The Dark Triad and the derogation of mating competitors

Melissa K. Goncalves, Lorne Campbell

The University of Western Ontario, Canada

a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Available online 26 February 2014
Keywords:
Dark Triad
Competition
Mating
Derogation
Intrasexual selection
a b s t r a c t
The present study investigated the relation between the Dark Triad and tactics used to derogate mating
rivals. Three hundred and thirty-one participants (213 males, 118 females) living in the United States
were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Correlations between study variables revealed
signicant associations between indicators of the Dark Triad and three types of mate derogation tactics.
Furthermore, when competing with rivals for a mate, high scores on (a) Machiavellianism was associated
with a rude derogation style, (b) Narcissism was associated with a derogation style where individuals
tried to outshine their competitor in different situations (e.g., sports, dominance, and strength), and (c)
Psychopathy was linked with endorsing tactics that damaged their rivals reputation. Implications for
considering subtle differences in the use of mate derogation tactics across the three indicators of Dark
Triad are discussed.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Individuals reporting relatively high scores on the three person-
ality traits collectively known as the Dark Triad (i.e., machiavel-
lianism, narcissism, and psychopathy; Paulhus & Williams, 2002)
tend to use strategies such as manipulation and exploitation to
remain in a position of power and dominance, which is used for
personal gain (Lee & Ashton, 2005). These selsh and exploitive
tendencies have recently been found to play an important role in
romantic relationship contexts, with individuals scoring higher
on the Dark Triad adopting more self-interested mating strategies,
such as a preference for short-term sexual relationships (Jonason,
Li, Webster, & Schmitt, 2009; Jonason, Luevano, & Adams, 2012),
lowering mate standards to facilitate the successful implementa-
tion of these short-term mating preferences (Jonason, Valentine,
Li, & Harbeson, 2011), as well as being more likely to attempt to
poach mates that are currently in committed relationships with
someone else (Jonason, Li, & Buss, 2010).
The process of attracting mates, however, is inherently compet-
itive given that many individuals can be simultaneously attracted
to the same person (Alexander, 1979; Buss, 1988). One way to
compete with rivals to generate favorable evaluations from poten-
tial mates is to derogate the traits and attributes of competitors
(e.g., Buss & Dedden, 1990), an option that should be particularly
favorable to individuals scoring high on the Dark Triad given their
penchant for manipulating and exploiting others. To date, though,
the growing body of research focusing on the Dark Triad in a rela-
tionship context has not considered how individual differences on
the Dark Triad are associated with competitive tactics used with
rivals when attempting to enact their preferred mating strategies,
a topic addressed by the present research.
1.1. The Dark Triad
The Dark Triad comprises three personality traits: Machivellian-
ism, narcissism, and psychopathy (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Indi-
viduals with Machiavellian personalities possess a manipulative
personality style. They are often described as charmers (Wilson,
Near, &Miller, 1996), but tend to be arrogant and conniving and will
scheme their way through any situation for personal gain, regard-
less of whom it may hurt (Leary, Knight, & Barnes, 1986). Therefore
they are less willing to help others who are in need (Wolfson, 1981),
and also gain the trust of others by using tactics of deception and
exploitation in order to achieve their goals (Leary et al.).
Individuals who score high on narcissism tend to exhibit char-
acteristics of dominance, grandiosity, and superiority compared
to others. Narcissists feel a sense of entitlement, have an overbear-
ing need to succeed, and enjoy being the center of attention. They
are interested in their accomplishments only and as a result of this
egotism they do not work well with others. Like individuals who
are high in Machiavellianism, the narcissist also uses manipulation
and deception to accomplish his or her goals and does not think
about how his or her actions may impact others (Paulhus &
Williams, 2002). Although narcissists appear to have an inated
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.02.003
0191-8869/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Corresponding author. Address: The University of Western Ontario, London, ON

N6A 5C2, Canada. Tel.: +1 (519)661 2111x84904; fax: +1 (519)661 3961.
E-mail address: lcampb23@uwo.ca (L. Campbell).
Personality and Individual Differences 67 (2014) 4246
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j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er . com/ l ocat e/ pai d
sense of self-worth, their self-esteem is easily threatened by others
(Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001). The appearance of grandiosity, there-
fore, is often used as a facade by narcissists to hide their low
self-esteem and feelings of inferiority (Kernberg, 1975; Kohut,
1966).
Individuals who score high on traits of psychopathy have cold,
impulsive and emotionally void personalities. Like the narcissists
and Machiavellians, these individuals are manipulative and con-
niving and use their supercial charm to lie to others and get their
way. These individuals have little or no empathy and concern for
other people and therefore they do not feel remorse or guilt when
they have deceived and manipulated others (Hare, 2003). Psycho-
paths often engage in thrill seeking and reckless activities (Hare),
which is usually a result of their impulsive and irresponsible
behaviour style (Cooke & Michie, 2001).
1.2. The Dark Triad and sexual behaviour
Overall, individuals who score high on Machiavellianism are
more inclined to have promiscuous sexual attitudes and engage
in unsafe sexual practices (McHoskey, 2001), and Machiavellian
men also tend to have more mating success (Linton & Wiener,
2001). Narcissists have been found to have an unrestricted socio-
sexuality orientation (Foster, Shrira, & Campbell, 2006), and when
in a relationship are more likely to engage in indelity (Campbell,
Foster, and Finkel, 2002). Narcissists usually express less commit-
ment and interest in continuing the partnership (Foster et al.) and
seek to nd better relationship alternatives since they nd starting
new relationships relatively easy to do (Bradlee & Emmons, 1992).
Like individuals high in narcissism, those high in psychopathy tend
to have more promiscuous sexual behaviours and attitudes
(Barnes, Malamuth, & Check, 1984) and engage in sexual behav-
iours at an earlier age (Visser, Pozzebon, Bogaert, & Ashton,
2010). Their lack of knowledge on sexual diseases leads to their
engagement in unsafe sexual practices (McCown, 1992).
1.3. The Dark Triad and competition
In a competitive context, individuals scoring high on Machiavel-
lianism use exploitative tactics to excel (Harrel, 1980). Ryckman,
Thornton, and Bulter (1994) found that Machiavellians maximize
self-interest and winning a competition at all costs. In doing so,
they have a disregard for community and family (McHoskey,
2001). This could be explained by their willingness to win a com-
petition, regardless of how ethical their tactics for winning are
(Mudrack, Bloodgood, & Turnley, 2012). One of the few studies
on narcissism and competition by Bushman and Baumeister
(1998) found that when narcissists were placed in a competitive
context and were insulted they were overcome by exceptionally
high levels of aggression towards the individual who offended
them. Lastly, Smith (1978) argued that many descriptors of the
psychopath commonly resemble that of the Machiavellian and
therefore the Machiavellian should be likely to express similar
behaviours in a competitive context.
1.4. Mate derogation in intrasexual competition
A central theme in intrasexual competition for mates is making
oneself more attractive to the opposite sex or making ones same-
sex rival less appealing to the individual one is pursuing. Buss and
Dedden (1990) tested the notion that both men and women em-
ploy competitor derogation tactics by asking large samples of
men and women, across a few studies, to rate how likely they
would be to use a variety of derogation tactics in a mate attraction
context. A number of derogation tactics were endorsed by men and
women equally, such as spreading rumors about the competitor,
derogating the competitors intelligence, and calling the competi-
tor boring. Some gender differences also emerged, with men being
more likely to endorse tactics focused on derogating their compet-
itors nancial resources, achievements, and strengths, and women
being more likely to endorse tactics focused on derogating their
competitors appearance and sexual delity. The research by Buss
and Dedden was concerned with creating a list of competitor der-
ogation tactics typically used by men and women, and to show dif-
ferences in the employment of some of these tactics between men
and women, but not on individual differences with respect to the
use of these competitor derogation tactics.
1.5. Present study
Guided by prior research demonstrating differences in mating
strategies, and in overall competitive behaviors of individuals scor-
ing higher versus lower on markers of the Dark Triad, in the current
study we tested the hypothesis that individuals scoring higher on
the Dark Triad would be more likely to endorse the use of tactics
aimed at derogating competitors for potential mates compared to
individuals scoring low on the Dark Triad. We also explored poten-
tial differences between the three traits that make up the Dark
Triad in the types of derogation tactics endorsed.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
The present study consisted of 331 participants (213 males, 118
females) aged 1870 (M = 29.33, SD = 9.76) living in the United
States, recruited via Amazons Mechanical Turk. Fifty-four percent
of participants indicated that they were currently involved in a
romantic relationship, 44% of participants indicated they were sin-
gle, and 1.8% of participants preferred not to disclose their relation-
ship status.
2.2. Materials
2.2.1. Short-D3
Machiavellianism, narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy
were measured using the Short-D3 questionnaire, which is com-
prised of 27 items (9 items for each personality trait) measured
on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree, 5 = Strongly Agree)
(Paulhus & Williams, 2002). The Short-D3 contains three subscales,
one for each of the three personality traits: Machiavellianism, (Its
wise to keep track of information that you can use against people
later, a = .78), narcissism, (Many group activities tend to be dull
without me, a = .77), and psychopathy, (Its true that I can be
cruel, a = .78). Cronbachs alpha for the scale overall was .83.
2.2.2. Tactics for derogating competitors
Competitor derogation was measured using tactics taken from
Buss and Dedden (1990). The scale was composed of 12 items an-
swered on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = Very Unlikely and 7 = Very
Likely). We selected four tactics that men in Buss and Deddens
research were particularly likely to endorse (e.g., How likely are
you to outshine the competitor in sports? and How likely are
you to dominate your competitor?), four tactics that women were
particularly like to endorse (e.g., How likely are you to call your
competitor a tease? and How likely are you to question your
competitors delity to a potential mate?), as well as four tactics
endorsed equally by men and women (e.g., How likely are you
to call your competitor boring? and How likely are you to spread
rumors about the competitor).
M.K. Goncalves, L. Campbell / Personality and Individual Differences 67 (2014) 4246 43
2.2.3. Self-perceived mating success scale
Participants perceived ability to attract mates was measured
with the self-perceived mating success scale (Landolt, Lalumiere,
& Quinsey, 1995). This scale measures how attractive participants
perceive themselves to be by members of the opposite sex (e.g.,
Members of the opposite sex that 1 like, tend to like me back,
and Members of the opposite sex are attracted to me). The scale
includes eight items measured on a 7-point Likert scale
(1 = Strongly Disagree, 7 = Strongly Agree). Cronbachs alpha for the
scale was .87. We assessed self-perceived mating success to deter-
mine if our hypothesized associations emerged even when control-
ling for variability on individuals success in attracting mates.
2.3. Procedure
Participants were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical
Turk. While online, participants were given a letter of information
and a letter of informed consent and then asked to ll out the ques-
tionnaires in the order listed above. Once participants had com-
pleted each questionnaire they were debriefed and given their
compensation of .25 cents. The study took approximately 12 min
to complete.
3. Results
We rst conducted a principal component analysis (Table 1) on
the 12 derogation items used in the present research to create a
smaller number of indices of mate derogation tactics. Only items
loading .60 or higher on each factor were used to formthe following
indices (only one item was excluded using this criteria). Three fac-
tors with eigenvalues greater than 1 emerged from the analysis,
explaining 63.30% of the variance. The rst index labelled Damage
Reputation reects the degree to which individuals endorsed using
tactics that could be seen as purposely hurting their rivals reputa-
tion. This consisted of items such as calling the competitor promis-
cuous and/or a tease, questioning the competitors delity in
romantic relationships, and spreading rumors about the competitor
(a = .80). The second index labelled Outshine reects the extent
to which participants said they would derogate their competitor
by using tactics showing that they could outperform their compet-
itor. This included items such as derogating their competitors
strength, outshining their competitor in sports, and dominating
their competitor (a = .70). The last index was labelled Rude and
describes the degree to which individuals said that they would talk
about the competitor in an impolite or offensive way. This included
items such as calling the competitor boring, ignoring the competi-
tor, and derogating the competitors intelligence and appearance
(a = .80). One item, derogating the competitors nancial resources,
loaded on each of three factors in a similar fashion and was not in-
cluded in the calculation of each index.
Means, standard deviations, and t-tests of sex differences are re-
ported in Table 2. Sex differences were found for the Dark Triad as
well as each individual component of the Dark Triad (Machiavel-
lianism, narcissismand psychopathy), such that males scored high-
er than females on all traits. Men were also more likely than
women to say they would use tactics in which they could outshine
their rival.
Correlations among study variables are presented in Table 3.
Correlations were found between the Dark Triad, self-perceived
mating success and the three competitor derogation indices. All
correlations were statistically signicant, except for self-perceived
mating success and damaging a rivals reputation as well as self-
perceived mating success and acting rudely towards ones mate
rival. The hypothesis that individuals scoring higher on the Dark
Triad would be more likely to endorse using greater levels of mate
derogation tactics in a mating competition context was supported.
Additional analyses were conducted to determine if the three
traits that are part of the Dark Triad uniquely, or equally, predict
endorsing the use of the three competitor derogation tactics. Spe-
cically, a multiple regression analysis was conducted for each of
the three mate derogation tactics, with sex, the three traits com-
prising the Dark Triad, as well as interactions between sex and
each trait as predictor variables. Results from these analyses are
presented in Table 4. Across all analyses there were no signicant
interactions between gender and Dark Triad components in pre-
dicting the three outcomes.
Interestingly, each component of the Dark Triad signicantly
predicted endorsing the use of one, but not the other two, compet-
itor derogation tactics. Specically, individuals scoring higher ver-
sus lower on psychopathy reported a greater likelihood to attempt
to damage the reputation of mate competitors. Individuals scoring
higher versus lower on narcissism indicated being more likely to
attempt to outshine mating rivals. Lastly, individuals scoring high-
er versus lower on Machiavellianism endorsed the use of tactics
aimed at being particularly rude toward competitors for mates.
Importantly, these results do not meaningfully change when con-
trolling for self-perceived mating success.
Table 1
Principal component analysiscomponent loadings.
1 2 3
Call competitor promiscuous .781 .315 .005
Call competitor a tease .810 .050 .096
Question competitors delity .685 .364 .074
Spread rumors about competitor .707 .233 .235
Ignore competitor socially .017 .740 .051
Call competitor boring .248 .680 .137
Derogate competitors intelligence .253 .820 .103
Derogate competitors appearance .366 .677 .211
Derogate competitors strength .281 .375 .659
Outshine competitor in sports .022 .110 .862
Dominate competitor .165 .262 .684
Derogate competitors nancial resources .508 .408 .358
Note: Bolded component loading indicate that these items were used to compute an
index of competitor derogation tactics.
Table 2
Descriptive statistics.
Male Female t(329)
M SD M SD
Self-perceived mating Success 3.37 .80 3.45 .80 .93
The Dark Triad 3.04 .50 2.79 .47 4.45
*
Damage reputation 3.26 1.40 3.40 1.61 .83
Outshine 4.11 1.52 3.17 1.43 5.5
*
Rude 4.48 1.41 4.46 1.63 .11
Machiavellianism 3.56 .64 3.31 .65 3.37
*
Narcissism 3.07 .59 2.89 .57 2.66
*
Psychopathy 2.49 .66 2.16 .62 4.49
*
*
p < .05.
Table 3
Correlations between study variables.
Variable 1 2 3 4 5
1. Dark Triad (overall) .31
*
.23
*
.43
*
.31
*
2. Self-perceived mating success .02 .18
*
.06
3. Damage reputation .33
*
.55
*
4. Outshine .39
*
5. Rude
*
p < .05.
44 M.K. Goncalves, L. Campbell / Personality and Individual Differences 67 (2014) 4246
4. Discussion
The present study investigated the relation between the traits
of the Dark Triad, self-perceived mating success, and competitor
derogation tactics. We hypothesized, and found, that individuals
scoring higher on the Dark Triad would be more likely to endorse
tactics aimed at derogating rivals for the affection of potential
mates. Since these individuals have been found to use tactics of
manipulation and exploitation (Paulhus & Williams, 2002), it
seems tting to nd these correlations as derogating a competitor
usually involves some sort of manipulation and aversive behav-
iour. Individuals scoring higher on the Dark Triad also reported
higher levels of self-perceived mating success, not surprising given
they also tend to possess a grandeur sense of self-importance and
entitlement (Paulhus & Williams, 2002).
Exploratory analyses found that each of the Dark Triad traits
uniquely predicted one of the three indices of mate competition
tactics. Machiavellianism predicted the use of tactics aimed at
being rude to competitors, narcissism predicted tactics designed
to outshine rivals, and psychopathy predicted attempting to dam-
age the reputation of rivals. This pattern of results seems to make
sense when considering the nature of each Dark Triad trait in com-
bination with the mate derogation tactics assessed. Machiavellian-
ism, for example, reects a manipulative personality style usually
involving a lack of morality and concern for the feelings of others.
Because their main focus is on self-interest, they do not feel guiltily
when manipulating an individual into liking them by acting in a
rude manner towards their competitor and using tactics of exploi-
tation to derogate their competitor. Therefore, the nding that
those scoring high on Machiavellianism are also more likely to
use tactics that have been deemed rude seems like a reasonable
outcome.
On the other hand, narcissists possess an overbearing need to
succeed and to be seen in a position of superiority when compared
to others. They will go to extreme lengths to assert their perceived
supremacy over others. For that reason, it seems plausible that
they would score higher on tactics aimed at outshining competi-
tors. In comparison, psychopathy reects a cold and emotionally
void personality style. These individuals have little or no concern
for others and do not feel remorse when causing an individual
emotional or psychological pain. Therefore these individuals would
see no harm in damaging an individuals reputation for personal
gain in the case of this study, in order to win over the potential
mate. This helps to explain the ndings indicating that those scor-
ing high in psychopathy are more likely to use tactics that damage
their competitors reputation. These explanations are speculative
and future research should focus on the psychological processes
resulting in unique outcomes for each component of the Dark
Triad.
4.1. Limitations and future directions
One limitation in the current study was the use of self-report
measures for all variables. Future research should attempt to
manipulate tactic use in a faux mating situation. For example, have
participants compete for the attention of an attractive opposite sex
individual to see if those who indicated being higher on the Dark
Triad are observed to be more likely to use different derogation
tactics. Given that the Dark Triad traits have been positively corre-
lated with self-esteem (Cale & Lilienfeld, 2006; Jordan, Spencer,
Zanna, Hoshino-Browne, & Correll, 2003; Zeigler-Hill, 2006), future
research could also investigate whether participants global self-
esteem mediates the relationship between the Dark Triad traits
and derogation tactics.
5. Conclusions
The present study was the rst to assess the relation between
The Dark Triad and the use of tactics aimed at derogating compet-
itors for potential mates. Consistent with hypotheses, individuals
scoring higher on the Dark Triad reported heightened levels of
intrasexual competition; interestingly, each of the Dark Triad traits
uniquely predicted different types of competitor derogation.
Extending these ndings, future research should investigate the
degree to which individuals scoring higher on the Dark Triad use
derogation tactics in a real-life mating context.
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Table 4
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Predictor Mate derogation tactics
Damage reputation Outshine Rude
Sex .25 .21 .05
Machiavellianism .26 .05 .59
**
Narcissism .05 .86
**
.01
Psychopathy .76

.27 .48

Sex Damage Reputation .03 .33 .10

Sex Outshine .16 .22 .03
Sex Rude .14 .02 .31
Note.
**
p < .01.

p <.10.
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