The Place of the "Dark Triad" in General Models of Personality: Some Meta-Analytic Clarification

The present research is aimed at clarifying meta-analytically the relation of so-called Dark Triad (DT; i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, or psychopathy) traits to factor analytic models covering the basic personality space. Unlike recent meta-analyses that investigated such relations at the bivariate level, we used 2-stage structural equation modeling (TSSEM) meta-analysis to explore the full complexity of structural relations between DT traits and the five-factor model (FFM) and HEXACO dimensions, as well as the higher-order personality factors labeled Alpha (or stability) and Beta (or plasticity). Based on pooled matrices, covering k = 108 samples with a total N of 40,818, our findings point to the following major conclusions: (a) common elements among DT traits constitute a higher-order factor D that is not covered by Alpha and Beta; (b) no common general factor underlies all 3 higher-order traits; (c) at the dimension level of DT and the FFM, there are cross-loadings from D onto agreeableness and conscientiousness, as well as from Beta onto narcissism; (d) after adding HEXACO dimensions, the higher-order structure remains basically intact, but the low pole of HEXACO honesty-humility becomes an integral part of higher-order D; and (e) moderator analyses of different DT measures largely reveal structural equivalence of original measures of single DT traits with the Short Dark Triad, but less so with the Dirty Dozen DT measure. Overall, the results appear to converge on a coherent picture of several pieces of information on the structure of "dark" and "bright" personality that were previously discussed in a piecemeal fashion.