Centrality and redundancy of the Dark Tetrad traits

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Bojana M.Dinić, Anja Wertag, Aleksandar Tomašević, Valentina Sokolovska

Highlights

(o) Psychopathy is the central dark trait, especially features of primary psychopathy.

(o) Secondary psychopathy and lack of cognitive responsiveness are redundant.

(o) Redundancy of narcissism depends of the hierarchical level of the analyzed traits.

Abstract

The aim of this research was to examine centrality and redundancy of the Dark Tetrad traits (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sadism) using network analysis. The first sample (N = 546) was assessed using a short instrument, the second (N = 404) and the third (N = 410) samples were assessed with full instruments for the first three dark traits, while for sadism the same instrument was used in all three studies. The results showed that psychopathy is the central feature across all networks, especially its facets which correspond to primary psychopathy or interpersonal manipulation and callousness. Narcissism seemed redundant when total scores of the dark traits were analyzed, but these results should be interpreted with caution given the small number of variables in the network. However, on the facet level, some facets of psychopathy were redundant (secondary psychopathy or lack of cognitive responsiveness). These results reiterate the importance of psychopathy in the core of the dark traits and provide a deeper insight into the relations between the Dark Tetrad traits.