The Dark Triad Of Personality: Signs Of A Dark Personality
The traits that make up the dark triad of personality are considered the most malevolent that a human being can have. Enter and discover what the signs of this dark personality are.
The dark triad of personality is a term baptized by psychologists Kevin Williams and Delroy Paulhus in 2002. Its name refers to three personality traits called “dark ” for the qualities malevolent associated with them. In fact, people who have high scores on these traits are more likely to commit crimes. Ultimately, the dark triad of personality brings together the most malevolent characteristics that a human being can present.
When talking about crimes and malevolent characteristics Maybe you can breathe easy thinking that these people are only in prison. However, many people have these traits but will never commit crimes and, in fact, many of them hold management positions in important companies. If you are interested in knowing what these traits are and what it depends on whether a person with these characteristics commits crimes or not, continue reading this article to find out.
When talking about the dark triad of personality Reference is always made to three specific personality traits that are presented together. Personality traits are a set of characteristics, ways of thinking, behaving and feeling that define an individual and that are relatively stable throughout life and that in themselves do not have to constitute a psychological disorder. Each person has different characteristics since the traits are determined by both biology and the environment (especially childhood), but they end up shaping the attitudes that a person has when faced with certain situations that arise throughout life.
The dark triad of personality It results in people with tendencies to be insensitive, unempathetic, selfish, manipulative and malicious towards other people, which ends up forming what is known as psychopaths. However, not all people with these traits end up having a history of incarceration, but rather they can become very successful at the workplace. Specifically, the three signs or dark features that make up this type of personality are the following:
Narcissism:
The word narcissism It comes from Greek mythology, specifically, from a young man named Narcissus who fell in love with his own image reflected in the water of a pond. However, in psychology, narcissism does not refer only to vanity, but is also characterized by a strong tendency toward selfishness and a constant need for power and admiration from others.
The first impressions that we can have of a narcissistic person is that he has great charm and kindness, but his only goal is to take advantage of others to achieve his own achievements regardless of the harm it may cause to others. In short, they are people who can be kind to those who admire them or who can provide them with a benefit, but this kindness is never disinterested. In addition to that, this infatuation and apparent security that they have towards themselves makes them believe themselves superior to the rest, coming to think that they are extraordinary and that their abilities are above the rest, which leads them to be egocentric and to try to rub shoulders only with people he considers to be of the same “level.” However, although they appear to be very self-confident, this security is totally superficial, hiding behind this mask a very low self-esteem.
Machiavellianism:
He Machiavellianism It is mainly characterized by manipulation, cunning and cynicism. It differs from narcissism mainly because a person Machiavellian He will not use kindness to get what he wants, but will do it directly in a cold and manipulative way. Therefore, a person with dark triad of personality once he has realized that he does not get what he wants through kindness and charm, he will move on to trying to get it through manipulation and complete coldness.
When it comes to achieving their goals (whatever they may be), they do not care about honesty, friendship or any type of virtue, and they can deceive, threaten, use force and betray if this leads them to achieve their goal. In short, they are people with few ethical rules and will do whatever is necessary to achieve success.
The traits of psychopathy They are the third leg of this group that makes up the personality that is called “dark”. When we talk about psychopathy traits, we are not talking directly about a psychological disorder or a psychopath that commits crimes but rather a tendency that does not have to pose a psychological problem. People with this type of traits are characterized by a pattern marked by the complete lack of empathy, impulsivity, lack of remorse, emotional insensitivity and antisocial behavior, that is, difficulties in following legal, ethical and moral rules. In short, they are little influenced by others and act according to their own personal code of values, finding great rewards in risky situations.
What mainly characterizes people with these traits is the absence of empathy Although they are able to understand feelings cognitively, they do not feel them in a genuine way. This means that they are not people who shine for their emotional commitment to others, since they do not worry too much about other people’s feelings.
What depends on a person with these traits committing crimes?
Throughout history, many researchers have asked this question when they found that many people with the aforementioned traits coexist in our society outside of crime. In fact, there are many people with these traits who are socially accepted and valued, especially in certain work areas. To talk about this issue it is important to clarify two different terms, the psychopathic people clinical (people who have committed crimes) and subclinical psychopathic people (people who have the psychopathy traits but who have not committed any crime and who live integrated into society).
The point is that differences have been found at the brain level between people who present these traits and those who do not, regardless of whether they are clinical or subclinical psychopaths. One of these differences that have been found is that people with these traits have reduced connections between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, brain areas that are mainly responsible for processing and interpreting emotions. Therefore, there would be no notable differences at the brain level between people with psychopathic traits who commit crimes and those who do not commit them.
What would shape this difference would be the influence of the environment during childhood and adolescence. In fact, many people who are psychopaths clinics have a history in childhood of sexual abuse, mistreatment, “not very” present parents, etc. by the family environment. Currently, therefore, significant importance is given to the role played by the family environment in the formation and/or maintenance of psychopathic traits throughout life and it would be one of the factors that could explain why there are people that have dark personality traits but not that they end up committing crimes.
