For men, psychopathy was a negative predictor, and narcissism a positive predictor of lifetime offspring; for women, psychopathy emerged as a negative predictor of lifetime offspring

Lifetime offspring and the Dark Triad. Gregory L. Carter, Minna Lyons, Gayle Brewer. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 132, 1 October 2018, Pages 79–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.017

Abstract: There is a paucity of literature investigating the extent to which human personality predicts lifetime (age-controlled) offspring. The present study contributes to this field in assessing whether the inter-related ‘dark’ personalities that have been linked to mating success (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy: the ‘Dark Triad’) predict number of children. Analyses from an online sample (N = 314) revealed that for men, psychopathy was a negative predictor, and narcissism a positive predictor of lifetime offspring. For women, psychopathy emerged as a negative predictor of lifetime offspring. Results are discussed in respect of the importance of these traits to fitness-related outcomes, including reproduction, and the need to consider sex differences, as these traits may have a different function in men and women.

Keywords: Reproduction; Dark Triad; Narcissism; Machiavellianism; Psychopathy