Dark, emotional, and avoidant: An intensive longitudinal investigation of the Dark Tetrad and daily coping

Coping consists of both adaptive and maladaptive methods for dealing with stressors or their associated emotional responses. The Dark Tetrad describes a cluster of subclinical and socially aversive personality traits (psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and everyday sadism). Although research has examined how individuals higher in Dark Tetrad traits perceive and experience stress, there is a lack of research examining how they cope with stress. Of the minimal literature that does exist examining Dark Tetrad coping, there are noteworthy methodological limitations. The current study investigated associations between the Dark Tetrad and coping with daily stressors among undergraduate students (n = 359) using an intensive longitudinal (daily diary) design. Participants completed a survey each day for 14-days. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that individuals higher in psychopathy and everyday sadism endorsed more emotion-focused and avoidant coping, whereas, those higher in narcissism endorsed a combination of all types of coping. Machiavellianism was linked only with avoidant coping. Findings can inform researchers and clinicians in the preferred coping methods and stress responses of those with darker personalities within average daily contexts.