When consumer similarity backfires: Dark Triad personalities punish brands that act like them

A recent paper published in the Journal of Business Research suggests that consumers who possess manipulative or self-centered personality traits are more likely to punish brands that exhibit those same characteristics. Rather than feeling a sense of loyalty toward companies that mirror their own darker tendencies, these consumers tend to act aggressively against them. This research indicates that shared negative traits between a consumer and a brand can amplify hostility instead of building a connection.

In psychology, the Dark Triad refers to three personality traits associated with manipulative and self-serving behavior. Narcissism involves a sense of grandiosity and a need for admiration. Machiavellianism is characterized by a focus on self-interest and strategic manipulation. Psychopathy involves a lack of empathy and a disregard for social norms.

In the business world, companies can also be perceived as possessing these traits. For instance, a brand might seem narcissistic by silencing critics, Machiavellian by exploiting sustainability trends solely for profit, or psychopathic by operating with poor labor conditions.

“One thing we find particularly interesting is that brands can be judged in surprisingly human terms,” explained the researchers — Silvia Blas Riesgo and Andrea Giuffredi-Kähr of the University of Zurich, along with Lucia Malär of the University of Bern. “Consumers do not simply evaluate what brands do, they also form impressions of who brands are. They can see brands as arrogant, manipulative, or lacking empathy, much like they would judge another person.”

A widely accepted idea in marketing, known as self-congruence theory, proposes that consumers prefer brands that match their own personalities. When a person and a brand share similar characteristics, the consumer typically forms a stronger emotional attachment.

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“Self-congruence has long been treated as something that is good for a brand,” the researchers noted. “When consumers perceive a brand’s personality as being similar to their own self-concept, that similarity tends to have positive effects, such as stronger attachment and greater loyalty. We wondered what happens when that self-congruence is ‘dark’: when what a brand and a consumer have in common is not a positive trait like sincerity, but traits from the Dark Triad, namely narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.”

To explore this dynamic, the authors built on their past work measuring how companies are perceived by the public. “In our previous research, we developed and validated the Dark Triad of Brand Personality, which captures the extent to which consumers perceive brands as narcissistic, Machiavellian, or psychopathic,” they stated. “That gave us the tool we needed to test an intriguing question: if consumers and brands share these darker traits, does self-congruence still produce the favorable outcomes predicted by traditional theory, or can it actually backfire?”

The researchers first recruited 284 European consumers, with an average age of 30.5 years and a sample that was 73 percent female. Participants completed a standard psychological survey measuring their Dark Triad traits. They then read a fictional blog post about a fashion brand called ACE.

Half the participants read a version describing the brand as highly narcissistic, Machiavellian, and psychopathic, giving examples such as deleting critical comments and using unfair labor. The other half read a version portraying the brand positively. The researchers controlled for participants’ age, gender, mood, and interest in fashion.

Participants rated their willingness to engage in unethical punishment against the brand, such as lying or stealing to get even, on a scale from 1 to 7. Although overall punishment intentions were low, participants exposed to the dark brand reported higher punishment intentions, scoring an average of 1.52 compared to 1.11 for the positive brand. Participants who scored high on their own Dark Triad traits reported even higher punishment intentions. On the 7-point scale, the intention to punish the brand increased by roughly 8.7 percent among those with the darkest personality traits.

“The main takeaway is that similarity is not always beneficial,” the researchers told PsyPost. “In consumer psychology, it is well-established that people tend to respond more positively to brands that resemble them. Our research shows that this principle has an important exception.”

“Consumers who score higher on Dark Triad traits are not more forgiving of brands that appear narcissistic, Machiavellian, or psychopathic,” they added. “Instead, they are often more likely to punish them, including through unethical means such as lying to get a refund. In other words, when consumers and brands align on socially aversive traits, similarity can amplify rather than reduce negative reactions.”

A second study sought to understand the emotional mechanism behind this behavior. The scientists recruited 600 participants from the United States, with an average age of 41 and a sample that was 62.3 percent female. Using a similar procedure, participants evaluated a fictional outdoor clothing brand called Annapurna, presented as having either high or low Dark Triad traits.

In addition to measuring punishment intentions, the researchers measured reactive moral outrage. Reactive moral outrage is an immediate, spontaneous feeling of anger in response to a perceived moral violation. The researchers controlled for the same variables as the first study, along with the order in which participants took the surveys.

The second study replicated the initial findings, with punishment intentions averaging 1.83 for the dark brand versus 1.26 for the positive brand on a 7-point scale. The scientists found that reactive moral outrage acted as a bridge between the brand’s dark traits and the consumer’s desire to punish.

“The mechanism behind the effect surprised us,” the research team explained. “Consumers high in Dark Triad traits actually experienced less moral outrage, meaning feelings of anger and indignation about perceived wrongdoing, toward dark brands than other consumers. However, when they did experience moral outrage, they were much more likely to act on it. In other words, they seemed less emotionally reactive, but more willing to translate those emotions into punitive behavior.”

During this phase of the research, the scientists also asked participants how similar they felt they were to the brand, finding identical results regardless of how the connection was measured.

“We were also surprised by how robust the effect was,” the authors pointed out. “We found the same pattern even when we did not measure consumers’ Dark Triad traits directly, but instead simply asked how similar they perceived the brand’s personality to be to their own. In other words, consumers seemed to recognize the similarity between themselves and the brand, but that similarity did not make them more forgiving. If anything, it strengthened negative reactions.”

To see if these patterns apply to the real world, the researchers conducted a third study using real companies. They recruited another 600 participants from the United States, with an average age of 44 and a sample that was 49.1 percent female. Participants read adapted business articles about either Ninety Percent, a brand selected to represent low dark traits, or Loro Piana, selected to represent high dark traits.

This study measured unethical punishment intentions alongside other negative reactions, such as the desire for revenge, a motivation to disengage from the brand, and negative word-of-mouth. The scientists included additional controls, such as prior familiarity with the brands and how believable the scenarios were.

The results matched the previous experiments. The real-world dark brand elicited higher punishment intentions, scoring 1.71 compared to 1.21 out of 7. Consumers with high Dark Triad traits again felt less emotional outrage but acted on it more aggressively, with the overall effect increasing by 10 percent on the measurement scale.

This pattern extended to a desire for revenge and a motivation to cut ties with the brand. It did not apply to negative word-of-mouth. This indicates that consumers with dark traits prefer direct, brand-targeted retaliation rather than simply complaining about the company to other people.

“Consumers’ reactions were driven less by a specific transgression and more by the perception that a brand possesses enduring dark personality characteristics,” the researchers noted. “More broadly, our research highlights that not all forms of consumer-brand similarity are beneficial. The consequences of self-congruence depend not only on how similar consumers and brands are, but also on the nature of the traits they share.”

The reliance on controlled, written scenarios to introduce brand personalities presents a limitation. In the real world, consumers form opinions about a brand’s narcissistic or manipulative tendencies over long periods through repeated exposure to advertisements, news events, and personal experiences.

“Two of our three studies used controlled experimental scenarios with a fictional brand, which is a simplification of real brand relationships,” the authors stated. “Our third study replicated the pattern using real, well-known brands, which increases confidence that the findings generalize beyond hypothetical scenarios. However, all three studies capture a single point in time rather than how perceptions of brands develop over months or years of real-world exposure.”

They suggested that future research could track how consumer perceptions of dark brand traits develop naturally over months or years. “For example, a brand initially perceived as bold or disruptive may later be seen as exploitative once consumers observe the long-term consequences of its actions,” they explained.

Relying on self-reported intentions to punish a brand does not guarantee that consumers will follow through with actual behavior. People might state an intention to steal or cheat in a survey setting but act differently in real life. Observing actual marketplace behaviors, such as fraudulent returns or documented online sabotage, would provide stronger evidence for how Dark Triad traits influence consumer actions. Additionally, the studies focused primarily on Western consumers. Cultural differences in how people view manipulative business tactics or express moral outrage remain unexplored.

“There are several exciting directions for future research on Dark Triad brand personalities,” the research team observed. “One area we find particularly interesting is understanding the broader consequences of relationships with dark brands. Our research focused on punishment and retaliation, but consumers may also experience other outcomes.”

Future research could examine how consuming or identifying with dark brands affects consumer well-being, triggering feelings such as embarrassment or discomfort. The authors also plan to investigate if specific traits lead to different consumer reactions.

“While narcissistic, Machiavellian, and psychopathic brands share a common dark core, they are not identical,” they pointed out. “For example, psychopathic brands, which are perceived as lacking empathy and concern for others, may be especially likely to trigger extreme responses such as brand sabotage, where consumers actively seek to harm a brand.”

Finally, this framework could apply to individuals who operate as commercial entities. “We would like to extend this work beyond traditional corporate and product brands,” the researchers noted. “Influencers, celebrities, and online personalities increasingly function as brands in their own right. Future research could examine whether dark personality perceptions operate similarly in these contexts and whether endorsing a dark brand creates negative spillover effects for the people associated with it.”

The study, “When self-congruence backfires: how Dark Triad consumers react to Dark Triad brand personalities,” was authored by Silvia Blas Riesgo, Andrea Giuffredi-Kähr, and Lucia Malär.