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The Dark Tetrad of Personality

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Everyday disorders; Interpersonally malevolent; Non-criminal; Socially aversive; Subclinical; Toxic personalities

Definition

The Dark Tetrad consists of four socially offensive personality traits – narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism – that fall in the normal or “everyday” range. Although theoretically distinct, they are moderately intercorrelated. Individuals with such traits manage to survive, and even flourish, in everyday society.

Introduction

Personalities can be socially aversive in a variety of distinct ways (Kowalski 2001). A subset of these are referred to as dark personalities – those characterized by interpersonally offensive traits falling in the normal or “everyday” range. Instead of requiring incarceration or clinical supervision, such individuals manage to survive, and even flourish, in everyday society (Hogan 2007; Zeigler-Hill and Marcus 2016).

Most prominent in both the theoretical and empirical literatures are three such personalities: This

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Delroy L. Paulhus

Authors
  1. Delroy L. Paulhus
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Correspondence to Delroy L. Paulhus .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Lakehead University, Orillia, Canada

    Beth A. Visser

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Paulhus, D.L. (2016). The Dark Tetrad of Personality. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1059-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1059-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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