The unidimensionality of evil: A rating scale analysis of the short dark triad

Although only moderately correlated, Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and subclinical narcissism can overlap to a higher degree in the case of brief measures. To reconcile shortness and unidimensionality, such inventories might emphasize less specific and more general components in their trait scale compositions. In the current study, we combined confirmatory factor analysis and the unidimensional Rating Scale model to investigate the salience of a general factor in the Short Dark Triad (SD3; Jones & Paulhus, 2014). Participants were 1965 community adults, with ages ranging from 18 to 72 years (M = 25.50, SD = 9.04). The results revealed that the true score variance contained in the SD3 scales is mostly due to a common dark triad component, whereas the coverage of content that is unique to each factor is relatively small. Although a substantive interpretation is presented regarding this single latent continuum underlying the SD3 items, future studies should attempt to test how sound this general factor is once the variation due to social desirability is controlled for. The issues of personality "nuances" and multidimensionality are also discussed.