A newly identified personality type that gives sadists and narcissists a run for their money

In the beginning, there was the “dark triad”. Actually, that’s not true, because we had to have the building blocks of what would become the dark triad before we could have an actual personality trait.

These parts are Machiavellianism, a “political” personality characterized by cunning, deception and selfishness, based on
the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli from the 16th century. Machiavellianism as a constellation of personality traits was proposed by American psychologists Richard Christie and Florence Geis in 1970.

This is a relative newcomer compared to the other leg of the dark triad stool – narcissism. Although it now denotes a pathological level of commitment and grandiosity, one of the earliest references I can find to narcissism as a clinical syndrome dates back to 1889, when two separate psychiatrists wrote about narcissism as an obsession with one’s body as a “sexual object.” “. As with many things, Freud also had a lot to say about narcissism, writing in 1914 that egotism may be normal in children but pathological if it persists into adulthood.

And finally, psychopathy. The syndrome of clinical psychopathy has such a rich history that I won’t go into detail here, except to say that it dates back to at least the 19th century and evolved from the moral dysfunction theory (which is still considered a moral dysfunction). ) to a more multidimensional construct that includes emotional and personality deficits that make it easier for a “psychopath” to move through the world, leaving hurting and angry people behind.

In the 1990s, people began to associate Machiavellianism and psychopathy, until in 2002 Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams added narcissism to complete the dark triad. Essentially, Paulhus and others argue that these three things are subtly different, sinister personality traits that tend to go together. This concept turned out to be extremely popular. I think it’s because most of us know a few people who are narcissistic, manipulative and selfish, or just plain evil. Or all three.

How common is this combination? It’s difficult. I’ve seen estimates that as many as 7% of us exhibit all three, but I’m suspicious because diagnoses for narcissistic personality disorder, for example, are around 6%. From 1% to 4% ticks all the psychopathy boxes.

But in my opinion, that means that about one in 15 people have significant levels of all three, but they are not clinically significant, and that is not a great combination.

But let’s not stop there. In 2013, Paulhus and colleagues added sadism to the shiny, dark tetrad, arguing that narcissistic, psychopathic, and Machiavellian people also tend to actively enjoy inflicting humiliation or pain on others. Yes.

What all these people have in common is a lack of empathy. Acting selfishly or actively harming others requires the inability to see things through the victim’s eyes. Or does?

Enter New Zealander Alexander Sumich, professor of mental health and biopsychology at the University of Nottingham. I had the opportunity to see him in action late last year when he came here.

Sumich has a research program that initially proposed a “dark empath.” Through some pretty cool statistical analysis, he and his colleagues have identified a group of people who check off many elements of the dark triad but who score relatively high on empathy tests.

Before you think this might be a good thing, where empathy mitigates the behavioral damage of the triad, think again. Empathy can also be used as a weapon, and that’s what dark empaths do. The ability to understand other people’s feelings means you can manipulate them more convincingly, often from a distance, while appearing disengaged.

Sumich says he wasn’t prepared for how the idea would be received. If you don’t know what I mean, google it. Enjoy memes and reels.