The costs and benefits of the Dark Triad : implications for mate poaching and mate retention tactics

By P. Jonason, Norman P. Li, David M. Buss. 2010

312 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The Dark Triad – narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy – have traditionally been considered to be undesirable traits. However, emerging work suggest that not only may there be a positive side to possessing these traits but they may also serve important adaptive functions, even if the strategies associated with them are viewed as socially undesirable. In an online survey ( N = 336), we investigated the costs and benefits of the Dark Triad within the domain of mating psychology. The social style and lower order personality traits of the Dark Triad traits facilitated increased mateships in the form of poaching mates from others and being poached oneself to form mateships, pointing to possible benefits of possessing the Dark Triad traits. However, the costside was evidenced with rates of mates abandoning their current relationship for a new one. Mate retention is a problem faced by those with these traits and the tactics used to retain mates were characteristic of the Dark Triad: aggressive and narcisstic. Results are discussed using an adaptionist paradigm.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8958b0c666a2f64d23b15f5b0f3a3ba33b6b567e

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In Clinical Psychology

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Sex, Power, and Money: Prediction from the Dark Triad and Honesty–Humility (2013, background): “Jonason, Li, and Buss (2010) also reported significant associations of two Dark Triad variables—Narcissism and Psychopathy—with mate poaching.”
The Dark Triad of Personality: A 10 Year Review (2013, background): “Jonason, Li, and Buss (2010) found that dark individuals, especially psychopaths, poached mates from others and were themselves poached from their mates at higher rates than those scoring lower on triad traits.”
The Antihero in Popular Culture: Life History Theory and the Dark Triad Personality Traits (2012, background): “…may indicate a fast life strategy based on immediate rewards and gratification (Figueredo et al., 2005, 2006; Gladden, Figueredo, & Jacobs, 2009; Jonason, Koenig, & Tost, 2010a; Jonason, Li, & Teicher, 2010c; Jonason et al., 2010b; Jonason et al., 2009, 2011; Jonason & Tost, 2010; Troisi, 2005).”
Evolutionary theory and psychopathy (2011, methodology): “Jonason et al. (2010b) found that psychopathy was related to a higher overall incidence and success rates for poaching the mates of others – a likely benefit.”
Mate-selection and the Dark Triad: Facilitating a short-term mating strategy and creating a volatile environment (2011, background): “However, given that psychopathy is correlated with risk-taking above the other traits (Jonason et al., 2010a), we expect this correlation to be localized to psychopathy when we control for variability in the other two.”
Resources, Harshness, and Unpredictability (2016, background): “From this perspective, the Dark Triad traits could be phenotypic responses to predetermined and evolutionary relevant information, responses that might be stronger and more important in men given asymmetries and costs and benefits for living a fast life (Jonason et al., 2010; Jonason et al., 2009).”
Unpacking “evil”: Claiming the core of the Dark Triad (2015, methodology): “We also included the Interpersonal Manipulation subscale of the SRP in this model, as Jonason et al. (2010) suggest that it is integral to an exploitative and fast life history strategy.”
The Dark Triad and sexual harassment proclivity (2016, background): “, Jones & Olderbak, 2014), infidelity (Adams, Luevano, & Jonason, 2014), and mate poaching (Jonason et al., 2010).”