A protean approach to social influence : Dark Triad personalities and social influence tactics

Peter K. Jonason, Gregory D. Webster

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    231 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    To avoid detection, those high on Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) may adopt a protean approach to interpersonal influence. We show the Dark Triad traits correlate with a number of unique tactics of influence (Study 1; N=259). We show this protean approach was insensitive to differences in targets of manipulation (Study 2; N=296). When forced to choose one tactic to solve different adaptive problems, the Dark Triad traits were correlated with unique tactical choices (Study 3; N=268). We show these associations are generally robust to controlling for the Big Five and participants' sex (Study 1 and 2). We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings for both life history and cheater-detection theories.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)521-526
    Number of pages6
    JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
    Volume52
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

    Keywords

    • Machiavellianism (psychology)
    • narcissism
    • personality disorders
    • social influence

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