People higher in dark-personality constructs may perceive others’ dark characteristics as less undesirable (“darkness tolerance”); it may result from similarity-liking mechanisms

Desirability of others' dark characteristics: The role of perceivers’ dark personality. William Hart, Kyle Richardson. Personality and Individual Differences, November 22 2019, 109722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.109722

Abstract: Previous research suggests people higher in dark-personality constructs may perceive others’ dark characteristics as less undesirable (“darkness tolerance”). To advance understanding, we examined darkness tolerance in the context of various dark-personality constructs and addressed different explanations for its occurrence. Participants (N = 567) indicated the desirability of dark characteristics in others under conditions where dark characteristics would be either highly or less undesirable; also, participants self-reported possession of these characteristics and completed measures of dark-personality constructs (narcissism constructs, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy). Dark-personality constructs related to enhanced desirability ratings for dark characteristics in ways that generally matched how the constructs related to enhanced self-ratings on the same characteristics; also, dark characteristics were rated less favorably under highly-undesirable vs. less-undesirable conditions, and this effect was not modified by any dark-personality construct. In sum, darkness tolerance occurs across dark-personality constructs; it may result from similarity-liking mechanisms but not from insensitivity to contextual features that make dark characteristics particularly undesirable.

Keywords: Dark personalityPerson perceptionPersonality


3. Discussion

Prior work had generally focused on darkness tolerance in the context of narcissism, but the present findings suggest that darkness tolerance is a common thread running through dark-personality constructs; darkness tolerance was present across six dark-personality constructs, albeit it appeared smaller for arguably the least “dark” constructs (GN, VN, and NARQ-A). Indeed, Lamkin et al. (2018) showed darkness tolerance as a function of trait antagonism, and trait antagonism might unite dark-personality constructs. This study provided novel insights on the underpinnings of darkness tolerance. Theorists suggested that darkness tolerance could spring from similarity-liking mechanisms and/or an apparent tone-deafness (Adams et al., 2015; Wallace et al., 2015). The present study provided novel tests of these accounts. Inconsistent with the tone-deafness account, perceivers high and low in dark-personality constructs agreed on the extent to which dark (and bright) characteristics were undesirable as a function of the darkness-desirability manipulation. These null interaction findings are unlikely due to limited power or the un-modifiable nature of the darkness-desirability effect on desirability ratings; indeed, the darkness-desirability effect was moderated by scenario. Hence, darkness tolerance might not arise from tone-deafness. The present data supported the similarity-liking account using a novel method for testing this account (for other support, Burton et al., 2017; Hart & Adams, 2014); specifically, dark-personality constructs generally related to desirability ratings of the dark/bright characteristics in ways that matched how they related to self-ratings on these characteristics.5 But, this matching was less impressive for vulnerable narcissism. Perhaps people high in VN showed weak similarity-liking effects because they have low self-esteem (Klohnen & Mendelsohn, 1998); in this study, VN inversely related to self-esteem (r = −0.34). To check on this idea, we first removed self-esteem variance from VN; we predicted VN from self-esteem and saved the residual. Second, we related this residualized version of VN to (a) the 13 desirability ratings and (b) the 13 self-ratings (for these rs, see supplemental Table S4). Finally, we computed the relation between these two “sets” of rs (i.e., set “a” and set “b” rs). This computation revealed weak profile mismatch (r = −0.18). So, it seems that low self-esteem, if anything, contributed similarity-liking effects in VN. Perhaps people high in VN showed weak similarity-liking effects because their self-views are not held with much confidence (Hart, Adams, Burton & Tortoriello, 2017) and are therefore less likely to factor into evaluating others’ characteristics. The present study is not without limitations. First, because we used superficial methods to investigate darkness tolerance and examined the phenomenon in a college sample with a high proportion of females, it remains unclear whether the results are applicable to different settings or populations. Second, because the study was limited to unidimensional indicators of Machiavellianism and psychopathy, it remains unclear whether the present results are applicable to all features of these constructs. Third, we used single items to assess desirability and selfratings of the 13 dark/bright characteristics, and single item indicators are prone to low reliability. This suggests findings pertaining to analyses of the single items might not be highly precise. Finally, although evidence was consistent with a similarity-liking mechanism, this evidence was correlational and does not show causation.