TY - JOUR
T1 - Dark Triad predicts self-promoting mate attraction behaviors
AU - Monteiro, Renan P.
AU - Lopes, Guilherme S.
AU - Da Silva Nascimento, Bruna
AU - Gouveia, Valdiney v.
AU - Shackelford, Todd K.
AU - Zeigler-Hill, Virgil
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - The Dark Triad is a cluster of aversive traits that includes Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. Individuals who score higher on these traits also report more sexual partners, suggesting that the Dark Triad may provide advantages to attracting short-term partners. We investigated the associations between the Dark Triad traits and self-promotion mate attraction tactics in a short-term mating context. We hypothesized that, in this mating context, psychopathy would predict the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in men (Hypothesis 1), narcissism would predict these behaviors in both men (Hypothesis 2) and women (Hypothesis 3), and that the relationship between narcissism and the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors would be stronger in women than in men (Hypothesis 4). Participants were 225 Brazilian undergraduate students, aged between 18 and 45 years (M = 21.8; SD = 4.80; 58.2% women). Supporting Hypothesis 1, psychopathy positively predicted the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in men. Narcissism was positively associated with the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in both men (supporting Hypothesis 2) and women (supporting Hypothesis 3), but with similar strength (inconsistent with Hypothesis 4). We situate these results concerning mate attraction within an evolutionary framework and discuss their theoretical and applied utility.
AB - The Dark Triad is a cluster of aversive traits that includes Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. Individuals who score higher on these traits also report more sexual partners, suggesting that the Dark Triad may provide advantages to attracting short-term partners. We investigated the associations between the Dark Triad traits and self-promotion mate attraction tactics in a short-term mating context. We hypothesized that, in this mating context, psychopathy would predict the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in men (Hypothesis 1), narcissism would predict these behaviors in both men (Hypothesis 2) and women (Hypothesis 3), and that the relationship between narcissism and the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors would be stronger in women than in men (Hypothesis 4). Participants were 225 Brazilian undergraduate students, aged between 18 and 45 years (M = 21.8; SD = 4.80; 58.2% women). Supporting Hypothesis 1, psychopathy positively predicted the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in men. Narcissism was positively associated with the performance frequency of self-promotion behaviors in both men (supporting Hypothesis 2) and women (supporting Hypothesis 3), but with similar strength (inconsistent with Hypothesis 4). We situate these results concerning mate attraction within an evolutionary framework and discuss their theoretical and applied utility.
KW - Dark Triad
KW - Evolutionary psychology
KW - Mate attraction tactics
KW - Self-promotion
KW - Sex differences
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021765994&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.002
U2 - 10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.002
DO - 10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85021765994
VL - 119
SP - 83
EP - 85
JO - Personality and Individual Differences
JF - Personality and Individual Differences
SN - 0191-8869
ER -