Can manipulative, narcissistic, or callous individuals be seen as attractive? Some researchers have suggested that Dark Triad traits may enhance short-term desirability, making individuals appear confident, bold, or even seductive. However, a new study using controlled facial images and personality descriptions suggests otherwise. By examining how men and women evaluate the attractiveness of different personality types, this research provides new insights into whether these controversial traits hold any real appeal in mate selection—or if their supposed charm is merely a myth.
The paper was published in the Journal of Personality.
The Dark Triad refers to three personality traits that are generally considered socially undesirable: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Individuals with high levels of these traits tend to engage in manipulative and self-serving behaviors. Narcissism involves grandiosity, entitlement, and a need for admiration, often coupled with a lack of empathy for others. Those high in Machiavellianism are characterized by a propensity for cunning behavior, strategic manipulation, and a focus on personal gain, often at the expense of others. Psychopathy is marked by impulsivity, a lack of remorse, and a callous disregard for the emotions or well-being of others.
While these traits can be harmful in interpersonal and social contexts, they may also confer advantages in competitive or high-stakes environments such as business or politics. However, relatively little research has examined how these traits affect mate choice and sexual behavior. Some initial studies indicated that narcissism might be perceived as a desirable trait for both short‐ and long‐term relationships, whereas individuals high in Machiavellianism might be preferable as short‐term mates. Additionally, there are significant individual differences in these preferences.
Study authors Yavor Dragostinov and Tom Booth sought to explore how attractive individuals with different levels of Dark Triad traits are as mates. They hypothesized that persons attracted to males would find high levels of Dark Triad traits the most attractive for short‐term mates, while everyone would find low levels of Dark Triad traits the most attractive for long‐term mates.
They designed a set of vignettes, each consisting of a facial picture taken from the Chicago Face Dataset paired with a description of behavior corresponding to either low, medium, or high levels of Dark Triad personality traits. They conducted a pilot study with 29 postgraduate psychology students from the University of Edinburgh to test whether the behaviors described in the vignettes could be recognized as representing the intended levels of the three Dark Triad traits. The authors retained only those vignettes for which over 80% of pilot study participants correctly identified the presented personality traits and used these in subsequent studies.
The participants in the first study were 475 individuals recruited online through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as the survey-sharing site SurveyCircle. Among them, 313 were female. Three hundred twenty participants reported a sexual preference for men, 156 reported a sexual preference for women, and 32 reported being sexually attracted to both sexes.
These participants rated the attractiveness of individuals represented by nine vignettes (3 dark personality traits × 3 levels—low, medium, high) as potential short‐term and long‐term mates. Participants who stated that they were sexually attracted to men viewed vignettes with male faces, while those attracted to women viewed vignettes with female faces. Participants who reported being attracted to both sexes viewed four female and five male faces.
The second study involved 794 participants recruited via Prolific, 345 of whom were women. The average age of participants was 28 years. The study procedure was the same as in Study 1, except that the order of faces displayed to participants was randomized. This randomization meant that the physical attractiveness of each fictitious person was represented by a different face for each participant. In this way, the authors ensured that the overall ratings reflected the described personality traits rather than the attractiveness of the individual pictures.
In the first study, the researchers found that for short-term relationships, those with a female sexual preference (mostly men) generally rated profiles as more attractive overall compared to those with a male sexual preference (mostly women).
However, contrary to expectations, they did not find that high levels of Dark Triad traits were considered more attractive, and there was no interaction between sexual preference and Dark Triad level. For long-term relationships in the first study, similar trends emerged, with those preferring women again giving higher attractiveness ratings overall, but still no support for higher Dark Triad levels being more desirable.
The second study, with randomized face pairings, yielded some different and notable results. For short-term relationships, and in contrast to the first study and some previous research, lower levels of Dark Triad traits were actually perceived as more attractive than medium or high levels. Again, those with a female sexual preference gave higher overall attractiveness ratings.
For long-term relationships in the second study, the findings were consistent: lower levels of Dark Triad traits were considered the most attractive by both those with male and female sexual preferences. Across both studies, and particularly evident in the second study, higher levels of Dark Triad traits were not found to increase attractiveness, and in fact, lower levels were generally preferred, especially for long-term commitment.
“The current findings do not provide support for the notion that Dark Triad traits are attractive. The results suggest that men tend to be less selective than women overall when it comes to choosing partners—this occurs for both short-term and long-term relationships,” the study authors concluded.
The study sheds light on the possible effects of Dark Triad traits on perceived attractiveness. However, it should be noted that the study used textual descriptions of behavior and pictures of faces that were often randomly paired with the descriptions. This differs from real life, where evaluations of attractiveness are based on a complex set of characteristics, including interactions and consistency across both psychological and physical traits.
The paper, “The (Un)Attractiveness of Dark Triad Personalities: Assessing Fictitious Characters for Short- and LongTerm Relationships,” was authored by Yavor Dragostinov and Tom Booth.
