Dark triad test: Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy

Where the idea comes from

In 2002 the psychologists Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams noticed that three traits studied in separate corners of psychology kept turning up together: Machiavellianism from social psychology, narcissism from the study of self-esteem, and psychopathy in its everyday, non-clinical sense. They called the trio the dark triad. Their point was that the three overlap but are not the same thing, so they are worth measuring side by side.

Ten years later a review by Adrian Furnham, Steven Richards and Paulhus surveyed a fast-growing body of studies on it, and the dark triad is now one of the busiest topics in personality research.

How these twelve statements compare with research scales

Researchers mostly use two short questionnaires. The Dirty Dozen (Jonason and Webster, 2010) has twelve items, four per trait. The Short Dark Triad or SD3 (Jones and Paulhus) has twenty-seven, nine per trait, and is usually the one recommended when accuracy matters.

Our quiz copies neither. The twelve statements were written for this site, four per trait, with one in each set worded the other way round so that agreeing with everything doesn’t push all three scores up. That makes it quick and honest about what it is: a reflection prompt, not a validated measure. If you need a score for research or work, use a published scale under the guidance of a psychologist.

What the research has found

A large review and meta-analysis by Peter Muris and colleagues in 2017 pulled together the main findings:

• A shared core. What the three traits have most in common is callousness, a low concern for other people. In Big Five terms they all go with low agreeableness.
• Two are closer than the third. Machiavellianism and psychopathy overlap a lot, so much that some researchers question whether they are really separate. Narcissism stands a little apart.
• Narcissism is the “lightest”. It has some links to self-esteem and confidence, while psychopathy is the trait most tied to harmful behaviour.
• Men score higher on average on all three, though the ranges of men and women overlap widely.

The dark tetrad: a fourth trait

In 2014 Paulhus proposed adding everyday sadism, enjoying other people’s pain, to make a dark tetrad. In one well-known experiment, people were offered the job of feeding live bugs into a grinder (the bugs were in fact protected and unharmed). People who scored higher on sadism were more likely to pick that task and to say they enjoyed it, and sadism predicted this beyond the other three traits. This quiz sticks to the original three.

How to read your result

Everyone has some of each trait, and the result page opens on whichever of your three is highest, even if all three are low. A middle score on one trait is the most common outcome and simply means it shows up in some situations and not others.

If a high score surprises you, look at the statements that pushed it up and ask whether they describe you at your most stressed or most of the time. A short quiz can’t tell the difference, but you can.