Are you a serial scammer? You may be a narcissist! The study found that men with dark personality traits are more likely to cheat.
- In the new study, researchers interviewed 308 participants aged 18 to 25.
- They were asked about personality traits, sexual practices, and infidelity.
- In general, men were much more likely than women to have dark traits.
- Men with these traits were also much more likely to cheat, especially on more than one occasion.
If your boyfriend is constantly talking about how great he is, new research might make you wary.
Researchers have found that men with dark personality traits, including Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sadism, are more likely to be repeat cheaters.
In psychology, narcissism is usually characterized by grandiosity, pride, selfishness, and a lack of empathy for others.
“People with darker personality traits may find it easier to form short-term relationships because they tend to have low expectations for their future partners, especially in the case of men,” say researchers Laura Ferreiros and Miguel Clemente from the University of Coruña.
“In addition, even if their initial expectations are high, they are willing to lower them in order to have more options for partners.”
Researchers have found that men with dark personality traits, including Machiavellianism, narcissism and sadism, are more likely to be repeat cheaters (file image).
WHAT IS NARCISSISM?
Narcissism is characterized by grandiosity, pride, selfishness, and a lack of empathy.
Symptoms include an excessive need for admiration, disregard for the feelings of others, an inability to deal with any criticism, and self-esteem.
Extreme narcissism can develop into a mental illness called narcissistic personality disorder, which is more common in men.
The cause is unknown, but likely due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Previous research has shown that people with dark personality traits tend to be unsympathetic, manipulative, and prone to violence.
However, until now, few people have explored the connection between dark personality traits and intimate relationships of young people.
In their new study, the team set out to explore this connection by interviewing 308 participants aged 18 to 25, 78.3% of whom were women and 21.2% men.
Participants were asked about their sexual practices and inclinations towards partners, as well as their moral aloofness and dark personality traits.
The “dark” traits that the researchers assessed were Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, moral justification, euphemistic labeling, advantageous comparison, shifting responsibility, dissipating responsibility, distorting consequences, dehumanizing, and assigning blame.
Survey results showed that men scored higher than women on both moral alienation and dark personality traits.
Men with higher levels of dark personality traits were also more likely to cheat on their partner, especially more than once (image)
People who were unfaithful or who consumed pornographic content also scored higher on these traits, with the exception of psychopathy.
Meanwhile, men with higher levels of dark traits were also more likely to cheat on their partner, especially more than once.
“Infidelity is strongly associated with having dark personality traits, unrestricted social sexuality, and having more sexual partners,” the researchers added.
The study came shortly after a study showed that people with high narcissism climb the corporate ladder to become the head of their company 29% faster.
The researchers compared the level of narcissism of 241 CEOs in Italy, as measured by questionnaires, with their length of service.
The researchers found that executives with the highest scores for narcissism were promoted faster, regardless of whether their firm was a family business or not.
This suggests that narcissists capitalize on a toxic personality flaw when they strive to become the head of their company as quickly as possible, though experts don’t know why that is.
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO DETECT A PSYCHOPAT?
Psychopaths exhibit different traits depending on their disorder.
Common signs include superficial charm, grandiose self-image, need for stimulation and impulsivity, pathological lying, the ability to manipulate others, and a lack of remorse and empathy.
But despite the common association, not all psychopaths become murderers.
Experts say that people usually find psychopaths intriguing, but can’t explain why.
This is due to inappropriate behavior because psychopaths tend to act a lot to deceive or mimic normal reactions, sometimes quickly changing their views and reactions.
For example, self-proclaimed psychopath Jacob Wells said that when meeting someone, he tries to be “the most interesting person they know” and seems to adopt the right interests and reactions to do so.
His response also betrays another commonality—a grandiose view of self-worth—in the sense that he can be the most interesting person in the room.
Psychopaths sometimes tend to show inconclusive emotional reactions with gaffes, including tone of voice or body language.
This may be due to the fact that they cannot understand emotions such as fear and love, but they can imitate them.
Psychopaths exhibit different traits depending on their disorder, but common traits include superficial charm and the ability to manipulate others. Despite common association, not all psychopaths become murderers (image)
As a rule, the “emotions” of psychopaths are shallow and short-lived, and their manifestation has a manipulative ulterior motive.
For example, Mr. Wells said he was offering favors and revealing false secrets to people in order to win their full trust.
He also exhibits insincere charm, another trait associated with psychopaths.
He says, “I keep secrets and tell them fake secrets to further gain their trust, and once they trust me enough, I ask for a favor by reminding them of the favors I have done them. I can get literally anything from them, which is incredibly helpful.”
Psychopaths usually show an incredible ability to manipulate others and sometimes enjoy it.
Psychopaths often have an air of superiority, which may be evidenced by Mr. Wells’ belief that he can recognize other psychopaths.
Even expert Dr. Hare, who came up with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), used as a diagnostic tool to determine where a person is on the psychopathy spectrum, warns that anyone can be deceived during a brief interaction with a psychopath.
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