A new psychological study has found that some people experience genuine pleasure from causing harm to others, and that this enjoyment is strongly linked to psychopathic personality traits. Published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, the research explored how dark personality traits influence sadistic pleasure. The findings suggest that while sadism is present in varying degrees across the general population, those with high levels of psychopathy—especially the emotionally detached trait known as coldheartedness—are most likely to take pleasure in cruelty.
While sadism has long been associated with sexual behavior and criminal violence, recent research suggests that everyday sadism—deriving pleasure from inflicting pain in non-sexual and socially acceptable ways—exists among the general population. This can be seen in the enjoyment of violent media, competitive aggression, or cruelty in online interactions. However, the psychological traits that contribute to such behavior remain unclear.
Researchers have previously explored how personality traits like narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy—collectively known as the Dark Triad—relate to sadistic tendencies. Among these, psychopathy has consistently shown the strongest link. But psychopathy itself is a complex personality trait with multiple dimensions, including impulsivity, emotional detachment, and manipulativeness. The researchers wanted to investigate which aspects of psychopathy were most strongly tied to sadistic pleasure.
Additionally, much of the previous research on sadism has relied on self-reported tendencies rather than directly measuring behavior. The new study sought to bridge that gap by using real-life behavioral tasks to observe how individuals respond to opportunities to cause harm.
To assess sadistic pleasure, the researchers recruited 120 participants between the ages of 18 and 55 from the general public and student population in Maastricht, Netherlands. Participants were asked to complete personality assessments measuring traits associated with the Dark Triad, as well as psychopathy subtraits such as impulsivity and coldheartedness.
The study involved two behavioral tasks designed to measure sadistic pleasure. In one task, participants were asked to “exterminate” pill bugs by placing them into what they believed to be a functioning grinder. In reality, the bugs were unharmed, but the participants were led to believe they were crushing them. In the second task, participants were given control over a noise blast that could be administered to another person, who was actually an actor in a pre-recorded video. The participants believed they were disrupting the other person’s performance in a game by blasting them with loud, unpleasant sounds.
Throughout the experiment, the researchers recorded the number of bugs participants chose to “grind” and the number of noise blasts they administered. Participants were also asked how much enjoyment they felt after completing each task.
The results showed that all three Dark Triad traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy—were positively associated with self-reported sadistic tendencies. However, when looking at actual behavior, psychopathy was the strongest predictor of sadistic pleasure.
The researchers further broke down psychopathy into its core components and found that coldheartedness was the most relevant trait. Participants with higher coldheartedness scores reported greater enjoyment from the bug-grinding task. This suggests that those who lack emotional concern for others are more likely to find pleasure in causing irreversible harm.
Interestingly, while coldheartedness was linked to enjoyment of bug grinding, it did not predict the number of bugs participants actually chose to grind. Similarly, while psychopathy was linked to general sadistic tendencies, it did not strongly predict actual participation in the noise-blasting task. This indicates that while individuals with psychopathic traits may enjoy cruelty, their engagement in harmful behavior might depend on other factors, such as situational constraints or personal motivations.
Another notable finding was that narcissism was negatively associated with noise blasting. This suggests that narcissistic individuals, despite their perceived self-importance, may be reluctant to engage in direct acts of harm unless provoked. This aligns with previous research indicating that narcissists tend to react aggressively only when their ego is threatened.
The findings provide further evidence that everyday sadism exists on a spectrum, rather than being confined to a small, criminal subset of the population. While only 11% of participants reported increased pleasure after grinding bugs, and 20% after blasting noise, the fact that these behaviors occurred at all suggests that many people have at least some capacity for deriving pleasure from harming others.
But as with all research, there are some limitations to consider. The sample was composed mostly of students, with a majority being female. Previous research suggests that men are generally more likely to display psychopathic and sadistic tendencies, so the findings may not be fully representative of the broader population. Future studies should include a more diverse sample to examine whether these patterns hold across different demographics.
Future research could also explore how other personality traits, beyond the Dark Triad, influence sadistic pleasure. Traits associated with Cluster B personality disorders, such as borderline or antisocial traits, may play a role. Environmental factors, such as upbringing and exposure to violence, could also be investigated to understand the development of sadistic tendencies over time.
The study, “Those who (enjoy to) hurt: The influence of dark personality traits on animal- and human directed sadistic pleasure,” was authored by Jill Lobbestael, Franziska Wolf, Mario Gollwitzer, and Roy F. Baumeister.