DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2019-3-356-371

Sex differences of relations between Dark Triad of personality and emotional intelligence

Fedor V. Derish
Assistant of the Department of General and Clinical Psychology

Perm State University,
15, Bukirev str., Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail: fedor.derish@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8929-9093

The Dark Triad (DT) traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy have weak relations with general mental ability and describe malfunctioning interpersonal relationship. The interpersonal relationships based on socio-emotional intelligence include communication competence, social intelligence and emotional intelligence (EI). DT traits have unclear links with features of emotional intelligence: low affect and cognitive empathy, inadequacy of recognizing emotional conditions and responding to them correctly. Recent studies provide data on stable sex differences only in the degree of variance of self-report EI and DT. Thus, our study was aimed at testing the hypotheses about correlation between DT and self-report EI by gender. A sample of 244 students aged 18–30 from different universities of Perm (54 % female) completed Russian translation of the Short-Dark Triad and Questionnaire of Emotional Intelligence. The hypothesis was tested using bivariate zero-order Pearson correlation, t-test and Cohen’s d. We have found statistically significant differences for Machiavellianism (d = 0,30), psychopathy (d = 0,73) and control of emotional expression (d = 0,70) in the male group. Significant relations between self-report EI and DT were observed for narcissism and psychopathy. In the male sample, correlations of narcissism were in the range of 0,20 to 0,27, where it was related to managing emotions. In the female group, we found many correlations in the range of 0.18 to 0,39 with all components of self-report EI (except for control of emotional expression). Psychopathy of men showed significantly negative relationship with intrapersonal EI in both groups (for male from -0,22 to -0,29; for female from -0,19 to -0,22). In general, narcissism is the «brightest» feature of personality for socio-emotional efficiency while psychopathy is the «darkest» trait. Sex differences were observed in male narcissism which was associated with the pragmatic side of EI: managing emotions of other people and emotional self-regulation. However, all received relations were weak. «Dark» personality can be considered as a factor of social and emotional efficiency in interpersonal relationships.

Keywords: Dark Triad, Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, emotional intelligence, gender, sex differences.

References

Ali, F., Amorim, I.S. and Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2009). Empathy deficits and trait emotional intelligence in psychopathy and Machiavellianism. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 47(7), рp. 758–762. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.06.016

Austin, E.J., Farrelly, D., Black, C., and Moore, H. (2007). Emotional intelligence, Machiavellianism and emotional manipulation: Does EI have a dark side? Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 43(1), pp. 179–189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.11.019

Austin, E.J., Saklofske, D.H., Smith, M., and Tohver, G. (2014). Associations of the managing the emotions of others scale (MEOS) with personality, the Dark Triad, and trait EI. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 65, pp. 8–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.060

Bar-On, R. (2006). The Bar-On model of emotional-social intelligence (ESI). Psicothema. Vol. 18, pp. 13–25.

Bechara, A., Tranel, D. and Damasio, A.R. (2000). Poor judgment in spite of high intellect: Neurological evidence for emotional intelligence. Handbook of emotional intelligence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publ., pp. 192–214. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0912568106

Book, A., Visser, B.A. and Volk, A.A. (2015). Unpacking «evil»: Claiming the core of the Dark Triad. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 73, pp. 29–38. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.05.094

Brackett, M. and Mayer, J.D. (2003). Convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity of competing measures of emotional intelligence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Vol. 29, pp. 1147–1158. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167203254596

Cairncross, M., Veselka, L. and Vernon, P.A. (2013). A behavioural genetic analysis of Alexithymia and the Dark Triad traits of personality. Twin Research and Human Genetics. Vol. 16, pp. 690–697. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/thg.2013.19

Derish, F.V. (2016). Polovye razlichiya vzaimosvyazey chert «Temnoy triady» i modeli «HEXACO» [Sex differences in Dark Triad and HEXACO-model]. Chelovek v mire. Mir v cheloveke: aktual’nye problemy filosofii, sotsiologii i psikhologii [Human in the world. The world in human: Actual issues of Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science and Psychology]. Perm, pp. 767–775.

Dzhonason, P.K. (2015). Vozrast i Temnaya triada: snizhenie pokazateley chert Temnoy triady i uvelichenie ikh soglasovannosti na protyazhenii zhizni [The deceleration and increased cohesion of the Dark Triad traits over the life course]. Psikhologicheskie issledovaniya [Psychological Studies] Vol. 8, no. 43. Available at: http://psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2015v8n43/1183-jonason43.html (accessed 25.07.2019).

Egorova, M.S., Parshikova, O.V. and Sitnikova, M.A. (2015). Polovye razlichiya po pokazatelyam Temnoy triady [Sex differences in the Dark Triad]. Psikhologicheskie issledovaniya [Psychological Studies]. Vol. 8, no. 39. Available at: http://psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2015v8n39/1096-egorova39.html (accessed 25.07.2019).

Egorova, M.S., Sitnikova, M.A. and Parshikova, O.V. (2015). Adaptatsiya Korotkogo oprosnika Temnoy triady [Adaptation of the Short Dark Triad]. Psikhologicheskie issledovaniya [Psychological Studies]. Vol. 8, no. 43. Available at: http://psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2015v8n43/1181-egorova43.html (accessed 25.07.2019).

Egorova, M.S. and Sitnikova, M.A. (2014). Temnaya triada [The Dark Triad]. Psikhologicheskie issledovaniya [Psychological Studies]. Vol. 7, no. 38. Available at: http://psystudy.ru/index.php/num/2014v7n38/1071-egorova38.html (accessed 25.07.2019).

Furnham, A., Richards, S.C. and Paulhus, D.L. (2013). The Dark Triad of personality: a 10-year review. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. Vol. 7(3), pp. 199–216. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12018

Giammarco, E.A. and Vernon, P.A. (2014). Vengeance and the Dark Triad: The role of empathy and perspective taking in trait forgivingness. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 67, pp. 23–29. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.02.010

Goleman, D. (1998). Working with emotional intelligence. New York: Bantam Books Publ., 383 p.

Goleman, D. (2001). An EI-based theory of performance. The emotionally intelligent workplace, ed. by C. Cherniss, D. Goleman. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publ., pp. 27–43.

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. and McKee, A. (2012). Emotsional’noe liderstvo: Iskusstvo upravleniya lud’mi na osnove emotsional’nogo intellekta [Primal leadership: Realizing the power of emotional intelligence]. Moscow: Alpina Publ., 301 p.

Hall, J.A. and Matsumoto, D. (2004). Gender differences in judgments of multiple emotions from facial expressions. Emotion. Vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 201–206. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.4.2.201

Jakobwitz, S. and Egan, V. (2006). The Dark Triad and normal personality traits. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 40, pр. 331–339. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.07.006

Jonason, P.K. and Krause, L. (2013). The emotional deficits associated with the Dark Triad traits: Cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and alexithymia. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 55, pp. 532–537. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.04.027

Jones, D.N. and Paulhus, D.L. (2014). Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A brief measure of Dark personality traits. Assessment. Vol. 21(1), pр. 28–41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191113514105

Joseph, D. L. and Newman, D.A. (2010). Emotional intelligence: An integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 95(1), pp. 54–78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017286

Krasavtseva, Yu.V. and Kornilova, T.V. (2016). Svoystva Temnoy triady v regulyatsii strategiy prinyatiya resheniy (na materiale igrovoy zadachi Ayova – IGT) [The Dark Triad traits in the regulation of decision-making strategies]. Vestnik Moskovskogo gosudarstvennogo oblastnogo universiteta. Seriya: Psikhologicheskie nauki [Bulletin of the Moscow Region State University. Series: Psychological sciences]. No. 2, pp. 22–33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18384/2310-7235-2016-2-22-33

Lee, K. and Ashton, M.C. (2005). Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism in the Five-Factor Model and the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 38, pр. 1571–1582. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.016

Lee, K., Ashton, M.C., Wiltshire, J., Bourdage, J.S., et al. (2013). Sex, power, and money: Prediction from the Dark Triad and honesty–humility. European Journal of Personality. Vol. 27(2), pр. 169–184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/per.1860

Lyusin, D.V. (2009). Oprosnik na emotsional’nyy intellekt EmIn: novye psikhometricheskie dannye [Inventory of emotional intelligence EmIn: new psychometric data]. Sotsial’nyy i emotsional’nyy intellekt: ot protsessov k izmereniyam, pod red. D.V. Lyusina, D.V. Ushakova [Social and emotional intelligence: From models to assessment, ed. by D.V. Lyusin, D.V. Ushakov]. Moscow: IP RAN Publ., pp. 264–278.

Lyusin, D.V. (2004). Sovremennye predstavleniya ob emotsional’nom intellekte [Modern representations of emotional intelligence]. Sotsial’nyy intellekt: teoriya, izmerenie, issledovaniya, pod red. D.V. Lyusina, D.V. Ushakova [Social intelligence: Theory, measurement, research, ed. by D.V. Lyusin, D.V. Ushakov]. Moscow: IP RAN Publ., pp. 29–36.

Lusin, D.V., Marutina, O.O. and Stepanova, A.S. (2004). Struktura emotsional’nogo intellekta i svyaz’ ego komponentov s individual’nymi osobennostyami: empiricheskiy analiz [Structure of emotional intelligence and relation of its components with individual differences: empirical analysis]. Sotsial’nyy intellekt: teoriya, izmerenie, issledovaniya, pod red. D.V. Lyusina, D.V. Ushakova [Social intelligence: theory, measurement, research, ed. by D.V. Lyusin, D.V. Ushakov]. Moscow: IP RAN Publ., pp. 129–140.

Lyusin, D.V. and Ovsyannikova, V.V. (2013). Izmerenie sposobnosti k raspoznavaniu emotsiy s pomosch’u videotesta [Video test for measuring emotions recognition]. Psikhologicheskiy zhurnal [Psychological Journal]. Vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 82–94.

Matthews, G., Roberts, R.D. and Zeidner, M. (2004). Seven myths about emotional intelligence. Psychological Inquiry. Vol. 15, pp. 179–196. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1503_01

Matthews, G., Zeidner, M. and Roberts, R.D. (2003). Emotional intelligence: Science and myth. Cambridge: MIT Press, 720 p. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/2704.001.0001

Mayer, J.D. and Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications, ed. by P. Salovey, D.J. Sluyter. New York: Basic Books Publ., pp. 3–31.

Megías, A., Gómez-Leal, R., Gutiérrez-Cobo, M.J., Cabello, R. and Fernández-Berrocal, P. (2018). The relationship between aggression and ability emotional intelligence: The role of negative affect. Psychiatry Research. Vol. 270, pp. 1074–1081. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.05.027

Miao, C., Humphrey, R.H., Qian, S. and Pollack, J.M. (2018). The Relationship between emotional intelligence and the Dark Triad personality traits: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Research in Personality. Vol. 78, pp. 189–197. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2018.12.004

Mufson, L. and Nowicki, S. (1992). Factors affecting the accuracy of facial affect recognition. Journal of Social Psychology. Vol. 13(16), pp. 815–822. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1991.9924668

Nagler, U.K., Reiter, K.J., Furtner, M.R. and Rauthmann, J.F. (2014). Is there a «dark intelligence»? Emotional intelligence is used by dark personalities to emotionally manipulate others. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 65, pp. 47–52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.025

Paulhus, D. and Williams, K. (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality. Vol. 36, pp. 556–563. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6

Petrides, K.V. and Furnham, A. (2000). On the dimensional structure of emotional intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 29, pp. 313–320. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/s0191-8869(99)00195-6

Petrides, K.V. and Furnham, A. (2006). The role of trait emotional intelligence in a gender-specific model of organizational variables. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. Vol. 36, pp. 552–569. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00019.x

Rauthmann, J.F. and Kolar, G.P. (2012). How «dark» are the Dark Triad traits? Examining the perceived darkness of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 53(7), pp. 884–889. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.11.005

Smorti, M., Andrei, F. and Trombini, E. (2018). Trait emotional intelligence, personality traits and social desirability in dangerous driving. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. Vol. 58, pp. 115–122. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2018.06.012

Thompson, A.E. and Voyer, D. (2014). Sex differences in the ability to recognize non-verbal displays of emotion: A meta-analysis. Cognition and Emotion. Vol. 28, pp. 1164–1195. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.06.016

Van der Linden, D., Pekaar, K.A., Bakker, A.B., Schermer, J.A., et al. (2017). The general factor of personality and emotional intelligence: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin. Vol. 143, pp. 36–52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000078

Wai, M. and Tiliopoulos, N. (2012). The affective and cognitive empathic nature of the Dark Triad of personality. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 52, pp. 794–799. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.01.008

Zajenkowski, M. and Czarna, A.Z. (2015). What makes narcissists unhappy? Subjectively assessed intelligence moderates the relationship between narcissism and psychological well-being. Personality and Individual Differences. Vol. 77, pp. 50–54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.045

Received 01.08.2019

For citation:

Derish F.V. Sex differences of relations between Dark Triad of personality and emotional intelligence // Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2019. Iss. 3. P. 356–371. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2019-3-356-371