CONCLUSIONS: Out of all Dark Triad components, psychopathy showed the strongest link with gaining pleasure from hurting others. The results underscore the differential predictive value of psychopathy's subcomponents for sadistic pleasure. Coldheartedness can be considered especially disturbing because of its unique relationship to deriving joy from irreversible harm-infliction (i.e. killing bugs). Our findings further establish psychopathy - and especially its coldheartedness component - as the...

The nosology for criminals who murder multiple victims is at once well-established and controversial, perhaps because theorists have largely segregated such offenders from the broader criminal population. The current study introduces the superhomicide offender, an individual convicted of at least five murders, to locate multiple homicide offenders within the criminological and epidemiological science pertaining to the most pathological offenders, and statistically place them with other...

This study explored demographic, ideological, self-rating and personality traits correlates of the Dark Tetrad (DT4) which measures Narcissism (Special), Machiavellianism (Crafty), Psychopathy (Wild), and Sadism (Mean) traits. In total, 447 adults completed three tests: a bright-side, work-related, personality test (HPTI: High Performance Type Indicator), a dark-side test (Short Dark Tetrad) and a number of self-ratings. Correlations and regressions showed that all four dark traits were...

This study analyzed the effects of the Dark Tetrad (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism) and self-concealment on social appearance anxiety. Empirical investigations on which personality traits influence social appearance anxiety are yet missing. In this study, a sample of N = 1186 Chinese students performed a questionnaire-based survey assessing different personality facets and social appearance anxiety tendencies. Measures included the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the...