How People Higher in Dark Triad Traits Judge Infidelity

Man looking at woman checking phone

Source: Large tommaso79 / Shutterstock

The Dark Triad traits are Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, which are distinct, yet interrelated traits characterised by a lack of empathy and high levels of self-centredness. Machiavellianism is associated with being manipulative and narcissism with a general sense of superiority, whereas psychopathy is often related to impulsivity. Overall, individuals high on measures of Dark Triad traits exhibit a desire for short-term relationships and lower levels of relationship commitment, possibility being more likely to involve themselves in infidelity. Furthermore, individuals higher on Dark Triad traits generally show more sexual interest and are more likely to take risks than those scoring lower on these traits. Finally, their lower empathy and weaker attachment ties to their primary relationship partners all point toward them being inclined to judge infidelity differently than those who score lower on Dark Triad measures.

Researchers Gayle Brewer, Alexandra Guothova and Dimitris Tsivilis from the University of Liverpool set out to investigate this (Brewer, Guothova & Tsivilis, 2023). Their participants completed measures of Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. They then completed items from the Perceived Infidelity Questionnaire (Thornton & Nagurney, 2011), and the online subscale of the Infidelity Scale developed by Knight (2010), where participants had to rate items on whether they judged them to be unfaithful behaviour. Examples included:

• “Having an intimate emotional phone conversation with someone other than your partner”
• “Masturbating while in computer contact with someone other than your partner”

The researchers employed a statistical technique on the Perceived Infidelity Questions, which divided the items into five groups, which were:

Online infidelity: “Masturbating while in online contact with another person”; “Receiving pictures from an online contact”

Fantasized infidelity: “Watching pornographic movies”

Emotional infidelity: “Having an intimate emotional bond with someone other than your partner”

Sexual infidelity: Interactive explicit sexual behaviour, for example engaging in intercourse or oral sex.

Hidden attachment: “Being in a committed monogamous relationship while hiding an emotional attachment to someone else”

They then looked to see whether any of the Dark Triad traits were related to individuals’ perceptions of infidelity in each of the five categories above.

Machiavellianism

Individuals who scored high on Machiavellianism did not judge fantasized infidelity as unfaithful. The researchers explain that is because Machiavellianism involves exercising strategic behaviour in personal relationships, which may involve exploitation and manipulation. Therefore, individuals scoring high on this trait are possibly unconcerned with fantasized infidelity, as this would hinder their aim of obtaining control in a relationship.

Similarly, high scores on Machiavellianism were associated with lower infidelity judgements for emotional infidelity. Machiavellianism is associated with avoidant attachment which is typified by preferring emotional independence from others and being uncomfortable when being too close. The researchers speculate that because of this, they may feel less compulsion to be emotionally close to others, and be less uncomfortable with emotional infidelity on the part of a partner.

Psychopathy

Primary psychopathy was associated with higher judgements of infidelity for fantasized infidelity and emotional infidelity. Because primary psychopathy is related to emotional jealousy and greater general sensitivity, individuals high on this trait may quite naturally judge fantasized infidelity and emotional infidelity as unfaithful behaviour.

One of the characteristics of primary psychopathy is low empathy. Therefore, such individuals may find it hard to appreciate that their partners may need other types of companionship and separate this from their relationship with them. Or, additionally, they may not appreciate that their partners may just have an occasional need for sexual fantasising.

However, those individuals with high scores on primary psychopathy gave lower infidelity ratings to sexual acts or hidden attachments. The researchers suggest that individuals with higher scores on primary psychopathy may be more likely themselves to be involved in sexual infidelity and judge it low on infidelity judgements as a way of justifying their own behaviour. Finally, primary psychopathy is related to deceptive behaviour which is generally associated with sexual infidelity and hidden attachments, thus accounting for their lower infidelity ratings for such behaviour.

Infidelity Essential Reads

The Paradox of Infidelity: Unveiling Why Happy Partners Cheat

The 5 Most Common Reasons Why Women Cheat

Participants’ scores on the Dark Triad traits made no difference to judgements of online infidelity as unfaithful behaviour. In other words, there was no difference between individuals on high and low Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy scores on their infidelity judgements for online infidelity.

It should also be pointed out that we should maybe separate judgements of what constitutes infidelity and an individual’s likelihood of engaging in unfaithful behaviour. People may also perceive as different the behaviour they themselves engage in and the acceptability of the same behaviour performed by someone else. Further research might also consider relationship commitment and relationship quality on perceptions of infidelity.