Individuals high on Machiavellianism or psychopathy traits choose to stay single if they are low on sociosexuality

Individuals high on the Dark Triad traits choose to stay single if they are low on sociosexuality. Vlad Burtăverde, Cristina Ene. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 177, July 2021, 110843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110843

Abstract: Even if the majority of humans desire to mate, some people decide to stay single. In this paper, we investigated (N = 270) the link between the Dark Triad traits and the reasons to remain single by choice, testing the moderating effect of sociosexuality. We showed that individuals high on Machiavellianism and psychopathy scored high on two dimensions of reasons to stay single by choice: freedom of choice and difficulties with relationships. Narcissism was not related to any dimension of reasons to stay single. Individuals high on Machiavellianism or psychopathy that were also high on sociosexuality reported lower scores on the reasons to stay single by choice, compared to individuals high on Machiavellianism or psychopathy low on sociosexuality.

Keywords: Dark triad traitsMating behaviorSinglehoodSociosexuality