The dark core and honesty-humility: (nearly) perfectly correlated yet distinct constructs. A proof by comparing their relations with self-reported revengefulness.

Abstract

Background: The traits constituting the Dark Triad (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) are expected to share a common dark core (i.e., antisocial attitudes towards others). However, there is an ongoing debate about whether the dark core is an independent construct or whether it falls within broader categories of personality (i.e., low honesty-humility). Previous research has been sceptical regarding the Dark Triad's incremental value as it is seen as redundant and adding little to traditional personality models. Thus, the current study aimed to assess the overlap and distinctiveness of the latent Dark Triad from honesty/humility.

Participants and procedure: The sample consisted of 677 participants aged 18 to 55 years old - 551 women (M _age = 22.57, SD _age = 4.31), 111 men (M _age = 23.66, SD _age = 5.32), and 15 non-binary people (M _age = 24.67, SD _age = 3.42). Participants were recruited using social media and completed questionnaires anonymously through the LimeSurvey online platform.

Results: We replicated existing findings regarding the nearly perfect latent relationship between the dark core and honesty-humility using a broader array of measures of the Dark Triad traits. We also provided some evidence that the dark core and honesty-humility, despite being highly related, differ in terms of construct validity.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that claims positing complete convergence between these two constructs might be premature. However, future research examining different types of validity is needed.