Psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism are three of the most evil tendencies of human nature, according to psychologists.
The truth goes deeper and darker. egoism, sadism, and more are also present. According to new research, a central core of human darkness lies behind this rogues gallery.
The driving force behind our dark impulses was mapped out by psychologists from Germany andDenmark in a study. D is a dark factor of personality.
The g factor is a construct proposed by English psychologist Charles Spearman over a century ago when he observed that people who performed well on one kind of cognitive test were more likely to score well on other types of intelligence tests.
A general intelligence factor could be measured. It turns out that not all scientists can detect that.
The dark aspects of human personality have a common denominator, which means that they are all an expression of the same dispositional tendency.
In a series of four studies involving over 2,500 participants, Zettler and fellow researchers surveyed participants with questions designed to measure their levels of nine distinct dark personality traits: egoism, Machiavellianism, moral disengagement, narcissism, psychological entitlement, psychopathy, sadism, self-interest, and
Participants were asked to disagree with statements such as "I know that I am special because everyone keeps telling me so", "I'll say anything to get what I want", and "It is hard to get ahead without cutting".
Researchers ran a statistical analysis and found that the dark traits are all related to the central core darkness factor, D, which can be seen in different ways in different people.
The D factor can manifest itself as a combination of dark qualities in a person.
The person has a high D factor with our mapping of the common denominator of the various dark personality traits. The D factor indicates how likely a person is to engage in behavior associated with one or more of these dark traits.
You can take the D test, even if you don't take the researchers' word for it.
You can measure your own D score using the online portal set up by the team.
Why would people want to know? The researchers said that their findings could lead to new discoveries in psychology and therapy, and that they were interested in how dark you really are.
"We see it in cases of extreme violence, or rule-breaking, lying, and deception in the corporate or public sectors," Zettler said.
Knowledge about a person's D-factor can be used to assess the likelihood that the person will re-offend or engage in more harmful behavior.
The findings were reported.
The first version of this article was published in September.
