Dark and Blue: A meta-analysis of the relationship between Dark Triad and depressive symptoms

Abstract

Certain personality traits and depression formation are closely related, but when exploring the relationship between personality traits and depressive symptoms, researchers have paid little attention to dark personality traits. Although current studies have explored the correlations between the dark triad and depressive symptoms, different findings have been provided. This study conducted a meta-analysis that included 31 studies involving 15,567 participants. The results indicated that both psychopathy and machiavellianism had significant positive correlations with depressive symptoms, while the correlation between narcissism and depressive symptoms was not significant. In addition, this correlation varies due to the different instruments. Psychologists and healthcare professionals need to take into account the important role of the dark triad traits when identifying, preventing, and treating depressive symptoms.