The Dark Triad of Personality in Convicts and Non-convicts: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy

Dark triad of personality (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy) is one of the annoying and unhealthy personalities in psychology field. The purpose of the current study is first to introduce dark triad of personality tos scientific community of psychology and then investigate and compare these traits in convicts and non-convicts individuals.

This was a causal-comparative research. Statistical sample included 85 male prisoners of Urmia prison and 85 non-convicts. Participants were matched demographically. Research tools included Research-made Questionnaire for demographic information, Narcissism Personality Inventory (NPI), Machiavellianism Scale and Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (3rd edition). Data were analyzed by Multivariate Regression Analysis.

Data analysis showed that the differences between two groups were significant for narcissism and psychopathy at the level of p<0.01 and for Machiavellianism at the level of p<0.05. The most important difference was related to narcissism (p<0.001).

Results showed that there’s a significant difference between two groups regarding dark triad of personality. Thus, it can be concluded that the level of social aversive traits (dark triad) is higher in convicts. Because of the limitation of the participants in the research, it is suggested that future researches consider large groups, women, and different contexts and separated crime.