INTRODUCING SD3: A SHORT MEASURE OF THE DARK TRIAD
Delroy L. Paulhus & Daniel N. Jones
University of British Columbia
INTRODUCTION
STUDY 2
•The Dark Triad consists of three overlapping but distinct
personality constructs.
DISCUSSION
Short Dark Triad (SD3) intercorrelations
•Standard measures (SRP: 64 items; Mach: 20 items; NPI: 40
items) are 124 items long.
•The goal was to finding an acceptable, reliable, valid short
form that also mirrors each of the original concepts.
M – SD3
Mach (M – SD3)
(.72)
Psychopathy (P – SD3) .48**
Narcissism (N – SD3)
.17**
P – SD3
N – SD3
-------
------
( .81)
-------
.33**
• The 40-item SD3 has an acceptable factor
structure with solid internal consistencies for
each subscale.
(.75)
• SD3 scales are highly correlated with the original
D3 measures and evenly predict the facets of the
those original measures.
Cross correlations with original measures
Sample details
A total of 739 subjects were collected from
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk – a new and reliable
source of adult data (e.g., Buhrmester, Kwang, &
Gosling, in press)
All participants were primarily European Heritage
with a mean age of approximately 30 years.
MACHIV
MACH – SD3 .77**
NPI
.32**
SRP
• The locations of the SD3 in the Interpersonal
Circumplex match those of the original scales
.52**
NAR – SD3
.09
.68**
.30**
PSY – SD3
.45**
.47**
.81**
STUDY 3:
BEHAVIORAL VALIDATION
STUDY 3 a: OVERCLAIMING DV
Measures used:
Short Dark Triad (Jones & Paulhus, in prep)
SRP (Paulhus, Neumann, & Hare, in press)
NPI (Raskin & Hall, 1979)
Mach-IV (Christie & Geis, 1970)
IPIP-IPC (Markey & Markey, 2009)
Overclaiming Questionnaire (Paulhus et al., 2003)
STUDY 1 – FACTOR STRUCTURE
correlations with SRP facet scores
SRP facet
Interpersonal
Psychopathy – SD3
β = .25**
Callous affect
β = .26**
Erratic Lifestyle
β = .34**
Antisocial beh..
β = .20**
Short Dark Triad (SD3) Factor structure
Narcissism – SD3
NPI facet
SRMR = .08 TLI = .88
Entitlement/Exploitative
β = .44**
Leadership/Confidence
β = .38**
.19**
.59**
.41**
Psychopathy
Mach.
1.00**
M1
.35**
.74**
.70**
1.00**
.48**
Overclaiming r= .21*
N
r = .26**
M
r = .07
STUDY 3b: Delay of gratification
Participants on MTURK are given the option for a
bonus. Participants were asked 2 questions:
(A)Would you like to keep your bonus
or donate it to American Red Cross?
•
•
77% = keep it 23% = donate
Only retained those who made the selfish
decision to KEEP the money
Manip. Tactics
β = .30**
Cynical Worldview
β = .52**
(B)Would you like a $1 payment
administered NOW, or $3 in three
weeks?
Men
Women
Mach
B = 1.29*
B= -1.00 (ns)
β = .10 (p = .077)
Narci.
B = -.25
Psychop.
B = -.1.37* B = .91 (ns)
Mach facet
Narcissism
P
Amorality
Machiavellianism - SD3
B=-.22 (ns)
• Among the SD3, overclaiming correlates highest
with narcissism , psychopathy to a lesser extent,
and Mach not at all , thereby replicating previous
findings using original measures (e.g., Paulhus &
Williams, 2002).
• Using a behavioral indicator, Machiavellianism
was positively associated with delay of
gratification whereas psychopathy was
negatively.
• In sum, the SD3 inventory provides a short but
reliable instrument that demonstrates predictive,
criterion, and concurrent validity.
REFERENCES:
Christie, R., & Geis, F. L. (1970). Studies in
Machiavellianism. New York: Academic Press.
Markey, P.M., & Markey, C.N. (2009). A brief
assessment of the interpersonal circumplex:
The IPIP-IPC. Assessment, 16, 352-361.
Paulhus, D.L. et al. (2003). Measuring selfenhancement independent of accuracy. JPSP.
Paulhus, D.L., Neumann, C., & Hare, R.D. (in
press). Manual for the Self-report Psychopathy
scale. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.
Raskin, R., & Hall, C. S. (1979). A Narcissistic
Personality Inventory. Psychological Reports, 45,
590.