Look how smart I am!: Only narcissistic admiration is associated with inflated reports of intelligence

Abstract Individuals with high grandiose narcissism tend to think they are extraordinarily intelligent, and these views determine their psychological well-being. In the current research, we investigated how two aspects of grandiose narcissism—admiration and rivalry—are associated with objective intelligence, subjective intelligence, and intelligence-related beliefs. We expected that only narcissistic admiration, which reflects the agentic aspect of grandiose narcissism, would be associated with subjective intelligence as the latter is regarded as a prototypical agentic attribute. In Study 1 (N = 311) narcissism (i.e., admiration and rivalry) was uncorrelated with objective intelligence but admiration was related to inflated self-reported intelligence as well as global life satisfaction and domain-specific intelligence satisfaction. Furthermore, intelligence-related beliefs mediated the link between admiration and life satisfaction. In Study 2 (N = 211), consistent with the predictions, people with high admiration perceived intelligence as an important way to gain popularity. By contrast, individuals scoring high on rivalry perceived intelligence as a factor influencing social status and having low importance in interpersonal relations. Our findings suggest that intelligence is a key characteristic only for those narcissists who score high on the admiration dimension, but not the rivalry dimension

Thinking Bigger and Better about "Bad Apples": Evolutionary Industrial/Organizational psychology and the Dark Triad

The focal article by Guenole (2014) correctly contends that industrial– organizational (I–O) psychology has been overly reliant on the Big Five or the five-factor model (Benet-Martínez & John, 1998). Although popular and useful, the Big Five also tends to be limited in two important ways. The Big Five is a set of atheoretically derived, descriptive adjectives, and it tends to better tap ‘‘positive’’ aspects of people’s personality over ‘‘negative’’ or ‘‘darker’’ sides. A number of authors have highlighted the importance of examining ‘‘darker’’ aspects of people’s personality both outside (Jonason, Li, Webster, & Schmitt, 2009; Lee & Ashton, 2005; Paulhus & Williams, 2002) and within (Hogan & Hogan, 2001; Jonason, Slomski, & Partyka, 2012) the workplace. As potential mechanisms to explore the ‘‘darker’’ aspects of the workplace, the author of the focal article suggests the Dark Triad of personality (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism). Although the focal article was not solely about these three, we use them as examples to illustrate a broader point: An evolutionary perspective can provide a foundational theory through which workplace phenomenon can be examined with greater richness

Playing Hard-to-get: Manipulating one's Perceived Availability as a Mate

'Playing hard-to-get' is a mating tactic in which people give the impression that they are ostensibly uninterested to get others to desire them more. This topic has received little attention because of theoretical and methodological limitations of prior work. We present four studies drawn from four different American universities that examined playing hard-to-get as part of a supply-side economics model of dating. In Studies 1a (N=100) and 1b (N=491), we identified the tactics that characterize playing hard-to-get and how often men and women enact them. In Study 2 (N=290), we assessed reasons why men and women play hard-to-get along with the personality traits associated with these reasons. In Studies 3 (N=270) and 4 (N=425), we manipulated the rate per week prospective mates went out with people they had just met and assessed participants' willingness to engage in casual sex and serious romantic relationships with prospective mates (Study 3) and the money and time they were willing to invest in prospective mates (Study 4). We frame our results using a sexual economics model to understand the role of perceived availability in mating dynamics

Birds of a “bad” feather flock together: The Dark Triad and mate choice

Previous research on the Dark Triad traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism) has focused solely on the role the Dark Triad traits played in mate choice of actors. The current study (N = 336) extends this by manipulating the apparent levels of Dark Triad traits in targets and correlating mate choice in these targets with individual differences in the Dark Triad traits in actors. As expected, both sexes preferred partners low in the Dark Triad traits for long-term mating, while those high in these traits were preferred for one-night stands. However, women high in psychopathy considered the Dark Triad traits in potential male partners more physically attractive and desirable for an one-night stand, as well as a potential husband. Men who were high on psychopathy were likewise attracted to psychopathy in potential mothers. Our findings are discussed from an evolutionary personality paradigm

What People Drink and Where They Drink It Can Inform Us About Their Personality

Folk wisdom and research on personality inferences suggest one should be able to judge a person\u27s personality based on their behaviour related to alcohol consumption. In a sample of Australians (N = 1,232), we compared the utility of knowing where and what people prefer to consume alcohol to understand people\u27s personality (broadly construed). Where people drank had limited utility; predicting hopelessness in those who drank at home more than at a licensed venue and the consumption of spirits for those high in extraversion at a licensed venue. In contrast, there were several differences in people\u27s personality across drink preferences. For example, neuroticism was higher in cider and spirit drinkers than beer and wine drinkers. Results are framed within the personality inference literature and qualified by (1) the traditional beer-drinking culture of our sample and (2) the complex relationships between personality and any behaviour, including habits surrounding alcohol consumption

Competition, autonomy, and prestige: Mechanisms through which the Dark Triad predict job satisfaction

Organizational researchers increasingly recognize the need to consider the Dark Triad traits (i.e., psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) when explaining undesirable work outcomes (e.g., counterproductive behaviors). However, little research has focused on the motivations of those who actually hold the traits. In this study (N= 361) we examined how the Dark Triad traits predispose individuals to perceive situations as competitive, prestigious, and comprised of restrictions (i.e., autonomy) which differentially predict job satisfaction. Individuals high on psychopathy and Machiavellianism perceived their workplaces as competitive, whereas individuals high on narcissism perceived their workplaces as prestigious and with fewer restrictions. Sex differences in perceptions were fully mediated by psychopathy and Machiavellianism. We discuss our results from an Evolutionary Industrial/Organization Psychology framework

Solving mate shortages: Lowering standards, searching farther, and abstaining

Although much work on mating psychology has focused on mate preferences and responses to desirable sexual and romantic offers, less is known about what happens when individuals face a lack of mating options. We present 2 studies on (hypothetical) compensatory mating tactics. In Study 1 (N = 299), participants were asked to imagine they were struggling to find long-term and short-term mates and we revealed sex differences and context-specific effects consistent with parental investment theory. In Study 2 (N = 282), participants were asked to imagine they had been incapable of finding a short-term and long-term mate for 6 months despite actively trying to find one and then report the likelihood of abstaining, lowering their standards, and traveling farther to find a satisfactory partner; results largely (and conceptually) replicated those from Study 1 but document the role of attachment and (self-reported) mate value in accounting for individual differences in adopting the 3 mating tactics. We frame our results in terms of how people might solve mate shortages

Academic dishonesty among University students : the roles of the psychopathy, motivation, and self-efficacy

Academic dishonesty is a common problem at universities around the world, leading to undesirable consequences for both students and the education system. To effectively address this problem, it is necessary to identify specific predispositions that promote cheating. In Polish undergraduate students (N = 390), we examined the role of psychopathy, achievement goals, and self-efficacy as predictors of academic dishonesty. We found that the disinhibition aspect of psychopathy and mastery-goal orientation predicted the frequency of students’ academic dishonesty and mastery-goal orientation mediated the relationship between the disinhibition and meanness aspects of psychopathy and dishonesty. Furthermore, general self-efficacy moderated the indirect effect of disinhibition on academic dishonesty through mastery-goal orientation. The practical implications of the study include the identification of risk factors and potential mechanisms leading to students’ dishonest behavior that can be used to plan personalized interventions to prevent or deal with academic. dishonesty

The Dirty Dozen Scale: Validation of a Polish Version and Extension of the Nomological Net

In five studies (total N = 1300) we developed and validated a Polish version of the Dirty Dozen measure (DTDD-P) that measures the three traits of the Dark Triad, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. We detail the presence and stability of a bifactor structure of the 12 items and present evidence for good internal consistency and test–retest reliability. We examine the nomological network surrounding the Dark Triad and show that both the Dark Triad total score and the subscales have acceptable validity. We also present evidence on the Dark Triad and moral behavior. Dark Triad predicts utilitarian moral choice (e.g., approval for sacrificing somebody's life for the sake of saving others) and this link is mediated by low empathic concern. In total, our results suggest that the Polish Dirty Dozen—Parszywa Dwunastka—is valid, stable, and useful for the study of lingering puzzles in the literature

Narcissus locked in the past: Vulnerable narcissism and the negative views of the past

Abstract We examined how the perception of past events might contribute to the understanding of vulnerable narcissism. Across seven samples (NGrand = 1271), we investigated the association between vulnerable narcissism and individual differences in negative view of the past as well as how both were associated with basic personality traits, intrapersonal (i.e., affect, life satisfaction, and self-esteem) and interpersonal (i.e., anger, and hostility) outcomes, and memory biases of immediate life events and early life traumas. We found that vulnerable narcissism was reliably correlated with a negative view of the past. Additionally, both variables showed similar personality profiles (e.g., high neuroticism) and overlapped in explaining various outcomes, including self-esteem, anger, hostility, recalled traumas, and a negative memory bias