined infidelity through physical acts, but modern perspectives recognize that subtle psychological behaviors also play a major role in relationship disengagement. One such phenomenon is extradyadic infatuation. This term describes a state where a person maintains their primary relationship but becomes cognitively, emotionally, and motivationally preoccupied with someone else.
To better grasp why some people develop these alternative attractions, scientists look at individual personality differences and relationship quality. For instance, a 2019 systematic review found that a combination of personal background and relationship dynamics strongly influences whether someone engages in infidelity.
Personality traits are often categorized into broad frameworks to understand interpersonal behavior. The Dark Triad consists of Machiavellianism (a tendency toward manipulation and emotional detachment), narcissism (an inflated sense of importance), and psychopathy (impulsivity and a lack of empathy). On the other hand, the Light Triad focuses on prosocial human characteristics. Introduced in a 2019 study, the Light Triad framework includes Kantianism (treating people as ends rather than means), humanism (valuing the dignity of individuals), and faith in humanity (believing in human goodness).
Another relevant trait is sociosexuality, which describes a person’s willingness to engage in casual sex without emotional commitment. Research, such as a 2021 study of young adults, indicates that dark personality traits and an openness to casual sex frequently interact to influence how people pursue short-term romantic encounters. The authors of the new study aimed to see how this blend of dark traits, light traits, sociosexuality, and relationship satisfaction predicts the specific experience of extradyadic infatuation.
“What initially caught our attention was the idea that infidelity is not always as straightforward as we tend to think,” said study author Teodora-Elena Huțanu, a PhD student at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași in Romania. “Rather than viewing infidelity simply as a matter of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ people, we wanted to explore a more nuanced picture that considers Dark and Light Triad personality traits, sociosexuality, and relationship quality.”
The research involved a sample of 303 Romanian adults. Participants were between 19 and 64 years old and were currently in a committed romantic relationship. A key requirement for participation was that respondents had to report liking or feeling attracted to someone they knew personally, other than their current partner. Most of the participants were women, and the majority were married or in long-term relationships.
The respondents completed several questionnaires. They answered items assessing their Dark Triad and Light Triad traits. They also completed measures of their sociosexuality, rating their attitudes, behaviors, and desires regarding uncommitted sex. Finally, participants rated their current relationship satisfaction and the intensity of their extradyadic infatuation, which included their thoughts, emotions, and desires regarding their outside attraction.
In their initial analysis, the scientists found that people scoring higher on any of the Light Triad traits tended to report less extradyadic infatuation. Those scoring higher on Dark Triad traits, sociosexuality, or who had lower relationship satisfaction tended to report higher levels of infatuation.
When the researchers analyzed all these factors together to see which ones independently predicted extradyadic infatuation, a more complicated picture emerged. High psychopathy, high sociosexuality, and low relationship satisfaction reliably predicted greater preoccupation with an outside person. A lack of faith in humanity also predicted higher infatuation, suggesting that people with cynical views about others might invest less in their primary relationship and look elsewhere.
Interestingly, two traits behaved differently than expected once other variables were accounted for. Humanism, which initially seemed protective, became a positive predictor of infatuation. The researchers suggest that the emotional sensitivity and openness characteristic of humanism might make people more receptive to forming deep, emotionally meaningful connections with alternative partners.
In contrast, Machiavellianism became a negative predictor in the final analysis. Because extradyadic infatuation requires sustained emotional and cognitive energy, people high in Machiavellianism might avoid such intense attachments due to their preference for strategic, detached interactions. Narcissism and Kantianism did not emerge as statistically significant predictors in the final model.
“What surprised us most was that, even when looking at extradyadic infatuation as a more cognitive, emotional, and motivational form of infidelity, rather than simply as a behavioral transgression, some less adaptive psychological characteristics still remained relevant,” Huțanu explained. “At the same time, the unexpected changes in direction for Machiavellianism and Humanism were also particularly informative.”
“Our findings showed that both Dark and Light Triad traits contributed to its prediction, but in different directions,” Huțanu noted. “This is particularly interesting because it suggests that extradyadic infatuation cannot simply be understood as the result of being manipulative, impulsive, or otherwise ‘dark’.”
“Some of the characteristics involved may also reflect greater emotional receptivity and openness to meaningful interpersonal connections,” she added. “So, rather than asking whether someone who experiences extradyadic infatuation is simply a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person, we may need to look at what kind of psychological and relational processes are making another person emotionally salient in the first place.”
The study has a few limitations to consider. The sample consisted mostly of women, which might restrict how well the results apply to men. Additionally, the researchers did not account for different relationship agreements, such as whether participants were in strictly monogamous partnerships or consensually non-monogamous arrangements. Open relationship structures might alter how traits like sociosexuality interact with relationship satisfaction.
“An important caveat is that we assessed extradyadic infatuation rather than actual infidelity behavior; therefore, we cannot determine whether participants acted sexually or otherwise on their attraction to an extradyadic person,” Huțanu said. “In addition, extradyadic infatuation may partly reflect an idealized or imagined representation of the other person, particularly when the actual interpersonal bond is limited.”
Because the data was collected at a single point in time, the findings cannot determine whether these personality traits cause infatuation, or if they simply tend to co-occur. “In my future research I would like to clarify how these cognitions and emotions unfold over time and whether extradyadic infatuation ultimately translates into behavioral infidelity or sustained extradyadic relationships,” Huțanu explained. “I am quite confident that this research is only the beginning of a broader effort to highlight more nuanced and comprehensive perspectives on infidelity, which may be psychologically more complex than its behavioral expression suggests.”
The study, “Personality, Relationship Quality, and Infidelity: Extradyadic Infatuation as Predicted by Dark and Light Triad Traits, Sociosexuality and Relationship Satisfaction,” was authored by Teodora-Elena Huțanu and Andrei Corneliu Holman.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EmotionalInfidelity #ExtradyadicInfatuation #DarkTriad #LightTriad #Sociosexuality #RelationshipSatisfaction #PsychologicalResearch #InfidelityInsights #Humanism #Machiavellianism
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DATE: August 30, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Emotional infidelity is linked to a surprising mix of dark and light personality traits
A recent study indicates that the tendency to become emotionally and mentally preoccupied with someone outside of a romantic relationship is driven by a complex mix of personality traits and relationship dynamics. The research suggests that this type of infidelity is not just tied to dark or impulsive personality traits, but also to generally positive characteristics like emotional sensitivity. The findings were published in Psychological Reports.
Infidelity is a common issue in romantic relationships, often leading to emotional distress and couples therapy. Historically, people have defined infidelity through physical acts, but modern perspectives recognize that subtle psychological behaviors also play a major role in relationship disengagement. One such phenomenon is extradyadic infatuation. This term describes a state where a person maintains their primary relationship but becomes cognitively, emotionally, and motivationally preoccupied with someone else.
To better grasp why some people develop these alternative attractions, scientists look at individual personality differences and relationship quality. For instance, a 2019 systematic review found that a combination of personal background and relationship dynamics strongly influences whether someone engages in infidelity.
Personality traits are often categorized into broad frameworks to understand interpersonal behavior. The Dark Triad consists of Machiavellianism (a tendency toward manipulation and emotional detachment), narcissism (an inflated sense of importance), and psychopathy (impulsivity and a lack of empathy). On the other hand, the Light Triad focuses on prosocial human characteristics. Introduced in a 2019 study, the Light Triad framework includes Kantianism (treating people as ends rather than means), humanism (valuing the dignity of individuals), and faith in humanity (believing in human goodness).
Another relevant trait is sociosexuality, which describes a person’s willingness to engage in casual sex without emotional commitment. Research, such as a 2021 study of young adults, indicates that dark personality traits and an openness to casual sex frequently interact to influence how people pursue short-term romantic encounters. The authors of the new study aimed to see how this blend of dark traits, light traits, sociosexuality, and relationship satisfaction predicts the specific experience of extradyadic infatuation.
“What initially caught our attention was the idea that infidelity is not always as straightforward as we tend to think,” said study author Teodora-Elena Huțanu, a PhD student at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași in Romania. “Rather than viewing infidelity simply as a matter of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ people, we wanted to explore a more nuanced picture that considers Dark and Light Triad personality traits, sociosexuality, and relationship quality.”
The research involved a sample of 303 Romanian adults. Participants were between 19 and 64 years old and were currently in a committed romantic relationship. A key requirement for participation was that respondents had to report liking or feeling attracted to someone they knew personally, other than their current partner. Most of the participants were women, and the majority were married or in long-term relationships.
The respondents completed several questionnaires. They answered items assessing their Dark Triad and Light Triad traits. They also completed measures of their sociosexuality, rating their attitudes, behaviors, and desires regarding uncommitted sex. Finally, participants rated their current relationship satisfaction and the intensity of their extradyadic infatuation, which included their thoughts, emotions, and desires regarding their outside attraction.
In their initial analysis, the scientists found that people scoring higher on any of the Light Triad traits tended to report less extradyadic infatuation. Those scoring higher on Dark Triad traits, sociosexuality, or who had lower relationship satisfaction tended to report higher levels of infatuation.
When the researchers analyzed all these factors together to see which ones independently predicted extradyadic infatuation, a more complicated picture emerged. High psychopathy, high sociosexuality, and low relationship satisfaction reliably predicted greater preoccupation with an outside person. A lack of faith in humanity also predicted higher infatuation, suggesting that people with cynical views about others might invest less in their primary relationship and look elsewhere.
Interestingly, two traits behaved differently than expected once other variables were accounted for. Humanism, which initially seemed protective, became a positive predictor of infatuation. The researchers suggest that the emotional sensitivity and openness characteristic of humanism might make people more receptive to forming deep, emotionally meaningful connections with alternative partners.
In contrast, Machiavellianism became a negative predictor in the final analysis. Because extradyadic infatuation requires sustained emotional and cognitive energy, people high in Machiavellianism might avoid such intense attachments due to their preference for strategic, detached interactions. Narcissism and Kantianism did not emerge as statistically significant predictors in the final model.
“What surprised us most was that, even when looking at extradyadic infatuation as a more cognitive, emotional, and motivational form of infidelity, rather than simply as a behavioral transgression, some less adaptive psychological characteristics still remained relevant,” Huțanu explained. “At the same time, the unexpected changes in direction for Machiavellianism and Humanism were also particularly informative.”
“Our findings showed that both Dark and Light Triad traits contributed to its prediction, but in different directions,” Huțanu noted. “This is particularly interesting because it suggests that extradyadic infatuation cannot simply be understood as the result of being manipulative, impulsive, or otherwise ‘dark’.”
“Some of the characteristics involved may also reflect greater emotional receptivity and openness to meaningful interpersonal connections,” she added. “So, rather than asking whether someone who experiences extradyadic infatuation is simply a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person, we may need to look at what kind of psychological and relational processes are making another person emotionally salient in the first place.”
The study has a few limitations to consider. The sample consisted mostly of women, which might restrict how well the results apply to men. Additionally, the researchers did not account for different relationship agreements, such as whether participants were in strictly monogamous partnerships or consensually non-monogamous arrangements. Open relationship structures might alter how traits like sociosexuality interact with relationship satisfaction.
“An important caveat is that we assessed extradyadic infatuation rather than actual infidelity behavior; therefore, we cannot determine whether participants acted sexually or otherwise on their attraction to an extradyadic person,” Huțanu said. “In addition, extradyadic infatuation may partly reflect an idealized or imagined representation of the other person, particularly when the actual interpersonal bond is limited.”
Because the data was collected at a single point in time, the findings cannot determine whether these personality traits cause infatuation, or if they simply tend to co-occur. “In my future research I would like to clarify how these cognitions and emotions unfold over time and whether extradyadic infatuation ultimately translates into behavioral infidelity or sustained extradyadic relationships,” Huțanu explained. “I am quite confident that this research is only the beginning of a broader effort to highlight more nuanced and comprehensive perspectives on infidelity, which may be psychologically more complex than its behavioral expression suggests.”
The study, “Personality, Relationship Quality, and Infidelity: Extradyadic Infatuation as Predicted by Dark and Light Triad Traits, Sociosexuality and Relationship Satisfaction,” was authored by Teodora-Elena Huțanu and Andrei Corneliu Holman.
-------------------------------------------------
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EmotionalInfidelity #ExtradyadicInfatuation #DarkTriad #LightTriad #Sociosexuality #RelationshipSatisfaction #PsychologicalResearch #InfidelityInsights #Humanism #Machiavellianism
-
DATE: August 30, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Emotional infidelity is linked to a surprising mix of dark and light personality traits
A recent study indicates that the tendency to become emotionally and mentally preoccupied with someone outside of a romantic relationship is driven by a complex mix of personality traits and relationship dynamics. The research suggests that this type of infidelity is not just tied to dark or impulsive personality traits, but also to generally positive characteristics like emotional sensitivity. The findings were published in Psychological Reports.
Infidelity is a common issue in romantic relationships, often leading to emotional distress and couples therapy. Historically, people have defined infidelity through physical acts, but modern perspectives recognize that subtle psychological behaviors also play a major role in relationship disengagement. One such phenomenon is extradyadic infatuation. This term describes a state where a person maintains their primary relationship but becomes cognitively, emotionally, and motivationally preoccupied with someone else.
To better grasp why some people develop these alternative attractions, scientists look at individual personality differences and relationship quality. For instance, a 2019 systematic review found that a combination of personal background and relationship dynamics strongly influences whether someone engages in infidelity.
Personality traits are often categorized into broad frameworks to understand interpersonal behavior. The Dark Triad consists of Machiavellianism (a tendency toward manipulation and emotional detachment), narcissism (an inflated sense of importance), and psychopathy (impulsivity and a lack of empathy). On the other hand, the Light Triad focuses on prosocial human characteristics. Introduced in a 2019 study, the Light Triad framework includes Kantianism (treating people as ends rather than means), humanism (valuing the dignity of individuals), and faith in humanity (believing in human goodness).
Another relevant trait is sociosexuality, which describes a person’s willingness to engage in casual sex without emotional commitment. Research, such as a 2021 study of young adults, indicates that dark personality traits and an openness to casual sex frequently interact to influence how people pursue short-term romantic encounters. The authors of the new study aimed to see how this blend of dark traits, light traits, sociosexuality, and relationship satisfaction predicts the specific experience of extradyadic infatuation.
“What initially caught our attention was the idea that infidelity is not always as straightforward as we tend to think,” said study author Teodora-Elena Huțanu, a PhD student at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași in Romania. “Rather than viewing infidelity simply as a matter of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ people, we wanted to explore a more nuanced picture that considers Dark and Light Triad personality traits, sociosexuality, and relationship quality.”
The research involved a sample of 303 Romanian adults. Participants were between 19 and 64 years old and were currently in a committed romantic relationship. A key requirement for participation was that respondents had to report liking or feeling attracted to someone they knew personally, other than their current partner. Most of the participants were women, and the majority were married or in long-term relationships.
The respondents completed several questionnaires. They answered items assessing their Dark Triad and Light Triad traits. They also completed measures of their sociosexuality, rating their attitudes, behaviors, and desires regarding uncommitted sex. Finally, participants rated their current relationship satisfaction and the intensity of their extradyadic infatuation, which included their thoughts, emotions, and desires regarding their outside attraction.
In their initial analysis, the scientists found that people scoring higher on any of the Light Triad traits tended to report less extradyadic infatuation. Those scoring higher on Dark Triad traits, sociosexuality, or who had lower relationship satisfaction tended to report higher levels of infatuation.
When the researchers analyzed all these factors together to see which ones independently predicted extradyadic infatuation, a more complicated picture emerged. High psychopathy, high sociosexuality, and low relationship satisfaction reliably predicted greater preoccupation with an outside person. A lack of faith in humanity also predicted higher infatuation, suggesting that people with cynical views about others might invest less in their primary relationship and look elsewhere.
Interestingly, two traits behaved differently than expected once other variables were accounted for. Humanism, which initially seemed protective, became a positive predictor of infatuation. The researchers suggest that the emotional sensitivity and openness characteristic of humanism might make people more receptive to forming deep, emotionally meaningful connections with alternative partners.
In contrast, Machiavellianism became a negative predictor in the final analysis. Because extradyadic infatuation requires sustained emotional and cognitive energy, people high in Machiavellianism might avoid such intense attachments due to their preference for strategic, detached interactions. Narcissism and Kantianism did not emerge as statistically significant predictors in the final model.
“What surprised us most was that, even when looking at extradyadic infatuation as a more cognitive, emotional, and motivational form of infidelity, rather than simply as a behavioral transgression, some less adaptive psychological characteristics still remained relevant,” Huțanu explained. “At the same time, the unexpected changes in direction for Machiavellianism and Humanism were also particularly informative.”
“Our findings showed that both Dark and Light Triad traits contributed to its prediction, but in different directions,” Huțanu noted. “This is particularly interesting because it suggests that extradyadic infatuation cannot simply be understood as the result of being manipulative, impulsive, or otherwise ‘dark’.”
“Some of the characteristics involved may also reflect greater emotional receptivity and openness to meaningful interpersonal connections,” she added. “So, rather than asking whether someone who experiences extradyadic infatuation is simply a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person, we may need to look at what kind of psychological and relational processes are making another person emotionally salient in the first place.”
The study has a few limitations to consider. The sample consisted mostly of women, which might restrict how well the results apply to men. Additionally, the researchers did not account for different relationship agreements, such as whether participants were in strictly monogamous partnerships or consensually non-monogamous arrangements. Open relationship structures might alter how traits like sociosexuality interact with relationship satisfaction.
“An important caveat is that we assessed extradyadic infatuation rather than actual infidelity behavior; therefore, we cannot determine whether participants acted sexually or otherwise on their attraction to an extradyadic person,” Huțanu said. “In addition, extradyadic infatuation may partly reflect an idealized or imagined representation of the other person, particularly when the actual interpersonal bond is limited.”
Because the data was collected at a single point in time, the findings cannot determine whether these personality traits cause infatuation, or if they simply tend to co-occur. “In my future research I would like to clarify how these cognitions and emotions unfold over time and whether extradyadic infatuation ultimately translates into behavioral infidelity or sustained extradyadic relationships,” Huțanu explained. “I am quite confident that this research is only the beginning of a broader effort to highlight more nuanced and comprehensive perspectives on infidelity, which may be psychologically more complex than its behavioral expression suggests.”
The study, “Personality, Relationship Quality, and Infidelity: Extradyadic Infatuation as Predicted by Dark and Light Triad Traits, Sociosexuality and Relationship Satisfaction,” was authored by Teodora-Elena Huțanu and Andrei Corneliu Holman.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EmotionalInfidelity #ExtradyadicInfatuation #DarkTriad #LightTriad #Sociosexuality #RelationshipSatisfaction #PsychologicalResearch #InfidelityInsights #Humanism #Machiavellianism
-
One of the hallmarks of the #ClassicNarcissist is to convince their intended Supply to do something incredibly harmful to themselves, often with longlasting or permanent consequences, by making it seem beneficial and clever, emphasizing the short-term benefits
If you think that sounds convoluted, absurd, and totally psychotic, you’d be right
#Psychology #PersonalityType #DarkTriad #DarkTetrad #Psychopathy #Narcissism
-
One of the hallmarks of the #ClassicNarcissist is to convince their intended Supply to do something incredibly harmful to themselves, often with longlasting or permanent consequences, by making it seem beneficial and clever, emphasizing the short-term benefits
If you think that sounds convoluted, absurd, and totally psychotic, you’d be right
#Psychology #PersonalityType #DarkTriad #DarkTetrad #Psychopathy #Narcissism
-
One of the hallmarks of the #ClassicNarcissist is to convince their intended Supply to do something incredibly harmful to themselves, often with longlasting or permanent consequences, by making it seem beneficial and clever, emphasizing the short-term benefits
If you think that sounds convoluted, absurd, and totally psychotic, you’d be right
#Psychology #PersonalityType #DarkTriad #DarkTetrad #Psychopathy #Narcissism
-
One of the hallmarks of the #ClassicNarcissist is to convince their intended Supply to do something incredibly harmful to themselves, often with longlasting or permanent consequences, by making it seem beneficial and clever, emphasizing the short-term benefits
If you think that sounds convoluted, absurd, and totally psychotic, you’d be right
#Psychology #PersonalityType #DarkTriad #DarkTetrad #Psychopathy #Narcissism
-
One of the hallmarks of the #ClassicNarcissist is to convince their intended Supply to do something incredibly harmful to themselves, often with longlasting or permanent consequences, by making it seem beneficial and clever, emphasizing the short-term benefits
If you think that sounds convoluted, absurd, and totally psychotic, you’d be right
#Psychology #PersonalityType #DarkTriad #DarkTetrad #Psychopathy #Narcissism
-
DATE: August 12, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: How sexual arousal distorts men’s perception of women’s boundaries
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
A new study shows that sexually aroused men are more prone to misjudging a woman’s interest in flirting by focusing on her clothing rather than her facial expressions. When in an aroused state, men often prioritize broad signals of sexual appeal over direct signs of rejection. The research was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
When people navigate social situations, they must process a variety of signals to understand the intentions of those around them. These signals fall into two categories known as global cues and specific cues. Global cues are broad, stable characteristics like physical attractiveness, general demeanor, or revealing clothing. Specific cues are tied to a particular moment and directed at a specific person, such as a flirtatious smile, a scowl, or deliberate eye contact.
Misunderstandings frequently occur when observers focus heavily on a person’s general physical appeal while ignoring explicit facial expressions that indicate disinterest. Psychologists refer to this tendency as an overreliance on global cues. In the context of dating and flirting, past research connects this perceptual bias to a higher risk of sexually aggressive behavior. The observer projects his own desires onto the target, creating a bias where he assumes sexual interest that does not exist.
Visceral states like hunger or sexual arousal are known to influence how the human brain processes information. When individuals experience an intense physical drive, they often suffer from a kind of motivational myopia. They focus their attention entirely on stimuli that promise immediate gratification. In a state of sexual arousal, a person’s internal goals might override the visual information they receive from a social partner.
Ingo Landwehr, a researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, led an investigation to explore this phenomenon alongside colleagues Katrin Landwehr and Alexander F. Schmidt. The researchers wanted to test whether an accessible computer task could accurately measure a man’s overreliance on global cues. They also sought to determine how temporary states of sexual arousal might amplify this perceptual bias, especially in men with certain problematic personality traits.
The researchers recruited 284 heterosexual men for an online experiment. Participants completed a decision making task where they viewed pairs of photographs featuring the same woman. The images were thoroughly standardized and validated to ensure they looked authentic to everyday social interactions.
The photographs varied systematically along two dimensions. First, the women wore either casual everyday clothing or sexually provocative outfits. Second, they displayed either a flirtatious facial expression or a blatantly rejecting facial expression. During each trial, the participants had a little over two seconds to press a keyboard button selecting the image of the woman who was more likely to be flirting with them.
The research team divided the image pairs into two distinct types of trials. In the low conflict trials, the visual cues matched stereotypical expectations. One image showed a flirtatious woman in revealing clothing, while the other showed a rejecting woman in casual clothing. Choosing the flirting woman was conceptually easy because both her clothing and her facial expression signaled approachability.
In the high conflict trials, the cues conveyed opposing information. Participants had to choose between a casually dressed woman who was flirting and a provocatively dressed woman who was displaying a rejecting expression. Because facial expressions communicate direct intent in a specific interaction, the casually dressed but smiling woman was the conceptually correct choice. The sexy but rejecting image acted as a visual distractor.
Participants first completed a round of 52 trials to establish a baseline measurement in a non aroused state. After this baseline phase, the men completed several questionnaires designed to assess personality traits. These surveys measured characteristics like sexual desire, tendencies to objectify others, and a sense of sexual entitlement. They also measured antagonistic traits often called the Dark Triad, which include narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
The participants then listened to a five minute explicit erotic audio narrative designed to induce a state of sexual arousal. Immediately following the audio story, they completed a second round of 52 image selection trials. By comparing the results of the two rounds, the researchers could evaluate how the introduction of sexual arousal changed the participants’ decision making processes.
The researchers tracked how long it took participants to make their selections and how often they made incorrect choices. The results revealed that sexual arousal altered how the men processed the visual information. During the second round of trials, the men made their choices more rapidly across both types of scenarios.
In the low conflict scenarios, the participants continued to select the correct image with high accuracy. In the high conflict scenarios, their error rates increased. When sexually aroused, the men were more likely to select the woman in provocative clothing who was rejecting them, incorrectly bypassing the casually dressed woman who was actually flirting. A subgroup of men made errors on at least half of the high conflict trials when aroused.
The researchers also found a robust relationship between the participants’ task performance and their self reported personality traits. The team identified a cluster of characteristics that they labeled as the sexual manipulativeness, exploitativeness, and disinhibition factor. Men who scored higher on this factor, and those who displayed high levels of sexual entitlement, were especially prone to making errors during the high conflict trials while aroused.
These findings demonstrate that a state of sexual arousal can disrupt a person’s ability to accurately process direct social signals. Instead of interpreting a woman’s facial expression, aroused men with manipulative personality traits default to prioritizing clothing that aligns with their immediate sexual goals. The visceral state of arousal essentially amplifies their preexisting biases.
The authors noted a few limitations to the experimental design. Because the baseline task always occurred before the arousal task, it is possible that general fatigue or impatience contributed to some of the errors in the second round. The participants’ error rates increased near the end of the second block of trials, suggesting that diminished task engagement might have played a role as the experiment progressed.
The study also relied on an online sample of volunteers from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. This sampling method means the results might not perfectly reflect the behavior of the broader global population. Self selected internet samples can sometimes skew toward individuals with specific educational backgrounds or technological access.
Future studies could verify the results by changing the order of the experimental conditions or by utilizing different control groups. Researchers might also test other forms of physiological arousal, such as anxiety or nonsexual excitement, to see if they produce similar disruptions in social judgment. Ultimately, the research team hopes to apply this streamlined keyboard task in clinical and forensic settings to evaluate individuals who struggle to appropriately interpret sexual boundaries.
The study, “A Dress Is (Still) Not a Yes: How Even Simple Key Presses Reveal Sexually Aroused Men’s Overreliance on Global Cues in the Context of Sexual Flirting,” was authored by Ingo Landwehr, Katrin Landwehr, and Alexander F. Schmidt.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SexualArousal #PerceptionBias #GlobalCues #FlirtingSignals #SexualBoundaries #Misinterpretation #DarkTriad #SocialCognition #FaceVsClothing #ResearchStudy
-
DATE: August 12, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: How sexual arousal distorts men’s perception of women’s boundaries
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
A new study shows that sexually aroused men are more prone to misjudging a woman’s interest in flirting by focusing on her clothing rather than her facial expressions. When in an aroused state, men often prioritize broad signals of sexual appeal over direct signs of rejection. The research was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
When people navigate social situations, they must process a variety of signals to understand the intentions of those around them. These signals fall into two categories known as global cues and specific cues. Global cues are broad, stable characteristics like physical attractiveness, general demeanor, or revealing clothing. Specific cues are tied to a particular moment and directed at a specific person, such as a flirtatious smile, a scowl, or deliberate eye contact.
Misunderstandings frequently occur when observers focus heavily on a person’s general physical appeal while ignoring explicit facial expressions that indicate disinterest. Psychologists refer to this tendency as an overreliance on global cues. In the context of dating and flirting, past research connects this perceptual bias to a higher risk of sexually aggressive behavior. The observer projects his own desires onto the target, creating a bias where he assumes sexual interest that does not exist.
Visceral states like hunger or sexual arousal are known to influence how the human brain processes information. When individuals experience an intense physical drive, they often suffer from a kind of motivational myopia. They focus their attention entirely on stimuli that promise immediate gratification. In a state of sexual arousal, a person’s internal goals might override the visual information they receive from a social partner.
Ingo Landwehr, a researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, led an investigation to explore this phenomenon alongside colleagues Katrin Landwehr and Alexander F. Schmidt. The researchers wanted to test whether an accessible computer task could accurately measure a man’s overreliance on global cues. They also sought to determine how temporary states of sexual arousal might amplify this perceptual bias, especially in men with certain problematic personality traits.
The researchers recruited 284 heterosexual men for an online experiment. Participants completed a decision making task where they viewed pairs of photographs featuring the same woman. The images were thoroughly standardized and validated to ensure they looked authentic to everyday social interactions.
The photographs varied systematically along two dimensions. First, the women wore either casual everyday clothing or sexually provocative outfits. Second, they displayed either a flirtatious facial expression or a blatantly rejecting facial expression. During each trial, the participants had a little over two seconds to press a keyboard button selecting the image of the woman who was more likely to be flirting with them.
The research team divided the image pairs into two distinct types of trials. In the low conflict trials, the visual cues matched stereotypical expectations. One image showed a flirtatious woman in revealing clothing, while the other showed a rejecting woman in casual clothing. Choosing the flirting woman was conceptually easy because both her clothing and her facial expression signaled approachability.
In the high conflict trials, the cues conveyed opposing information. Participants had to choose between a casually dressed woman who was flirting and a provocatively dressed woman who was displaying a rejecting expression. Because facial expressions communicate direct intent in a specific interaction, the casually dressed but smiling woman was the conceptually correct choice. The sexy but rejecting image acted as a visual distractor.
Participants first completed a round of 52 trials to establish a baseline measurement in a non aroused state. After this baseline phase, the men completed several questionnaires designed to assess personality traits. These surveys measured characteristics like sexual desire, tendencies to objectify others, and a sense of sexual entitlement. They also measured antagonistic traits often called the Dark Triad, which include narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
The participants then listened to a five minute explicit erotic audio narrative designed to induce a state of sexual arousal. Immediately following the audio story, they completed a second round of 52 image selection trials. By comparing the results of the two rounds, the researchers could evaluate how the introduction of sexual arousal changed the participants’ decision making processes.
The researchers tracked how long it took participants to make their selections and how often they made incorrect choices. The results revealed that sexual arousal altered how the men processed the visual information. During the second round of trials, the men made their choices more rapidly across both types of scenarios.
In the low conflict scenarios, the participants continued to select the correct image with high accuracy. In the high conflict scenarios, their error rates increased. When sexually aroused, the men were more likely to select the woman in provocative clothing who was rejecting them, incorrectly bypassing the casually dressed woman who was actually flirting. A subgroup of men made errors on at least half of the high conflict trials when aroused.
The researchers also found a robust relationship between the participants’ task performance and their self reported personality traits. The team identified a cluster of characteristics that they labeled as the sexual manipulativeness, exploitativeness, and disinhibition factor. Men who scored higher on this factor, and those who displayed high levels of sexual entitlement, were especially prone to making errors during the high conflict trials while aroused.
These findings demonstrate that a state of sexual arousal can disrupt a person’s ability to accurately process direct social signals. Instead of interpreting a woman’s facial expression, aroused men with manipulative personality traits default to prioritizing clothing that aligns with their immediate sexual goals. The visceral state of arousal essentially amplifies their preexisting biases.
The authors noted a few limitations to the experimental design. Because the baseline task always occurred before the arousal task, it is possible that general fatigue or impatience contributed to some of the errors in the second round. The participants’ error rates increased near the end of the second block of trials, suggesting that diminished task engagement might have played a role as the experiment progressed.
The study also relied on an online sample of volunteers from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. This sampling method means the results might not perfectly reflect the behavior of the broader global population. Self selected internet samples can sometimes skew toward individuals with specific educational backgrounds or technological access.
Future studies could verify the results by changing the order of the experimental conditions or by utilizing different control groups. Researchers might also test other forms of physiological arousal, such as anxiety or nonsexual excitement, to see if they produce similar disruptions in social judgment. Ultimately, the research team hopes to apply this streamlined keyboard task in clinical and forensic settings to evaluate individuals who struggle to appropriately interpret sexual boundaries.
The study, “A Dress Is (Still) Not a Yes: How Even Simple Key Presses Reveal Sexually Aroused Men’s Overreliance on Global Cues in the Context of Sexual Flirting,” was authored by Ingo Landwehr, Katrin Landwehr, and Alexander F. Schmidt.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SexualArousal #PerceptionBias #GlobalCues #FlirtingSignals #SexualBoundaries #Misinterpretation #DarkTriad #SocialCognition #FaceVsClothing #ResearchStudy
-
DATE: August 12, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: How sexual arousal distorts men’s perception of women’s boundaries
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
A new study shows that sexually aroused men are more prone to misjudging a woman’s interest in flirting by focusing on her clothing rather than her facial expressions. When in an aroused state, men often prioritize broad signals of sexual appeal over direct signs of rejection. The research was published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
When people navigate social situations, they must process a variety of signals to understand the intentions of those around them. These signals fall into two categories known as global cues and specific cues. Global cues are broad, stable characteristics like physical attractiveness, general demeanor, or revealing clothing. Specific cues are tied to a particular moment and directed at a specific person, such as a flirtatious smile, a scowl, or deliberate eye contact.
Misunderstandings frequently occur when observers focus heavily on a person’s general physical appeal while ignoring explicit facial expressions that indicate disinterest. Psychologists refer to this tendency as an overreliance on global cues. In the context of dating and flirting, past research connects this perceptual bias to a higher risk of sexually aggressive behavior. The observer projects his own desires onto the target, creating a bias where he assumes sexual interest that does not exist.
Visceral states like hunger or sexual arousal are known to influence how the human brain processes information. When individuals experience an intense physical drive, they often suffer from a kind of motivational myopia. They focus their attention entirely on stimuli that promise immediate gratification. In a state of sexual arousal, a person’s internal goals might override the visual information they receive from a social partner.
Ingo Landwehr, a researcher at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, led an investigation to explore this phenomenon alongside colleagues Katrin Landwehr and Alexander F. Schmidt. The researchers wanted to test whether an accessible computer task could accurately measure a man’s overreliance on global cues. They also sought to determine how temporary states of sexual arousal might amplify this perceptual bias, especially in men with certain problematic personality traits.
The researchers recruited 284 heterosexual men for an online experiment. Participants completed a decision making task where they viewed pairs of photographs featuring the same woman. The images were thoroughly standardized and validated to ensure they looked authentic to everyday social interactions.
The photographs varied systematically along two dimensions. First, the women wore either casual everyday clothing or sexually provocative outfits. Second, they displayed either a flirtatious facial expression or a blatantly rejecting facial expression. During each trial, the participants had a little over two seconds to press a keyboard button selecting the image of the woman who was more likely to be flirting with them.
The research team divided the image pairs into two distinct types of trials. In the low conflict trials, the visual cues matched stereotypical expectations. One image showed a flirtatious woman in revealing clothing, while the other showed a rejecting woman in casual clothing. Choosing the flirting woman was conceptually easy because both her clothing and her facial expression signaled approachability.
In the high conflict trials, the cues conveyed opposing information. Participants had to choose between a casually dressed woman who was flirting and a provocatively dressed woman who was displaying a rejecting expression. Because facial expressions communicate direct intent in a specific interaction, the casually dressed but smiling woman was the conceptually correct choice. The sexy but rejecting image acted as a visual distractor.
Participants first completed a round of 52 trials to establish a baseline measurement in a non aroused state. After this baseline phase, the men completed several questionnaires designed to assess personality traits. These surveys measured characteristics like sexual desire, tendencies to objectify others, and a sense of sexual entitlement. They also measured antagonistic traits often called the Dark Triad, which include narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
The participants then listened to a five minute explicit erotic audio narrative designed to induce a state of sexual arousal. Immediately following the audio story, they completed a second round of 52 image selection trials. By comparing the results of the two rounds, the researchers could evaluate how the introduction of sexual arousal changed the participants’ decision making processes.
The researchers tracked how long it took participants to make their selections and how often they made incorrect choices. The results revealed that sexual arousal altered how the men processed the visual information. During the second round of trials, the men made their choices more rapidly across both types of scenarios.
In the low conflict scenarios, the participants continued to select the correct image with high accuracy. In the high conflict scenarios, their error rates increased. When sexually aroused, the men were more likely to select the woman in provocative clothing who was rejecting them, incorrectly bypassing the casually dressed woman who was actually flirting. A subgroup of men made errors on at least half of the high conflict trials when aroused.
The researchers also found a robust relationship between the participants’ task performance and their self reported personality traits. The team identified a cluster of characteristics that they labeled as the sexual manipulativeness, exploitativeness, and disinhibition factor. Men who scored higher on this factor, and those who displayed high levels of sexual entitlement, were especially prone to making errors during the high conflict trials while aroused.
These findings demonstrate that a state of sexual arousal can disrupt a person’s ability to accurately process direct social signals. Instead of interpreting a woman’s facial expression, aroused men with manipulative personality traits default to prioritizing clothing that aligns with their immediate sexual goals. The visceral state of arousal essentially amplifies their preexisting biases.
The authors noted a few limitations to the experimental design. Because the baseline task always occurred before the arousal task, it is possible that general fatigue or impatience contributed to some of the errors in the second round. The participants’ error rates increased near the end of the second block of trials, suggesting that diminished task engagement might have played a role as the experiment progressed.
The study also relied on an online sample of volunteers from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. This sampling method means the results might not perfectly reflect the behavior of the broader global population. Self selected internet samples can sometimes skew toward individuals with specific educational backgrounds or technological access.
Future studies could verify the results by changing the order of the experimental conditions or by utilizing different control groups. Researchers might also test other forms of physiological arousal, such as anxiety or nonsexual excitement, to see if they produce similar disruptions in social judgment. Ultimately, the research team hopes to apply this streamlined keyboard task in clinical and forensic settings to evaluate individuals who struggle to appropriately interpret sexual boundaries.
The study, “A Dress Is (Still) Not a Yes: How Even Simple Key Presses Reveal Sexually Aroused Men’s Overreliance on Global Cues in the Context of Sexual Flirting,” was authored by Ingo Landwehr, Katrin Landwehr, and Alexander F. Schmidt.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/sexual-arousal-causes-men-to-ignore-facial-cues-during-flirting/
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DATE: August 11, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Narcissism and psychopathy linked to entrepreneurial mindsets
People who possess certain dark personality traits, along with specific traditional traits like openness, show a higher natural inclination toward entrepreneurship. A recent psychological survey of working adults revealed that individuals scoring high in narcissism and psychopathy also reported stronger entrepreneurial tendencies. These results were published in the journal Acta Psychologica.
Psychologists often study entrepreneurship not just as an occupation, but as a deep-seated personality construct. In this framework, entrepreneurial tendency is defined as a latent psychological disposition. It involves a strong preference for innovation, a knack for recognizing opportunities, and a drive to create societal value.
According to this perspective, a person can possess a highly entrepreneurial mindset even if they currently work a traditional salaried job. By treating this tendency as a stable pattern of thoughts and emotions, researchers can investigate how it relates to other established facets of human psychology.
To describe general human personality, scientists typically rely on a model known as the Big Five, which categorizes personality into five broad domains. Openness to experience involves imagination and a preference for novelty, while conscientiousness relates to organization and goal-directed behavior. Extraversion is tied to sociability, agreeableness reflects cooperativeness, and emotional stability refers to how well a person handles stress.
In recent years, psychologists have also focused on a cluster of socially undesirable characteristics known as the Dark Triad. Narcissism involves grandiosity, dominance, and an inflated sense of self-worth. Psychopathy is characterized by high impulsivity, arrogance, and low empathy, while Machiavellianism refers to a calculated willingness to manipulate others to achieve personal goals.
Because starting and running a business requires a high degree of confidence, risk tolerance, and a desire for control, these dark traits might naturally appeal to prospective founders. M. Inmaculada López-Núñez and her colleagues at the Complutense University of Madrid wanted to see how these different personality models predict an individual’s internal drive to be an entrepreneur. They designed a study to examine these relationships while accounting for demographic factors like age, gender, and current occupational status.
The researchers recruited 591 adult workers in Spain to participate in the study. The participants ranged in age from 26 to 76 and included both men and women. They represented a variety of employment situations, including traditional salaried employees, self-employed individuals, and unemployed workers. The participants also had diverse educational backgrounds, ranging from primary schooling to advanced university degrees.
Each participant completed a series of online questionnaires. The first survey measured their entrepreneurial tendencies by asking them to rate statements about how often they identify business opportunities or generate new ideas in team settings. The participants rated their agreement on a five-point scale.
Next, the participants completed a brief ten-item inventory to assess their Big Five personality traits. They rated how well certain pairs of adjectives described their typical behavior. Finally, the researchers measured the Dark Triad traits using a specialized twelve-item scale. This survey asked participants to rate their agreement with statements reflecting manipulation, grandiosity, and a lack of remorse.
The researchers used statistical models to determine how much of the variation in entrepreneurial tendencies could be explained by the collected data. They found that demographic factors, traditional personality traits, and dark traits collectively accounted for about 41 percent of the total variation in entrepreneurial tendencies among the participants.
Several traditional Big Five traits were strongly associated with an entrepreneurial mindset. People who scored higher in openness to experience, conscientiousness, and extraversion tended to report higher entrepreneurial tendencies. Openness to experience emerged as the most relevant trait among the Big Five for predicting this business-oriented disposition.
The Dark Triad traits also provided unique predictive value. Specifically, higher scores in narcissism and psychopathy were positively correlated with the entrepreneurial mindset. Narcissism showed the strongest association among the dark traits. The inclusion of these socially undesirable characteristics improved the accuracy of the predictive model, indicating that dark traits offer information about entrepreneurial tendencies that traditional personality models miss.
Demographic and occupational factors played a measurable role in the results as well. Being younger and being male were linked to a stronger psychological disposition toward entrepreneurship. This aligns with some historical data regarding business creation, though the researchers noted that gender gaps in actual start-up activity are narrowing globally.
Additionally, current occupational status was linked to psychological tendencies. Self-employed individuals showed higher entrepreneurial scores than traditional salaried workers. The researchers suggested that choosing self-employment might be an active expression of a person’s latent psychological traits, as individuals naturally gravitate toward work environments that fit their internal needs.
The study has a few limitations. The researchers relied entirely on self-reported data collected at a single point in time. Because of this cross-sectional design, they cannot determine the direction of the relationship between these variables. The data do not prove that possessing dark personality traits causes a person to become more entrepreneurial.
It is possible that the way individuals view themselves skews their survey responses. For example, individuals who score high in narcissism might naturally overestimate their own business acumen, reporting higher entrepreneurial abilities than they actually possess. Self-report surveys capture an individual’s perception of their traits, which may differ from their actual behavior in a business setting.
Future research should track participants over an extended period to see how these personality traits influence actual career choices over time. Observing individuals as they start and manage businesses could help clarify exactly how dark traits interact with traditional personality measures in the real world.
Scientists also need to explore the specific reasons why people choose to start businesses. Distinguishing between those who start companies to seize a new opportunity and those who do so out of economic necessity could reveal different underlying personality profiles.
The study, “Individual differences in entrepreneurial tendencies: The impact of self-employment and the Dark Triad,” was authored by M. Inmaculada López-Núñez, Sara Esteban-Gonzalo, Teresa Diéguez-Risco, and Juan F. Díaz-Morales.
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-
DATE: August 11, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Narcissism and psychopathy linked to entrepreneurial mindsets
People who possess certain dark personality traits, along with specific traditional traits like openness, show a higher natural inclination toward entrepreneurship. A recent psychological survey of working adults revealed that individuals scoring high in narcissism and psychopathy also reported stronger entrepreneurial tendencies. These results were published in the journal Acta Psychologica.
Psychologists often study entrepreneurship not just as an occupation, but as a deep-seated personality construct. In this framework, entrepreneurial tendency is defined as a latent psychological disposition. It involves a strong preference for innovation, a knack for recognizing opportunities, and a drive to create societal value.
According to this perspective, a person can possess a highly entrepreneurial mindset even if they currently work a traditional salaried job. By treating this tendency as a stable pattern of thoughts and emotions, researchers can investigate how it relates to other established facets of human psychology.
To describe general human personality, scientists typically rely on a model known as the Big Five, which categorizes personality into five broad domains. Openness to experience involves imagination and a preference for novelty, while conscientiousness relates to organization and goal-directed behavior. Extraversion is tied to sociability, agreeableness reflects cooperativeness, and emotional stability refers to how well a person handles stress.
In recent years, psychologists have also focused on a cluster of socially undesirable characteristics known as the Dark Triad. Narcissism involves grandiosity, dominance, and an inflated sense of self-worth. Psychopathy is characterized by high impulsivity, arrogance, and low empathy, while Machiavellianism refers to a calculated willingness to manipulate others to achieve personal goals.
Because starting and running a business requires a high degree of confidence, risk tolerance, and a desire for control, these dark traits might naturally appeal to prospective founders. M. Inmaculada López-Núñez and her colleagues at the Complutense University of Madrid wanted to see how these different personality models predict an individual’s internal drive to be an entrepreneur. They designed a study to examine these relationships while accounting for demographic factors like age, gender, and current occupational status.
The researchers recruited 591 adult workers in Spain to participate in the study. The participants ranged in age from 26 to 76 and included both men and women. They represented a variety of employment situations, including traditional salaried employees, self-employed individuals, and unemployed workers. The participants also had diverse educational backgrounds, ranging from primary schooling to advanced university degrees.
Each participant completed a series of online questionnaires. The first survey measured their entrepreneurial tendencies by asking them to rate statements about how often they identify business opportunities or generate new ideas in team settings. The participants rated their agreement on a five-point scale.
Next, the participants completed a brief ten-item inventory to assess their Big Five personality traits. They rated how well certain pairs of adjectives described their typical behavior. Finally, the researchers measured the Dark Triad traits using a specialized twelve-item scale. This survey asked participants to rate their agreement with statements reflecting manipulation, grandiosity, and a lack of remorse.
The researchers used statistical models to determine how much of the variation in entrepreneurial tendencies could be explained by the collected data. They found that demographic factors, traditional personality traits, and dark traits collectively accounted for about 41 percent of the total variation in entrepreneurial tendencies among the participants.
Several traditional Big Five traits were strongly associated with an entrepreneurial mindset. People who scored higher in openness to experience, conscientiousness, and extraversion tended to report higher entrepreneurial tendencies. Openness to experience emerged as the most relevant trait among the Big Five for predicting this business-oriented disposition.
The Dark Triad traits also provided unique predictive value. Specifically, higher scores in narcissism and psychopathy were positively correlated with the entrepreneurial mindset. Narcissism showed the strongest association among the dark traits. The inclusion of these socially undesirable characteristics improved the accuracy of the predictive model, indicating that dark traits offer information about entrepreneurial tendencies that traditional personality models miss.
Demographic and occupational factors played a measurable role in the results as well. Being younger and being male were linked to a stronger psychological disposition toward entrepreneurship. This aligns with some historical data regarding business creation, though the researchers noted that gender gaps in actual start-up activity are narrowing globally.
Additionally, current occupational status was linked to psychological tendencies. Self-employed individuals showed higher entrepreneurial scores than traditional salaried workers. The researchers suggested that choosing self-employment might be an active expression of a person’s latent psychological traits, as individuals naturally gravitate toward work environments that fit their internal needs.
The study has a few limitations. The researchers relied entirely on self-reported data collected at a single point in time. Because of this cross-sectional design, they cannot determine the direction of the relationship between these variables. The data do not prove that possessing dark personality traits causes a person to become more entrepreneurial.
It is possible that the way individuals view themselves skews their survey responses. For example, individuals who score high in narcissism might naturally overestimate their own business acumen, reporting higher entrepreneurial abilities than they actually possess. Self-report surveys capture an individual’s perception of their traits, which may differ from their actual behavior in a business setting.
Future research should track participants over an extended period to see how these personality traits influence actual career choices over time. Observing individuals as they start and manage businesses could help clarify exactly how dark traits interact with traditional personality measures in the real world.
Scientists also need to explore the specific reasons why people choose to start businesses. Distinguishing between those who start companies to seize a new opportunity and those who do so out of economic necessity could reveal different underlying personality profiles.
The study, “Individual differences in entrepreneurial tendencies: The impact of self-employment and the Dark Triad,” was authored by M. Inmaculada López-Núñez, Sara Esteban-Gonzalo, Teresa Diéguez-Risco, and Juan F. Díaz-Morales.
-------------------------------------------------
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EntrepreneurialMindset #DarkTriad #Narcissism #Psychopathy #OpennessToExperience #Conscientiousness #Extraversion #EntrepreneurshipResearch #SelfEmployment #BigFiveTraits
-
DATE: August 11, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Narcissism and psychopathy linked to entrepreneurial mindsets
People who possess certain dark personality traits, along with specific traditional traits like openness, show a higher natural inclination toward entrepreneurship. A recent psychological survey of working adults revealed that individuals scoring high in narcissism and psychopathy also reported stronger entrepreneurial tendencies. These results were published in the journal Acta Psychologica.
Psychologists often study entrepreneurship not just as an occupation, but as a deep-seated personality construct. In this framework, entrepreneurial tendency is defined as a latent psychological disposition. It involves a strong preference for innovation, a knack for recognizing opportunities, and a drive to create societal value.
According to this perspective, a person can possess a highly entrepreneurial mindset even if they currently work a traditional salaried job. By treating this tendency as a stable pattern of thoughts and emotions, researchers can investigate how it relates to other established facets of human psychology.
To describe general human personality, scientists typically rely on a model known as the Big Five, which categorizes personality into five broad domains. Openness to experience involves imagination and a preference for novelty, while conscientiousness relates to organization and goal-directed behavior. Extraversion is tied to sociability, agreeableness reflects cooperativeness, and emotional stability refers to how well a person handles stress.
In recent years, psychologists have also focused on a cluster of socially undesirable characteristics known as the Dark Triad. Narcissism involves grandiosity, dominance, and an inflated sense of self-worth. Psychopathy is characterized by high impulsivity, arrogance, and low empathy, while Machiavellianism refers to a calculated willingness to manipulate others to achieve personal goals.
Because starting and running a business requires a high degree of confidence, risk tolerance, and a desire for control, these dark traits might naturally appeal to prospective founders. M. Inmaculada López-Núñez and her colleagues at the Complutense University of Madrid wanted to see how these different personality models predict an individual’s internal drive to be an entrepreneur. They designed a study to examine these relationships while accounting for demographic factors like age, gender, and current occupational status.
The researchers recruited 591 adult workers in Spain to participate in the study. The participants ranged in age from 26 to 76 and included both men and women. They represented a variety of employment situations, including traditional salaried employees, self-employed individuals, and unemployed workers. The participants also had diverse educational backgrounds, ranging from primary schooling to advanced university degrees.
Each participant completed a series of online questionnaires. The first survey measured their entrepreneurial tendencies by asking them to rate statements about how often they identify business opportunities or generate new ideas in team settings. The participants rated their agreement on a five-point scale.
Next, the participants completed a brief ten-item inventory to assess their Big Five personality traits. They rated how well certain pairs of adjectives described their typical behavior. Finally, the researchers measured the Dark Triad traits using a specialized twelve-item scale. This survey asked participants to rate their agreement with statements reflecting manipulation, grandiosity, and a lack of remorse.
The researchers used statistical models to determine how much of the variation in entrepreneurial tendencies could be explained by the collected data. They found that demographic factors, traditional personality traits, and dark traits collectively accounted for about 41 percent of the total variation in entrepreneurial tendencies among the participants.
Several traditional Big Five traits were strongly associated with an entrepreneurial mindset. People who scored higher in openness to experience, conscientiousness, and extraversion tended to report higher entrepreneurial tendencies. Openness to experience emerged as the most relevant trait among the Big Five for predicting this business-oriented disposition.
The Dark Triad traits also provided unique predictive value. Specifically, higher scores in narcissism and psychopathy were positively correlated with the entrepreneurial mindset. Narcissism showed the strongest association among the dark traits. The inclusion of these socially undesirable characteristics improved the accuracy of the predictive model, indicating that dark traits offer information about entrepreneurial tendencies that traditional personality models miss.
Demographic and occupational factors played a measurable role in the results as well. Being younger and being male were linked to a stronger psychological disposition toward entrepreneurship. This aligns with some historical data regarding business creation, though the researchers noted that gender gaps in actual start-up activity are narrowing globally.
Additionally, current occupational status was linked to psychological tendencies. Self-employed individuals showed higher entrepreneurial scores than traditional salaried workers. The researchers suggested that choosing self-employment might be an active expression of a person’s latent psychological traits, as individuals naturally gravitate toward work environments that fit their internal needs.
The study has a few limitations. The researchers relied entirely on self-reported data collected at a single point in time. Because of this cross-sectional design, they cannot determine the direction of the relationship between these variables. The data do not prove that possessing dark personality traits causes a person to become more entrepreneurial.
It is possible that the way individuals view themselves skews their survey responses. For example, individuals who score high in narcissism might naturally overestimate their own business acumen, reporting higher entrepreneurial abilities than they actually possess. Self-report surveys capture an individual’s perception of their traits, which may differ from their actual behavior in a business setting.
Future research should track participants over an extended period to see how these personality traits influence actual career choices over time. Observing individuals as they start and manage businesses could help clarify exactly how dark traits interact with traditional personality measures in the real world.
Scientists also need to explore the specific reasons why people choose to start businesses. Distinguishing between those who start companies to seize a new opportunity and those who do so out of economic necessity could reveal different underlying personality profiles.
The study, “Individual differences in entrepreneurial tendencies: The impact of self-employment and the Dark Triad,” was authored by M. Inmaculada López-Núñez, Sara Esteban-Gonzalo, Teresa Diéguez-Risco, and Juan F. Díaz-Morales.
-------------------------------------------------
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EntrepreneurialMindset #DarkTriad #Narcissism #Psychopathy #OpennessToExperience #Conscientiousness #Extraversion #EntrepreneurshipResearch #SelfEmployment #BigFiveTraits
-
DATE: August 9, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The dark triad and problematic sexual behavior: A small piece of a complex puzzle
A recent study suggests that people with antagonistic personality traits, such as narcissism and psychopathy, tend to report higher levels of problematic sexual behavior and momentary sexual urges. However, these associations are relatively small, indicating that personality is just one piece of a much larger psychological puzzle. The research was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Problematic sexual behavior refers to patterns of sexual thoughts or actions that feel difficult to control and cause negative consequences in a person’s life. Rather than classifying this as a formal addiction, psychologists often view it on a spectrum of severity. Sexual activity can play a positive role in adult well-being and act as a healthy way to cope with life’s challenges. However, when a person repeatedly uses sexual behavior as their primary method to manage difficult emotions, it has the potential to become an unhealthy coping mechanism.
To better understand who might be most prone to these patterns, researchers looked at the “Dark Triad” of personality. This group of antagonistic traits includes Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Machiavellianism involves a tendency to be manipulative and strategic, usually to exploit others for personal gain. Narcissism is characterized by a sense of grandiosity, perceived superiority, and a strong sense of entitlement. Psychopathy involves emotional detachment, low empathy, and poor impulse control.
Past evidence indicates that people scoring higher on these traits often struggle with regulating their emotions and managing stress. Because problematic sexual behavior is frequently linked to poor emotional control, scientists wanted to see if these antagonistic traits correlated with a higher tendency to rely on sex for stress relief. They also aimed to test whether experiencing acute emotional stress would amplify momentary sexual urges.
“Problematic sexual behavior is widely discussed and debated, but we still do not fully understand what drives it,” said Emanuele Fino, corresponding author and an assistant professor at Queen’s University Belfast. “We wanted to examine whether certain personality traits are linked to difficulties controlling sexual thoughts or behaviors, whether emotional stress strengthens these links, and whether the patterns differ between men and women.”
To explore these questions, the authors conducted two separate studies using undergraduate students in Romania. In the first study, 418 participants completed online questionnaires measuring their personality traits and their levels of problematic sexual behavior over the past year. The sample included 213 women and 202 men, with an average age of 22. The researchers used established psychological scales to measure the three dark personality traits, along with a standardized questionnaire to capture frequency-based indicators of dysregulated sexual behavior.
The findings from the first study suggested slight differences between men and women in how these traits related to sexual behavior. Among women, higher scores in all three traits, including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, were associated with more problematic sexual behavior. Among men, only psychopathic traits were associated with these behaviors. The associations involving Machiavellianism and narcissism in men were not statistically significant.
“People with higher levels of antagonistic traits, such as callousness, manipulation and self-centeredness, tended to report more problematic sexual thoughts and behaviors,” Fino told PsyPost. “Also, in one of our studies, psychopathic traits were the only traits significantly linked to problematic sexual behavior among men, specifically, which may reflect characteristics such as impulsivity, sensation-seeking or reduced empathy.”
It is important to note that the effect sizes were quite small across the board. In statistics, shared variance refers to how much of the variation in one trait can be explained by another. The dark traits accounted for only about 3 to 7 percent of the shared variance in problematic sexual behavior scores among women. For men, psychopathic traits accounted for about 6 percent of the variance.
This means that over 90 percent of the variation in this behavior is explained by factors outside of these personality traits. “The links were statistically significant but fairly small,” Fino explained. “Human behavior is complex, and no single personality trait is likely to explain it fully. It is therefore more accurate to say that these traits may contribute slightly to someone’s likelihood of experiencing difficulties, alongside many other factors.”
The second study involved a separate group of 455 undergraduate students, including 249 women and 206 men, with an average age of 22. This time, the researchers focused on momentary sexual preoccupations and urges rather than behavior over the past year. They also added an experimental element to see how acute stress influenced these momentary urges. Half of the participants were asked to vividly recall and write about a highly distressing childhood memory to induce emotional stress, while the other half completed a neutral control task.
Following the memory task, the researchers measured the participants’ current sexual urges, dark personality traits, and anxiety levels. They adjusted the statistical models to account for age and general trait anxiety. Trait anxiety refers to a person’s baseline tendency to feel anxious, while state anxiety refers to temporary feelings of worry in the moment.
The stress manipulation worked as intended, with participants in the distressing memory group reporting higher state anxiety than the control group. Despite this increase in anxiety, the induced stress did not change the relationship between the dark traits and momentary sexual urges. “We expected emotional stress to strengthen the link between personality and sexual urges, but it did not,” Fino said.
“Our stress task increased anxiety, so the task worked, but it did not change the relationship between personality and urges,” Fino continued. “Longer-term or everyday stress may be more relevant for problematic sexual behavior than brief, experimentally induced distress.” Gender also did not alter this relationship in the second study, contrasting slightly with the findings of the first study.
When looking at basic correlations, all three dark traits were linked to higher momentary sexual urges in both men and women. Again, the associations were small, with the traits explaining about 3 to 6 percent of the variation in momentary urges. The researchers then analyzed all three traits together in a single statistical model to see which one was the strongest predictor. When grouped this way, no individual trait uniquely predicted the sexual urges.
To make sense of this, the researchers used a technique called structural equation modeling, which allows scientists to look at the mathematical overlap of traits. They found that a general antagonistic personality style, shared across all three traits, was linked to the sexual urges. Psychopathic traits were the strongest indicator of this shared antagonistic dimension. This suggests that a broad tendency toward emotional callousness and disinhibition might be driving the association, rather than the specific individual features of narcissism or Machiavellianism alone.
These findings do not indicate that certain personality types are destined to develop sexual compulsions. “Our findings do not mean that people with certain traits are destined to develop problematic sexual behavior, nor can these traits predict what any individual will do,” Fino cautioned. “These traits do not determine a specific person’s behavior and should not be used to judge or label individuals. They are only one part of a much larger picture.”
The data is also correlational, meaning it cannot determine whether dark personality traits directly cause problematic sexual behavior. The study relied exclusively on undergraduate university students, which introduces some limits to the research. “We studied university students, not people diagnosed with personality disorders or compulsive sexual behavior, so the findings should not automatically be generalized to clinical populations,” Fino stated.
Young adulthood is a period of active sexual exploration and identity development, which restricts how well the conclusions apply to older adults. Additionally, the stress experiment specifically used childhood memories to induce distress. This type of emotional recall might not mirror the everyday stressors that typically trigger sexual urges in the real world.
Future research would benefit from tracking participants over longer periods to see how personality and sexual behavior influence one another over time.
“We want to understand what connects personality to behavior,” Fino stated. “Factors such as impulsivity, emotion regulation, trauma as well as social and cultural contexts may help explain why some people experience these difficulties while others do not. Observing people over time will also help us understand how these patterns develop.”
“We tested our ideas in two separate groups using different approaches, which strengthens the overall evidence,” Fino concluded. “More broadly, we hope the study supports a balanced conversation. Overall, problematic sexual behavior is complex and cannot be explained by one personality trait alone or one brief stressful experience.”
The study, “Investigating the relationship between antagonistic personality traits and problematic sexual behaviour: The role of gender and emotional stress,” was authored by Simona A. Popușoi, Cara Finn, Eduard Ionut Apetrei, Cian Leppard, Andrei C. Holman, Nadja Heym, and Emanuele Fino.
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-
DATE: August 9, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The dark triad and problematic sexual behavior: A small piece of a complex puzzle
A recent study suggests that people with antagonistic personality traits, such as narcissism and psychopathy, tend to report higher levels of problematic sexual behavior and momentary sexual urges. However, these associations are relatively small, indicating that personality is just one piece of a much larger psychological puzzle. The research was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Problematic sexual behavior refers to patterns of sexual thoughts or actions that feel difficult to control and cause negative consequences in a person’s life. Rather than classifying this as a formal addiction, psychologists often view it on a spectrum of severity. Sexual activity can play a positive role in adult well-being and act as a healthy way to cope with life’s challenges. However, when a person repeatedly uses sexual behavior as their primary method to manage difficult emotions, it has the potential to become an unhealthy coping mechanism.
To better understand who might be most prone to these patterns, researchers looked at the “Dark Triad” of personality. This group of antagonistic traits includes Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Machiavellianism involves a tendency to be manipulative and strategic, usually to exploit others for personal gain. Narcissism is characterized by a sense of grandiosity, perceived superiority, and a strong sense of entitlement. Psychopathy involves emotional detachment, low empathy, and poor impulse control.
Past evidence indicates that people scoring higher on these traits often struggle with regulating their emotions and managing stress. Because problematic sexual behavior is frequently linked to poor emotional control, scientists wanted to see if these antagonistic traits correlated with a higher tendency to rely on sex for stress relief. They also aimed to test whether experiencing acute emotional stress would amplify momentary sexual urges.
“Problematic sexual behavior is widely discussed and debated, but we still do not fully understand what drives it,” said Emanuele Fino, corresponding author and an assistant professor at Queen’s University Belfast. “We wanted to examine whether certain personality traits are linked to difficulties controlling sexual thoughts or behaviors, whether emotional stress strengthens these links, and whether the patterns differ between men and women.”
To explore these questions, the authors conducted two separate studies using undergraduate students in Romania. In the first study, 418 participants completed online questionnaires measuring their personality traits and their levels of problematic sexual behavior over the past year. The sample included 213 women and 202 men, with an average age of 22. The researchers used established psychological scales to measure the three dark personality traits, along with a standardized questionnaire to capture frequency-based indicators of dysregulated sexual behavior.
The findings from the first study suggested slight differences between men and women in how these traits related to sexual behavior. Among women, higher scores in all three traits, including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, were associated with more problematic sexual behavior. Among men, only psychopathic traits were associated with these behaviors. The associations involving Machiavellianism and narcissism in men were not statistically significant.
“People with higher levels of antagonistic traits, such as callousness, manipulation and self-centeredness, tended to report more problematic sexual thoughts and behaviors,” Fino told PsyPost. “Also, in one of our studies, psychopathic traits were the only traits significantly linked to problematic sexual behavior among men, specifically, which may reflect characteristics such as impulsivity, sensation-seeking or reduced empathy.”
It is important to note that the effect sizes were quite small across the board. In statistics, shared variance refers to how much of the variation in one trait can be explained by another. The dark traits accounted for only about 3 to 7 percent of the shared variance in problematic sexual behavior scores among women. For men, psychopathic traits accounted for about 6 percent of the variance.
This means that over 90 percent of the variation in this behavior is explained by factors outside of these personality traits. “The links were statistically significant but fairly small,” Fino explained. “Human behavior is complex, and no single personality trait is likely to explain it fully. It is therefore more accurate to say that these traits may contribute slightly to someone’s likelihood of experiencing difficulties, alongside many other factors.”
The second study involved a separate group of 455 undergraduate students, including 249 women and 206 men, with an average age of 22. This time, the researchers focused on momentary sexual preoccupations and urges rather than behavior over the past year. They also added an experimental element to see how acute stress influenced these momentary urges. Half of the participants were asked to vividly recall and write about a highly distressing childhood memory to induce emotional stress, while the other half completed a neutral control task.
Following the memory task, the researchers measured the participants’ current sexual urges, dark personality traits, and anxiety levels. They adjusted the statistical models to account for age and general trait anxiety. Trait anxiety refers to a person’s baseline tendency to feel anxious, while state anxiety refers to temporary feelings of worry in the moment.
The stress manipulation worked as intended, with participants in the distressing memory group reporting higher state anxiety than the control group. Despite this increase in anxiety, the induced stress did not change the relationship between the dark traits and momentary sexual urges. “We expected emotional stress to strengthen the link between personality and sexual urges, but it did not,” Fino said.
“Our stress task increased anxiety, so the task worked, but it did not change the relationship between personality and urges,” Fino continued. “Longer-term or everyday stress may be more relevant for problematic sexual behavior than brief, experimentally induced distress.” Gender also did not alter this relationship in the second study, contrasting slightly with the findings of the first study.
When looking at basic correlations, all three dark traits were linked to higher momentary sexual urges in both men and women. Again, the associations were small, with the traits explaining about 3 to 6 percent of the variation in momentary urges. The researchers then analyzed all three traits together in a single statistical model to see which one was the strongest predictor. When grouped this way, no individual trait uniquely predicted the sexual urges.
To make sense of this, the researchers used a technique called structural equation modeling, which allows scientists to look at the mathematical overlap of traits. They found that a general antagonistic personality style, shared across all three traits, was linked to the sexual urges. Psychopathic traits were the strongest indicator of this shared antagonistic dimension. This suggests that a broad tendency toward emotional callousness and disinhibition might be driving the association, rather than the specific individual features of narcissism or Machiavellianism alone.
These findings do not indicate that certain personality types are destined to develop sexual compulsions. “Our findings do not mean that people with certain traits are destined to develop problematic sexual behavior, nor can these traits predict what any individual will do,” Fino cautioned. “These traits do not determine a specific person’s behavior and should not be used to judge or label individuals. They are only one part of a much larger picture.”
The data is also correlational, meaning it cannot determine whether dark personality traits directly cause problematic sexual behavior. The study relied exclusively on undergraduate university students, which introduces some limits to the research. “We studied university students, not people diagnosed with personality disorders or compulsive sexual behavior, so the findings should not automatically be generalized to clinical populations,” Fino stated.
Young adulthood is a period of active sexual exploration and identity development, which restricts how well the conclusions apply to older adults. Additionally, the stress experiment specifically used childhood memories to induce distress. This type of emotional recall might not mirror the everyday stressors that typically trigger sexual urges in the real world.
Future research would benefit from tracking participants over longer periods to see how personality and sexual behavior influence one another over time.
“We want to understand what connects personality to behavior,” Fino stated. “Factors such as impulsivity, emotion regulation, trauma as well as social and cultural contexts may help explain why some people experience these difficulties while others do not. Observing people over time will also help us understand how these patterns develop.”
“We tested our ideas in two separate groups using different approaches, which strengthens the overall evidence,” Fino concluded. “More broadly, we hope the study supports a balanced conversation. Overall, problematic sexual behavior is complex and cannot be explained by one personality trait alone or one brief stressful experience.”
The study, “Investigating the relationship between antagonistic personality traits and problematic sexual behaviour: The role of gender and emotional stress,” was authored by Simona A. Popușoi, Cara Finn, Eduard Ionut Apetrei, Cian Leppard, Andrei C. Holman, Nadja Heym, and Emanuele Fino.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DarkTriad #ProblematicSexualBehavior #Narcissism #Psychopathy #Machiavellianism #EmotionalStress #PsychologyResearch #SexualBehavior #PersonalityTraits #MentalHealthScience
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DATE: August 9, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: The dark triad and problematic sexual behavior: A small piece of a complex puzzle
A recent study suggests that people with antagonistic personality traits, such as narcissism and psychopathy, tend to report higher levels of problematic sexual behavior and momentary sexual urges. However, these associations are relatively small, indicating that personality is just one piece of a much larger psychological puzzle. The research was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Problematic sexual behavior refers to patterns of sexual thoughts or actions that feel difficult to control and cause negative consequences in a person’s life. Rather than classifying this as a formal addiction, psychologists often view it on a spectrum of severity. Sexual activity can play a positive role in adult well-being and act as a healthy way to cope with life’s challenges. However, when a person repeatedly uses sexual behavior as their primary method to manage difficult emotions, it has the potential to become an unhealthy coping mechanism.
To better understand who might be most prone to these patterns, researchers looked at the “Dark Triad” of personality. This group of antagonistic traits includes Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Machiavellianism involves a tendency to be manipulative and strategic, usually to exploit others for personal gain. Narcissism is characterized by a sense of grandiosity, perceived superiority, and a strong sense of entitlement. Psychopathy involves emotional detachment, low empathy, and poor impulse control.
Past evidence indicates that people scoring higher on these traits often struggle with regulating their emotions and managing stress. Because problematic sexual behavior is frequently linked to poor emotional control, scientists wanted to see if these antagonistic traits correlated with a higher tendency to rely on sex for stress relief. They also aimed to test whether experiencing acute emotional stress would amplify momentary sexual urges.
“Problematic sexual behavior is widely discussed and debated, but we still do not fully understand what drives it,” said Emanuele Fino, corresponding author and an assistant professor at Queen’s University Belfast. “We wanted to examine whether certain personality traits are linked to difficulties controlling sexual thoughts or behaviors, whether emotional stress strengthens these links, and whether the patterns differ between men and women.”
To explore these questions, the authors conducted two separate studies using undergraduate students in Romania. In the first study, 418 participants completed online questionnaires measuring their personality traits and their levels of problematic sexual behavior over the past year. The sample included 213 women and 202 men, with an average age of 22. The researchers used established psychological scales to measure the three dark personality traits, along with a standardized questionnaire to capture frequency-based indicators of dysregulated sexual behavior.
The findings from the first study suggested slight differences between men and women in how these traits related to sexual behavior. Among women, higher scores in all three traits, including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, were associated with more problematic sexual behavior. Among men, only psychopathic traits were associated with these behaviors. The associations involving Machiavellianism and narcissism in men were not statistically significant.
“People with higher levels of antagonistic traits, such as callousness, manipulation and self-centeredness, tended to report more problematic sexual thoughts and behaviors,” Fino told PsyPost. “Also, in one of our studies, psychopathic traits were the only traits significantly linked to problematic sexual behavior among men, specifically, which may reflect characteristics such as impulsivity, sensation-seeking or reduced empathy.”
It is important to note that the effect sizes were quite small across the board. In statistics, shared variance refers to how much of the variation in one trait can be explained by another. The dark traits accounted for only about 3 to 7 percent of the shared variance in problematic sexual behavior scores among women. For men, psychopathic traits accounted for about 6 percent of the variance.
This means that over 90 percent of the variation in this behavior is explained by factors outside of these personality traits. “The links were statistically significant but fairly small,” Fino explained. “Human behavior is complex, and no single personality trait is likely to explain it fully. It is therefore more accurate to say that these traits may contribute slightly to someone’s likelihood of experiencing difficulties, alongside many other factors.”
The second study involved a separate group of 455 undergraduate students, including 249 women and 206 men, with an average age of 22. This time, the researchers focused on momentary sexual preoccupations and urges rather than behavior over the past year. They also added an experimental element to see how acute stress influenced these momentary urges. Half of the participants were asked to vividly recall and write about a highly distressing childhood memory to induce emotional stress, while the other half completed a neutral control task.
Following the memory task, the researchers measured the participants’ current sexual urges, dark personality traits, and anxiety levels. They adjusted the statistical models to account for age and general trait anxiety. Trait anxiety refers to a person’s baseline tendency to feel anxious, while state anxiety refers to temporary feelings of worry in the moment.
The stress manipulation worked as intended, with participants in the distressing memory group reporting higher state anxiety than the control group. Despite this increase in anxiety, the induced stress did not change the relationship between the dark traits and momentary sexual urges. “We expected emotional stress to strengthen the link between personality and sexual urges, but it did not,” Fino said.
“Our stress task increased anxiety, so the task worked, but it did not change the relationship between personality and urges,” Fino continued. “Longer-term or everyday stress may be more relevant for problematic sexual behavior than brief, experimentally induced distress.” Gender also did not alter this relationship in the second study, contrasting slightly with the findings of the first study.
When looking at basic correlations, all three dark traits were linked to higher momentary sexual urges in both men and women. Again, the associations were small, with the traits explaining about 3 to 6 percent of the variation in momentary urges. The researchers then analyzed all three traits together in a single statistical model to see which one was the strongest predictor. When grouped this way, no individual trait uniquely predicted the sexual urges.
To make sense of this, the researchers used a technique called structural equation modeling, which allows scientists to look at the mathematical overlap of traits. They found that a general antagonistic personality style, shared across all three traits, was linked to the sexual urges. Psychopathic traits were the strongest indicator of this shared antagonistic dimension. This suggests that a broad tendency toward emotional callousness and disinhibition might be driving the association, rather than the specific individual features of narcissism or Machiavellianism alone.
These findings do not indicate that certain personality types are destined to develop sexual compulsions. “Our findings do not mean that people with certain traits are destined to develop problematic sexual behavior, nor can these traits predict what any individual will do,” Fino cautioned. “These traits do not determine a specific person’s behavior and should not be used to judge or label individuals. They are only one part of a much larger picture.”
The data is also correlational, meaning it cannot determine whether dark personality traits directly cause problematic sexual behavior. The study relied exclusively on undergraduate university students, which introduces some limits to the research. “We studied university students, not people diagnosed with personality disorders or compulsive sexual behavior, so the findings should not automatically be generalized to clinical populations,” Fino stated.
Young adulthood is a period of active sexual exploration and identity development, which restricts how well the conclusions apply to older adults. Additionally, the stress experiment specifically used childhood memories to induce distress. This type of emotional recall might not mirror the everyday stressors that typically trigger sexual urges in the real world.
Future research would benefit from tracking participants over longer periods to see how personality and sexual behavior influence one another over time.
“We want to understand what connects personality to behavior,” Fino stated. “Factors such as impulsivity, emotion regulation, trauma as well as social and cultural contexts may help explain why some people experience these difficulties while others do not. Observing people over time will also help us understand how these patterns develop.”
“We tested our ideas in two separate groups using different approaches, which strengthens the overall evidence,” Fino concluded. “More broadly, we hope the study supports a balanced conversation. Overall, problematic sexual behavior is complex and cannot be explained by one personality trait alone or one brief stressful experience.”
The study, “Investigating the relationship between antagonistic personality traits and problematic sexual behaviour: The role of gender and emotional stress,” was authored by Simona A. Popușoi, Cara Finn, Eduard Ionut Apetrei, Cian Leppard, Andrei C. Holman, Nadja Heym, and Emanuele Fino.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DarkTriad #ProblematicSexualBehavior #Narcissism #Psychopathy #Machiavellianism #EmotionalStress #PsychologyResearch #SexualBehavior #PersonalityTraits #MentalHealthScience
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I saw another article today of some random famous person accusing another random famous person of being a #Psychopath and I feel compelled to point out two very important facts about #Psychopathy:
1. Psychopathy is only one thing, extreme (ie., as good as complete) empathy deficiency. The rest of what happens in the mind of a Psychopath is just what human beings are without empathy.
2. Intentionally using emotionally-charged words for their effect rather than their meaning, often in order to manipulate people, such as occurs as an aspect of attention-seeking behaviour patterns, is consistent with psychopathic personality traits as a whole, although typically favoured by the #NarcissistNow, more than ever before, ignore what people say and look hard at what they do
-
I saw another article today of some random famous person accusing another random famous person of being a #Psychopath and I feel compelled to point out two very important facts about #Psychopathy:
1. Psychopathy is only one thing, extreme (ie., as good as complete) empathy deficiency. The rest of what happens in the mind of a Psychopath is just what human beings are without empathy.
2. Intentionally using emotionally-charged words for their effect rather than their meaning, often in order to manipulate people, such as occurs as an aspect of attention-seeking behaviour patterns, is consistent with psychopathic personality traits as a whole, although typically favoured by the #NarcissistNow, more than ever before, ignore what people say and look hard at what they do
-
I saw another article today of some random famous person accusing another random famous person of being a #Psychopath and I feel compelled to point out two very important facts about #Psychopathy:
1. Psychopathy is only one thing, extreme (ie., as good as complete) empathy deficiency. The rest of what happens in the mind of a Psychopath is just what human beings are without empathy.
2. Intentionally using emotionally-charged words for their effect rather than their meaning, often in order to manipulate people, such as occurs as an aspect of attention-seeking behaviour patterns, is consistent with psychopathic personality traits as a whole, although typically favoured by the #NarcissistNow, more than ever before, ignore what people say and look hard at what they do
-
I saw another article today of some random famous person accusing another random famous person of being a #Psychopath and I feel compelled to point out two very important facts about #Psychopathy:
1. Psychopathy is only one thing, extreme (ie., as good as complete) empathy deficiency. The rest of what happens in the mind of a Psychopath is just what human beings are without empathy.
2. Intentionally using emotionally-charged words for their effect rather than their meaning, often in order to manipulate people, such as occurs as an aspect of attention-seeking behaviour patterns, is consistent with psychopathic personality traits as a whole, although typically favoured by the #NarcissistNow, more than ever before, ignore what people say and look hard at what they do
-
I saw another article today of some random famous person accusing another random famous person of being a #Psychopath and I feel compelled to point out two very important facts about #Psychopathy:
1. Psychopathy is only one thing, extreme (ie., as good as complete) empathy deficiency. The rest of what happens in the mind of a Psychopath is just what human beings are without empathy.
2. Intentionally using emotionally-charged words for their effect rather than their meaning, often in order to manipulate people, such as occurs as an aspect of attention-seeking behaviour patterns, is consistent with psychopathic personality traits as a whole, although typically favoured by the #NarcissistNow, more than ever before, ignore what people say and look hard at what they do
-
8) My advice to any #woman, especially #autistic #ADHD #audhd #neurodivergent is to know you are #vulnerable. I did not.
Learn #RedFlags & what healthy relationships look like. I was love bombed & experienced sexual abuse in my relationship long before we were married.
Share the full truth with trusted people outside your relationship.
Learn what #PityTrips & #DarkTriad personality traits are & avoid those who use them!
If anything feels wrong, say no, even if you have to call the police.
-
8) My advice to any #woman, especially #autistic #ADHD #audhd #neurodivergent is to know you are #vulnerable. I did not.
Learn #RedFlags & what healthy relationships look like. I was love bombed & experienced sexual abuse in my relationship long before we were married.
Share the full truth with trusted people outside your relationship.
Learn what #PityTrips & #DarkTriad personality traits are & avoid those who use them!
If anything feels wrong, say no, even if you have to call the police.
-
8) My advice to any #woman, especially #autistic #ADHD #audhd #neurodivergent is to know you are #vulnerable. I did not.
Learn #RedFlags & what healthy relationships look like. I was love bombed & experienced sexual abuse in my relationship long before we were married.
Share the full truth with trusted people outside your relationship.
Learn what #PityTrips & #DarkTriad personality traits are & avoid those who use them!
If anything feels wrong, say no, even if you have to call the police.
-
8) My advice to any #woman, especially #autistic #ADHD #audhd #neurodivergent is to know you are #vulnerable. I did not.
Learn #RedFlags & what healthy relationships look like. I was love bombed & experienced sexual abuse in my relationship long before we were married.
Share the full truth with trusted people outside your relationship.
Learn what #PityTrips & #DarkTriad personality traits are & avoid those who use them!
If anything feels wrong, say no, even if you have to call the police.
-
Several studies over the last few years have looked at personality features that are common to 'dark triad' and other related traits: egoism, Machiavellianism, moral disengagement, narcissism, psychological entitlement, psychopathy, sadism, self-interest, and spitefulness. The commonality is referred to as the 'D factor'.
You can assess your own dark traits here:
-
Several studies over the last few years have looked at personality features that are common to 'dark triad' and other related traits: egoism, Machiavellianism, moral disengagement, narcissism, psychological entitlement, psychopathy, sadism, self-interest, and spitefulness. The commonality is referred to as the 'D factor'.
You can assess your own dark traits here:
-
Several studies over the last few years have looked at personality features that are common to 'dark triad' and other related traits: egoism, Machiavellianism, moral disengagement, narcissism, psychological entitlement, psychopathy, sadism, self-interest, and spitefulness. The commonality is referred to as the 'D factor'.
You can assess your own dark traits here:
-
Several studies over the last few years have looked at personality features that are common to 'dark triad' and other related traits: egoism, Machiavellianism, moral disengagement, narcissism, psychological entitlement, psychopathy, sadism, self-interest, and spitefulness. The commonality is referred to as the 'D factor'.
You can assess your own dark traits here:
-
Several studies over the last few years have looked at personality features that are common to 'dark triad' and other related traits: egoism, Machiavellianism, moral disengagement, narcissism, psychological entitlement, psychopathy, sadism, self-interest, and spitefulness. The commonality is referred to as the 'D factor'.
You can assess your own dark traits here:
-
CW: Analysis: Political Landscape, Moral Grandstanding, and the Dark Tetrad.
After watching Maternal Instinct, I decided to watch some follow-up videos regarding the defendant because this particular case heavily involved fraud and deception. As someone that is interested in the intersection of psychology, criminology, and cybersecurity (i.e., behavioral analysis and threat hunting), I found this case to be particularly interesting regarding the social engineering tactics involved.
While doing research, I stumbled upon the "Dark Tetrad." While I was already somewhat familiar with the Dark Triad, this adds new elements to that existing psychological research regarding the pleasure from other's suffering. I couldn't help but to look back and consider my own online trolling/angry responses regarding the polarized political climate over the last decade. While I have since stepped back from social media (and really all big tech controlled environments), I couldn't help but feel guilty about my past behavior after reading about the dark tetrad.
In digital spaces, we often witness users flippantly applying maximum-severity labels (e.g., "Nazi") to minor policy disagreements. While tribalism explains the majority, psychological research shows that some of the instigators of these trends often exhibit Dark Tetrad traits such as sadism and Machiavellianism. For them, the label isn't historical analysis; it’s a high-potency payload used deliberately to cause psychological distress and social chaos.
From a threat assessment perspective, this creates a lot of noise and a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" vulnerability. When the baseline social alarm system is constantly blaring false positives over trivial matters, society's ability to recognize and respond to a genuine, cascading systemic crisis is catastrophically degraded.
Mainstream social architectures are built to optimize engagement by exploiting these dark psychological traits. By rewarding outrage with visibility, algorithms allow malicious actors to manipulate the middle ground out of existence. They weaponize moral grandstanding to convert ordinary users into force multipliers for polarization.
Moving to decentralized spaces like Mastodon isn't just about escaping noise; it’s about choosing a platform architecture that refuses to incentivize moral grandstanding and Dark Tetrad manipulation. In cybersecurity, we rely on logs and objective data. We need to apply that same analytical discipline to how we evaluate and filter human behavior online.
#InfoSec #Cybersecurity #Psychology #Criminology #DarkTetrad #DarkTriad
-
CW: Analysis: Political Landscape, Moral Grandstanding, and the Dark Tetrad.
After watching Maternal Instinct, I decided to watch some follow-up videos regarding the defendant because this particular case heavily involved fraud and deception. As someone that is interested in the intersection of psychology, criminology, and cybersecurity (i.e., behavioral analysis and threat hunting), I found this case to be particularly interesting regarding the social engineering tactics involved.
While doing research, I stumbled upon the "Dark Tetrad." While I was already somewhat familiar with the Dark Triad, this adds new elements to that existing psychological research regarding the pleasure from other's suffering. I couldn't help but to look back and consider my own online trolling/angry responses regarding the polarized political climate over the last decade. While I have since stepped back from social media (and really all big tech controlled environments), I couldn't help but feel guilty about my past behavior after reading about the dark tetrad.
In digital spaces, we often witness users flippantly applying maximum-severity labels (e.g., "Nazi") to minor policy disagreements. While tribalism explains the majority, psychological research shows that some of the instigators of these trends often exhibit Dark Tetrad traits such as sadism and Machiavellianism. For them, the label isn't historical analysis; it’s a high-potency payload used deliberately to cause psychological distress and social chaos.
From a threat assessment perspective, this creates a lot of noise and a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" vulnerability. When the baseline social alarm system is constantly blaring false positives over trivial matters, society's ability to recognize and respond to a genuine, cascading systemic crisis is catastrophically degraded.
Mainstream social architectures are built to optimize engagement by exploiting these dark psychological traits. By rewarding outrage with visibility, algorithms allow malicious actors to manipulate the middle ground out of existence. They weaponize moral grandstanding to convert ordinary users into force multipliers for polarization.
Moving to decentralized spaces like Mastodon isn't just about escaping noise; it’s about choosing a platform architecture that refuses to incentivize moral grandstanding and Dark Tetrad manipulation. In cybersecurity, we rely on logs and objective data. We need to apply that same analytical discipline to how we evaluate and filter human behavior online.
#InfoSec #Cybersecurity #Psychology #Criminology #DarkTetrad #DarkTriad
-
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
#Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
They’re all counseling after escaping.
I need to get out first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
#Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
They’re all counseling after escaping.
I need to get out first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
#Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
They’re all counseling after escaping.
I need to get out first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
#Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
They’re all counseling after escaping.
I need to get out first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
#Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
They’re all counseling after escaping.
I need to get out first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
It’s all recovery groups. I need to escape first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
It’s all recovery groups. I need to escape first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
It’s all recovery groups. I need to escape first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
It’s all recovery groups. I need to escape first! -
Are there escape from #narcissists #psychopaths #darktriad help groups?
There must be somewhere to go where there is help from former victims who get it.
Disabled &/or severely ill people too on a limited income. If I was healthy with money I wouldn’t be trapped here.
It’s all recovery groups. I need to escape first! -
@DerLogiker @georgetakei Trump is worse, actually.
Letter to congressional leaders from psychiatrists: 'President Trump exhibits what forensic mental health experts have, across dozens of independent assessments, identified as the “Dark Triad” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.'
They describe the evidence that he's dangerously unstable, that his "judgment is, by every visible measure, severely compromised" and that "he is a constitutional emergency."
"Top psychiatrists issue urgent letter to Congress about Trump's mental instability" https://www.alternet.org/psychiatrists-trump/
#Trump #DarkTriad #narcissism #narcissist #Machiavellian #Machiavellianism #psychopath #psychopathy #unstable #25thAmendment #2547th #25th
-
@DerLogiker @georgetakei Trump is worse, actually.
Letter to congressional leaders from psychiatrists: 'President Trump exhibits what forensic mental health experts have, across dozens of independent assessments, identified as the “Dark Triad” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.'
They describe the evidence that he's dangerously unstable, that his "judgment is, by every visible measure, severely compromised" and that "he is a constitutional emergency."
"Top psychiatrists issue urgent letter to Congress about Trump's mental instability" https://www.alternet.org/psychiatrists-trump/
#Trump #DarkTriad #narcissism #narcissist #Machiavellian #Machiavellianism #psychopath #psychopathy #unstable #25thAmendment #2547th #25th
-
@DerLogiker @georgetakei Trump is worse, actually.
Letter to congressional leaders from psychiatrists: 'President Trump exhibits what forensic mental health experts have, across dozens of independent assessments, identified as the “Dark Triad” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.'
They describe the evidence that he's dangerously unstable, that his "judgment is, by every visible measure, severely compromised" and that "he is a constitutional emergency."
"Top psychiatrists issue urgent letter to Congress about Trump's mental instability" https://www.alternet.org/psychiatrists-trump/
#Trump #DarkTriad #narcissism #narcissist #Machiavellian #Machiavellianism #psychopath #psychopathy #unstable #25thAmendment #2547th #25th
-
@DerLogiker @georgetakei Trump is worse, actually.
Letter to congressional leaders from psychiatrists: 'President Trump exhibits what forensic mental health experts have, across dozens of independent assessments, identified as the “Dark Triad” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.'
They describe the evidence that he's dangerously unstable, that his "judgment is, by every visible measure, severely compromised" and that "he is a constitutional emergency."
"Top psychiatrists issue urgent letter to Congress about Trump's mental instability" https://www.alternet.org/psychiatrists-trump/
#Trump #DarkTriad #narcissism #narcissist #Machiavellian #Machiavellianism #psychopath #psychopathy #unstable #25thAmendment #2547th #25th
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@DerLogiker @georgetakei Trump is worse, actually.
Letter to congressional leaders from psychiatrists: 'President Trump exhibits what forensic mental health experts have, across dozens of independent assessments, identified as the “Dark Triad” of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.'
They describe the evidence that he's dangerously unstable, that his "judgment is, by every visible measure, severely compromised" and that "he is a constitutional emergency."
"Top psychiatrists issue urgent letter to Congress about Trump's mental instability" https://www.alternet.org/psychiatrists-trump/
#Trump #DarkTriad #narcissism #narcissist #Machiavellian #Machiavellianism #psychopath #psychopathy #unstable #25thAmendment #2547th #25th
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The greatest threat to #Empath personality-types is not in fact the #DarkTriad personalities that target them, but the adoption of #Altruist traits by the Empath
Put bluntly, you can’t help anyone unless you first help yourself, and you can’t walk a mile in another person’s shoes unless you first know yourself
But, that is why the #Narcissist favours altruism-themed shaming as an abuse tactic, weaving it through every stage of Narcissistic Abuse; it is not merely effective, it is the most harmful. The fact that Western society endows altruism with implicit moral authority is secondary, a bonus, which lets them get away with it in public.
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The greatest threat to #Empath personality-types is not in fact the #DarkTriad personalities that target them, but the adoption of #Altruist traits by the Empath
Put bluntly, you can’t help anyone unless you first help yourself, and you can’t walk a mile in another person’s shoes unless you first know yourself
But, that is why the #Narcissist favours altruism-themed shaming as an abuse tactic, weaving it through every stage of Narcissistic Abuse; it is not merely effective, it is the most harmful. The fact that Western society endows altruism with implicit moral authority is secondary, a bonus, which lets them get away with it in public.
-
The greatest threat to #Empath personality-types is not in fact the #DarkTriad personalities that target them, but the adoption of #Altruist traits by the Empath
Put bluntly, you can’t help anyone unless you first help yourself, and you can’t walk a mile in another person’s shoes unless you first know yourself
But, that is why the #Narcissist favours altruism-themed shaming as an abuse tactic, weaving it through every stage of Narcissistic Abuse; it is not merely effective, it is the most harmful. The fact that Western society endows altruism with implicit moral authority is secondary, a bonus, which lets them get away with it in public.
-
The greatest threat to #Empath personality-types is not in fact the #DarkTriad personalities that target them, but the adoption of #Altruist traits by the Empath
Put bluntly, you can’t help anyone unless you first help yourself, and you can’t walk a mile in another person’s shoes unless you first know yourself
But, that is why the #Narcissist favours altruism-themed shaming as an abuse tactic, weaving it through every stage of Narcissistic Abuse; it is not merely effective, it is the most harmful. The fact that Western society endows altruism with implicit moral authority is secondary, a bonus, which lets them get away with it in public.
-
The greatest threat to #Empath personality-types is not in fact the #DarkTriad personalities that target them, but the adoption of #Altruist traits by the Empath
Put bluntly, you can’t help anyone unless you first help yourself, and you can’t walk a mile in another person’s shoes unless you first know yourself
But, that is why the #Narcissist favours altruism-themed shaming as an abuse tactic, weaving it through every stage of Narcissistic Abuse; it is not merely effective, it is the most harmful. The fact that Western society endows altruism with implicit moral authority is secondary, a bonus, which lets them get away with it in public.
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Every #Psychopath always causes as much harm as possible satisfying their selfish desires at the expense of others as they are able to get away with
Not as little harm as necessary to get what they want
As much as they can
Always
The only difference to single out the #CriminalPsychopath is that their core delusion has progressed to the extent that even while in custody they are convinced they’re getting away with it. So yes, the full horror of psychopathy is on display for all to see. But that’s it. That’s the only difference. Optics.
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Every #Psychopath always causes as much harm as possible satisfying their selfish desires at the expense of others as they are able to get away with
Not as little harm as necessary to get what they want
As much as they can
Always
The only difference to single out the #CriminalPsychopath is that their core delusion has progressed to the extent that even while in custody they are convinced they’re getting away with it. So yes, the full horror of psychopathy is on display for all to see. But that’s it. That’s the only difference. Optics.
-
Every #Psychopath always causes as much harm as possible satisfying their selfish desires at the expense of others as they are able to get away with
Not as little harm as necessary to get what they want
As much as they can
Always
The only difference to single out the #CriminalPsychopath is that their core delusion has progressed to the extent that even while in custody they are convinced they’re getting away with it. So yes, the full horror of psychopathy is on display for all to see. But that’s it. That’s the only difference. Optics.
-
Every #Psychopath always causes as much harm as possible satisfying their selfish desires at the expense of others as they are able to get away with
Not as little harm as necessary to get what they want
As much as they can
Always
The only difference to single out the #CriminalPsychopath is that their core delusion has progressed to the extent that even while in custody they are convinced they’re getting away with it. So yes, the full horror of psychopathy is on display for all to see. But that’s it. That’s the only difference. Optics.