Effects of Big Five,HEXACO, and Dark Triad on Counterproductive Work Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

Purpose: This study investigates the effects of Big Five, HEXACO, and Dark Triad personality traits on counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), and examines the moderating effects of countries where the studies were carried out, gender rate of samples, and scales used to measure personalities. Method: Following the rules of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), we include 74 empirical studies published between 2007 and September 2022 with 83 samples and 394 correlations. Studies are selected from both English databases such as Web of Science and Chinese databases such as CNKI. The meta-analysis and metaregression analysis were both performed using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) program, version 3.7. Results: Although emotionality is irrelevant to CWBs, other Big Five, HEXACO, and Dark Triad personality factors are all significant predictors of CWBs. The effect of Dark Triad (ρ = 0.412) is stronger than that of Big Five (ρ = −0.176) and HEXACO (ρ = −0.221). Gender negatively moderates the positive relationship between Dark Triad traits (total and subdimensions) and CWBs. The moderating effects of countries and scales are only significant for very few personalities. Conclusion: Personality traits are important antecedents of CWBs, and gender ratio plays a role as moderator for some personality traits. We propose that organizations should pay more attention to the mental health of employees and future studies could investigate other types of characteristics and moderators.     

The impact of aversive personality traits on the psychotic-spectrum of disorders

ObjectivesThough relatively unexplored in clinical populations, aversive personality traits have been shown to impact the expression, the management, and the outcomes of psychotic disorders. This paper seeks to gather and organize existing evidence of the complex interplay linking social ethics, personality and experiences of psychosis through the lens of the so-called Dark Triad personality model, comprising the three multidimensional constructs Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy.MethodsA semi-systematic review of major literature databases was conducted; search terms aimed at capturing each of the Dark Triad dimensions and their known relations with both clinical (with single-symptom approach) and non-clinical psychotic experiences.ResultsReviewed studies suggest that all the components of the Dark Triad model present significant clinical implications in the management of psychotic disorders.ConclusionsAversive personality traits interact with and modulate the experiences of psychosis. They can be shown to influence the clinical and functional outcomes of psychotic patients. Therefore, further research on this theme seems justified in that it may inform rehabilitative efforts.     

Bad News for Conservatives? Moral Judgments and the Dark Triad Personality Traits: A Correlational Study

This study examined correlations between moral value judgments on a 17-item Moral Intuition Survey (MIS), and participant scores on the Short-D3 “Dark Triad” Personality Inventory—a measure of three related “dark and socially destructive” personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Five hundred sixty-seven participants (302 male, 257 female, 2 transgendered; median age 28) were recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk and Yale Experiment Month web advertisements. Different responses to MIS items were initially hypothesized to be “conservative” or “liberal” in line with traditional public divides. Our demographic data confirmed all of these hypothesized categorizations. We then tested two broad, exploratory hypotheses: (H1) the hypothesis that there would be “many” significant correlations between conservative MIS judgments and the Dark Triad, and (H2) the hypothesis that there would be no significant correlations between liberal MIS judgments and Machiavellianism or Psychopathy, but “some” significant correlations between liberal MIS judgments and Narcissism. Because our hypotheses were exploratory and we ran a large number of statistical tests (62 total), we utilized a Bonferroni Correction to set a very high threshold for significance (p?=?.0008). Our results broadly supported our two hypotheses. We found eleven significant correlations between conservative MIS judgments and the Dark Triad—all at significance level of p?<?.00001—but no significant correlations between the Dark Triad and liberal MIS judgments. We believe that these results raise provocative moral questions about the personality bases of moral judgments. In particular, we propose that because the Short-D3 measures three “dark and antisocial” personality traits, our results raise some prima facie worries about the moral justification of some conservative moral judgments.     

“A Lot More Bad News for Conservatives, and a Little Bit of Bad News for Liberals? Moral Judgments and the Dark Triad Personality Traits: A Follow-up Study”

In a recent study appearing in Neuroethics, I reported observing 11 significant correlations between the “Dark Triad” personality traits – Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy – and “conservative” judgments on a 17-item Moral Intuition Survey. Surprisingly, I observed no significant correlations between the Dark Triad and “liberal” judgments. In order to determine whether these results were an artifact of the particular issues I selected, I ran a follow-up study testing the Dark Triad against conservative and liberal judgments on 15 additional moral issues. The new issues examined include illegal immigration, abortion, the teaching of “intelligent design” in public schools, the use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the war on terrorism, laws defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and environmentalism. 1154 participants (680 male, 472 female; median age 29), recruited online through Amazon Mechanical Turk, completed three surveys: a 15-item Moral Intuition Survey (MIS), the 28-item Short Dark Triad personality inventory, and a five-item demographic survey. The results strongly reinforce my earlier findings. Twenty-two significant correlations were observed between “conservative” judgments and the Dark Triad (all of which were significant past a Bonferonni-corrected significance threshold of p?=?.0008), compared to seven significant correlations between Dark Triad and “liberal” judgments (only one of which was significant past p?=?.0008). This article concludes by developing a novel research proposal for determining whether the results of my two studies are “bad news” for conservatives or liberals.     

Callous/unemotional traits and social-cognitive processes in adjudicated youths

OBJECTIVE: There seem to be two dimensions associated with psychopathic traits in youths: a callous/unemotional factor (C/U) and an impulsivity/conduct problems factor (I/CP). This study sought to clarify the nature of these two factors and examine their relation with social-cognitive problems in incarcerated adolescents. METHOD: One hundred sixty-nine male and female adjudicated youths were recruited for participation. Self-report measures and archival data were used to assess psychopathic traits, emotional distress, behavioral dysregulation, social-cognitive processes, and delinquency severity. RESULTS: Analyses demonstrated that the I/CP factor is associated with increased levels of dysregulated behavior, while the C/U dimension is related to deficits in empathy. The two factors exhibited differential relations with measures of emotional distress and fearfulness. C/U traits were associated with an increased focus on the positive aspects of aggression and a decreased focus on the negative aspects of hostile acts. Findings remained after controlling for demographic characteristics, abuse history, intellectual abilities, and delinquency severity. CONCLUSIONS: Results provide support for the two-dimensional nature of psychopathy in youths and suggest that C/U traits are associated with lower emotional distress and a specific social information-processing pattern. The potential implications for working with adjudicated youths exhibiting C/U traits are noted.     

Inconsistent handers show higher psychopathy than consistent handers

Three hundred and forty-two university students completed the Short Dark Triad (SD3) and the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI). Inconsistent handers showed higher psychopathy scores than consistent handers, and no handedness differences were observed for narcissism or Machiavellianism. Participants were further subdivided by quartile into low, moderately low, moderately high, and high psychopathy groups (non-clinical). Absolute EHI scores were equally distributed among low and moderate groups, but were significantly lower for the high psychopathy group. These findings suggest that inconsistent handedness is only associated with the upper quartile of psychopathy scores. Also, males showed significantly higher psychopathy scores than females, and the ratio of male to female inconsistent handers decreased as psychopathy score increased. No gender?×?handedness interaction indicated that both female and male inconsistent handers have higher psychopathy scores than consistent handers. Although significant, the effects were small and 99.6% of participants were not in the range of a potential clinical diagnosis. The reader, therefore, is strongly cautioned against equating inconsistent handedness with psychopathy.     

A Biosocial Interaction Between Prenatal Exposure to Cigarette Smoke and Family Structure in the Prediction of Psychopathy in Adolescence

Although a great deal of empirical research has examined the association between psychopathic personality traits and antisocial phenotypes, comparatively less empirical research has examined the factors that might contribute to the development of psychopathy. In an attempt to shed some light on this gap in the literature, the current study explored the biosocial correlates to adolescent psychopathy in a sample of youths. Analysis of data drawn from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care revealed that prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke was associated with higher scores on the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory. Interestingly, prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke only was related to psychopathy for youths who were raised in a two-parent household; there was not association for youths who were raised in a single-parent household. Reasons for this finding are provided and avenues for future research are discussed.     

Central nervous changes in social dysfunction: autism, aggression, and psychopathy

Neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia involve social interaction problems and poor mentalizing abilities, associated with abnormal regional cerebral activity. Similar problems may be present in aggressive personality disorders and psychopathy. This paper reviews brain imaging data from research aiming at establishing possible central nervous correlates to aggression and psychopathy. Studies in this field are associated with a range of method problems. Differences between criminal offenders and controls may be confounded by a number of factors unrelated to personality traits or aggression per se. Phenotypical characterisation varies between studies as do the laboratory methods and their interpretation. In spite of these problems, there are some recurrent findings in the present literature. Hypoactivity or structural reduction of the prefrontal cortex is a consistent finding in violent offenders or subjects with antisocial personality disorder. When defined as a personality disorder of social interaction and empathy, psychopathy seems to be associated rather with central abnormalities in the limbic circuitry. Indications of an increased dopaminergic neurotransmission relative to the serotonergic have also been connected to such personality traits, especially to the AD/HD-related behavioural aspects. Further studies using strict phenotypical definitions or experimental models are clearly warranted to establish a pathophysiological background to destructive personality traits and the propensity to violent acting out.     

Behavioral problems in school-aged hearing-impaired children: the influence of sociodemographic,linguistic, and medical factors

The purpose of this study was to examine several behavioral problems in school-aged hearing-impaired children with hearing aids or cochlear implants, compared to normally hearing children. Additionally, we wanted to investigate which sociodemographic, linguistic, and medical factors contributed to the level of behavioral problems, to pinpoint where targeted interventions can take place. This large, retrospective study included a sample of 261 school-aged children (mean age = 11.8 years, SD = 1.6), that consisted of three age- and gender-matched subgroups: 75 with hearing aids, 57 with cochlear implants, and 129 normally hearing controls. Self- and parent-reports concerning reactive and proactive aggression, delinquency, and symptoms of psychopathy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder were used. In addition, several language and intelligence tests were administered. Hearing-impaired children showed significantly more proactive aggression, symptoms of psychopathy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder than their normally hearing peers. More behavioral problems were associated with special schools for the deaf, sign (-supported) language, hearing aids (in contrast to cochlear implants), higher age, male gender, lower socioeconomic status, lower intelligence, and delayed language development. Hearing-impaired children face multiple problems regarding their behavior. The outcomes implicate that professionals should be aware of the higher risk of developing behavioral problems, in order to screen, detect, and treat in time. Furthermore, the associated risk and protective factors emphasize that clinicians must always consider the heterogeneity of the group of hearing-impaired children, in order to help and support the individual patient.     

Dysfunctional personality,Dark Triad and moral disengagement in incarcerated offenders: implications for recidivism and violence

It is particularly important to study the underlying processes of the dysfunctional personality patterns and of antisocial behaviour in the prison population, to identify them and to analyse the functioning of the psychological mechanisms involved in these constructs. The main goal of this study was to analyse dysfunctional personality patterns, Dark Triad, moral disengagement mechanisms and their relationship with violence and recidivism. Participants were 63 incarcerated offenders in two prisons. The study found a higher degree of moral disengagement in the participants convicted for crimes involving the use of violence. The results indicated that antisocial and aggressive-sadistic tendencies were the dysfunctional personality traits most strongly associated with moral disengagement. The binary logistic regression analysis showed that the variables, which influenced recidivism in criminal behaviour, were the use of violence in the crime committed, antisocial personality traits, and advantageous comparison and dehumanisation as mechanisms of moral disengagement.Key words: Dark Triad, dysfunctional personality, moral disengagement, violence and recidivism     

Gender Differences in at Risk Versus Offender Adolescents: A Dimensional Approach of Antisocial Behavior

The current study investigated gender differences in the main components of antisocial behavior in an at-risk versus an offender group of adolescents. One-hundred and forty-three adolescents divided into two different risk groups [at risk (n = 54) and offenders (n = 89)] were compared according to gender (111 boys and 32 girls). Externalizing symptoms were assessed with the Delinquent and Aggressive subscales of the Youth Self-report Questionnaire, internalizing problems with the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depressive Inventory and personality traits with the Barratt-Impulsiveness Scale as well as the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory. Results revealed a consistent interaction pattern, with girls presenting higher levels of externalizing symptoms, more motor impulsivity and a more arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style than boys in the at-risk group. In contrast, in the offenders’ group, psychopathic traits were more present in boys than in girls. Regarding internalizing problems, girls showed more depression than boys, independently of the risk group. Among offending youths, girls present equally severe externalizing problems, and problematic personality traits as boys. At-risk girls have the highest rates of difficulties across the tested domains and should therefore be specifically targeted for prevention and intervention.     

Self-reported reactive and regulative temperament in early adolescence: relations to internalizing and externalizing problem behavior and "Big Three" personality factors

The present study examined the relations between self-reported reactive and regulative temperament factors and psychopathological symptoms and personality traits in a group of non-clinical youths aged 9-13 years (N=208). Results showed that the reactive temperament factor of negative affectivity was positively associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms, whereas the regulative temperament factor of effortful control was negatively related to such symptoms. Further analyses provided some support for the notion that in particular the combination of high negative affectivity and low effortful control was associated with high symptom levels. Results also revealed specific relations between lower-order temperament traits and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. That is, fear and (low) attention control appeared to be more clearly associated with internalizing symptoms, whereas anger/frustration and (low) activation and inhibitory control were more convincingly linked to externalizing symptoms. Finally, relations with the "Big Three" personality traits were as anticipated, with high positive correlations between negative affectivity and extraversion/surgency and their Eysenckian counterparts of neuroticism and extraversion, respectively.     

The relationships between gender,psychopathic traits and self-reported delinquency: a comparison between a general population sample and a high-risk sample for juvenile delinquency

Background

Studies have shown that youths with high psychopathic traits have an earlier onset of delinquent behavior, have higher levels of delinquent behavior, and show higher rates of recidivism than youths with low psychopathic traits. Furthermore, psychopathic traits have received much attention as a robust indicator for delinquent and aggressive behavior in both boys and girls. However, there is a notable lack of research on gender differences in the relationship between psychopathic traits and delinquent behavior. In addition, most of the studies on psychopathic traits and delinquent behavior were conducted in high-risk samples. Therefore, the first objective of the current study was to investigate the relationship between psychopathic traits and specific forms of self-reported delinquency in a high-risk sample for juvenile delinquency as well as in a general population sample. The second objective was to examine the influence of gender on this relationship. Finally, we investigated whether the moderating effect of gender was comparable in the high-risk sample for juvenile delinquency and the general population sample.

Methods

Participants were 1220 adolescents of the German-speaking part of Switzerland (N = 351 high-risk sample, N = 869 general population sample) who were between 13 and 21 years of age. The Youth Psychopathic traits Inventory (YPI) was used to assess psychopathic traits. To assess the lifetime prevalence of the adolescents’ delinquent behavior, 15 items derived from a self-report delinquency instrument were used. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between gender, psychopathic traits and self-reported delinquency across both samples.

Results

Our results demonstrated that psychopathic traits are related to non-violent and violent offenses. We found no moderating effect of gender and therefore we could not detect differences in the moderating effect of gender between the samples. However, there was a moderating effect of sample for the relationship between the callous and unemotional YPI scale and non-violent offenses. In addition, the regression weights of gender and sample were, for non-violent offenses, reduced to non-significance when adding the interaction terms.

Conclusions

Psychopathic traits were found to be present in a wide range of youths (i.e., high-risk as well as general population sample, young children as well as adolescents, boys as well as girls) and were related to delinquent behavior. The influence of age and YPI scales on self-reported delinquency was more robust than the influence of gender and sample. Therefore, screening for psychopathic traits among young children with psychosocial adjustment problems seems relevant for developing effective intervention strategies.

     

Latent Personality Profiles and the Relations with Psychopathology and Psychopathic Traits in Detained Adolescents

The present study constructed empirically derived subtypes of adolescent offenders based on general traits and examined their associations with psychopathology and psychopathic traits. The sample included 342 detained minors (172 boys and 170 girls; mean age 15.85 years, SD = 1.07) recruited in various Youth Detention Centers across the Flemish part of Belgium. All adolescents provided self-reports on the quick big five, the youth self report, and the youth psychopathic traits inventory to assess general traits, psychopathology, and psychopathic traits respectively. Latent class analyses based on general personality traits were performed and suggested three personality types, consisting of an emotionally labile, close-minded and goal-oriented class, an undercontrolled class, and an emotionally labile–careless class. These three personality types within detained minors showed particular constellations of general traits and differed meaningfully in terms of their mean-scores on externalizing psychopathology and psychopathy measures.     

Heritability estimates of the Big Five personality traits based on common genetic variants

According to twin studies, the Big Five personality traits have substantial heritable components explaining 40–60% of the variance, but identification of associated genetic variants has remained elusive. Consequently, knowledge regarding the molecular genetic architecture of personality and to what extent it is shared across the different personality traits is limited. Using genomic-relatedness-matrix residual maximum likelihood analysis (GREML), we here estimated the heritability of the Big Five personality factors (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness for experience) in a sample of 5011 European adults from 527 469 single-nucleotide polymorphisms across the genome. We tested for the heritability of each personality trait, as well as for the genetic overlap between the personality factors. We found significant and substantial heritability estimates for neuroticism (15%, s.e.=0.08, P=0.04) and openness (21%, s.e.=0.08, P<0.01), but not for extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The bivariate analyses showed that the variance explained by common variants entirely overlapped between neuroticism and openness (rG=1.00, P <0.001), despite low phenotypic correlation (r=−0.09, P <0.001), suggesting that the remaining unique heritability may be determined by rare or structural variants. As far as we are aware of, this is the first study estimating the shared and unique heritability of all Big Five personality traits using the GREML approach. Findings should be considered exploratory and suggest that detectable heritability estimates based on common variants is shared between neuroticism and openness to experiences.     

Clinical neuropsychiatric symptoms in perpetrators of severe crimes against persons

The objective of the study was to explore the possibility of common signs and symptoms of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders and personality disorders, especially psychopathy, in a cohort of violent offenders. A structured neuropsychiatric status comprising features recorded in childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders and adult personality disorders was assessed in 89 perpetrators of severe crimes against other persons, analysed for factor structure, and compared to clinical diagnostics of neuropsychiatric disorders and independent assessments of psychopathy rated by the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R). One or several childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders [autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), tics and learning disability] affected the majority of adult offenders. A factor analysis yielded four higher-order problem constellations: Executive Dysfunction, Compulsivity, Social Interaction Problems and Superficiality. All four constellations were positively correlated with life histories of aggression, stressing the clinical importance of these problems in adult forensic psychiatry. Compulsivity and Social Interaction Problems were associated with autistic traits and tics, Executive Dysfunction with AD/HD, conduct disorder and psychopathic as well as autistic traits. Superficiality was a distinct aspect of AD/HD and psychopathic traits, especially the PCL-R factor reflecting interpersonal callousness. Neuropsychiatric disorders and personality disorders such as psychopathy share common symptoms. The various facets of psychopathy are associated with executive dysfunction and empathy deficits with superficial understanding of self, others and the rules of communication.     

The association between the suicide crisis syndrome and suicidal behaviors: The moderating role of personality traits

BackgroundPersonality traits have been associated with long-term suicide risk but their relationship with short-term risk is still unknown. Therefore, to address this gap, we explored the moderating effect of personality traits on the relationship between the Suicide Crisis Syndrome (SCS) and short-term suicidal behaviors (SB).Sampling and MethodsAdult participants (N = 459) were administered the Suicide Crisis Inventory (SCI), a validated self-report questionnaire designed to measure the intensity of the Suicidal Crisis Syndrome, the Big Five Inventory for personality traits, and the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale for SB at intake and at a 1-month follow-up. The PROCESS macro in SPSS was used to test the moderation model. Covariates hypothesized to influence the results were added: age, gender, ethnicity, years of education, and depressive symptomatology on the Beck Depression Inventory. This study was a secondary analysis drawn from a larger study on the SCS.ResultsSCI total score had a significant positive relationship with SB at the 1-month follow-up for patients with lower levels of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness, respectively. Hence, these four traits were protective against SB. There was an association between SCI and SB for patients with high levels of neuroticism at the 1-month follow-up.ConclusionsHigh levels of neuroticism served as a risk factor, whereas high levels of the other Big Five traits were protective factors against short-term SB in the context of elevated SCS symptoms. Thus, personality traits play a role in moderating the relationship between the SCS and imminent SB.     

Clinical neuropsychiatric symptoms in perpetrators of severe crimes against persons

The objective of the study was to explore the possibility of common signs and symptoms of childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders and personality disorders, especially psychopathy, in a cohort of violent offenders. A structured neuropsychiatric status comprising features recorded in childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders and adult personality disorders was assessed in 89 perpetrators of severe crimes against other persons, analysed for factor structure, and compared to clinical diagnostics of neuropsychiatric disorders and independent assessments of psychopathy rated by the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R). One or several childhood-onset neuropsychiatric disorders [autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), tics and learning disability] affected the majority of adult offenders. A factor analysis yielded four higher-order problem constellations: Executive Dysfunction, Compulsivity, Social Interaction Problems and Superficiality. All four constellations were positively correlated with life histories of aggression, stressing the clinical importance of these problems in adult forensic psychiatry. Compulsivity and Social Interaction Problems were associated with autistic traits and tics, Executive Dysfunction with AD/HD, conduct disorder and psychopathic as well as autistic traits. Superficiality was a distinct aspect of AD/HD and psychopathic traits, especially the PCL-R factor reflecting interpersonal callousness. Neuropsychiatric disorders and personality disorders such as psychopathy share common symptoms. The various facets of psychopathy are associated with executive dysfunction and empathy deficits with superficial understanding of self, others and the rules of communication.     

The association between inconsistent handedness and psychopathy does not extend to the domain of moral reasoning

A recent study [Shobe, E., & Desimone, K. (2016). Inconsistent handers show higher psychopathy than consistent handers. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 21(2), 143–160. doi:10.1080/1357650X.2015.1089879] found an association between inconsistent handedness (the use of one's non-dominant hand for some tasks) and psychopathy. Because this provides evidence for an association between an individual difference and a trait that is perceived negatively, the present study set out to (1) attempt to replicate the finding and (2) determine whether inconsistent handedness and psychopathy predict similar patterns of moral reasoning. An Mturk sample of 344 adults took the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory, the Short Dark Triad Questionnaire, and the Moral Foundations Questionnaire. The finding of a modest association between handedness and psychopathy was replicated. However, handedness and psychopathy predicted totally different response patterns on the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, with psychopathy predicting less concern for others and fairness and inconsistent handedness predicting less respect for authority and less in group loyalty.