How Dark Triad Personalities Present Themselves Online

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Published in the August 2022 issue of Personality and Individual Differences, a paper by Nitschinsk and coauthors discusses the online self-presentation styles of people with Dark Triad traits—composed of the three manipulative personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.

Before discussing the study, a little introduction is in order.

The dark triad

The Dark Triad consists of the three personality traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. (Some researchers include sadism as well, thus creating the Dark Tetrad.)d below.

• Narcissists: Grandiose, self-important, entitled, and envious.
• Psychopaths: Disinhibited, superficial, charming, and ruthless.
• Machiavellians: Cold, cynical, deceptive, and calculating.

What is common to these personalities is a tendency to overvalue oneself and devalue others. In addition, these personalities are usually associated with maladaptive or socially aversive behavior—for example, meddling in other people’s lives, using manipulation to prevent one’s partner from leaving, engaging in one-night stands, cyberstalking, and unethical work behavior. Nevertheless, these manipulative behaviors can be adaptive in certain contexts. For instance, two aspects of psychopathy—dominance and coldheartedness—are common among police recruits. Similarly, narcissists are more likely than others to get promoted and appointed to leadership positions.

Not surprisingly, individuals with dark personality traits try to manipulate members of online communities as well—with the goal remaining the same as it does offline (e.g., obtaining money, position, admiration). So, an important question is what these manipulative people think of the Internet and how they present themselves online.

The self-presentation style of the dark triad

Sample

322 individuals; 191 men; average age of 33 years old (age range 18 to 77); 87% with some college education.

Measures

• The 17-item Presentation of Online Self Scale for Adults or POSSA. POSSA has three subscales: authentic self (“I am always my true self online”), adaptable self (“I regularly use different personas online”), and freedom of self (“I can show my best qualities online”).
• The 27-item Short Dark Triad (SD3) scale. SD3 assesses narcissism (“I know that I am special because everyone keeps telling me so”), psychopathy (“I’ll say anything to get what I want”), and Machiavellianism (“It’s wise to keep track of information that you can use against people later”).

Results

The results showed that individuals high in Machiavellianism and psychopathy tend to present adaptable and inauthentic versions of themselves online. Specifically, these individuals appear to “heed the perceived benefits of online environments, presumably because they offer affordances such as increased anonymity and greater control over the time and pace of interactions, meaning their antisocial inclinations face more minor consequences.”

People high in Machiavellianism, in addition, believed that the Internet provides them the freedom to express themselves. Indeed, being calculating, Machiavellians may reason that “online environments offer a risk-free opportunity to self-express, as they can flexibly adjust their behavior with little risk of their authenticity being questioned,” and achieve their self-serving goals.

Narcissism, however, correlated with authentic self-presentation. Why? Perhaps because narcissists’ primary motivation differs from the instrumental motives of psychopaths and Machiavellians.

Specifically, narcissists are less interested in manipulating others to get, say, money, than to become the center of attention and receive recognition, admiration, and confirmation of their grand and inflated self-views.

In general, narcissists felt online environments are not conducive to self-expression. One possible reason is that narcissists do not require the anonymity that online interactions offer. As noted, they want to be known, admired, and praised. Real-life environments, compared to online ones, offer more immediate affirmation and recognition, which they crave to protect their fragile self-esteem.

Dark Triad Essential Reads

The Dark Triad’s Dark Underside Shows Where Things Go Wrong

How to Tell Whether a Partner Is Hiding a Dark Side

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Takeaway

As a reminder: Psychopaths are charming, ruthless, and callous individuals. Machiavellians are cold and cynical long-term strategists. On the Internet, both these personalities employ inauthentic but adaptable personas (i.e. they act out different identities) in order to manipulate others.

However, narcissists—a personality characterized by grandiosity, a sense of superiority, entitlement, and the belief that one is very special and unique—have a different response to the internet: For one, they tend to present an authentic self when online. Second, they believe the Internet is not favorable for self-presentation. Why? Narcissists may feel that, for the purposes of getting attention and recognition, offline interactions are more satisfying than distant and anonymous online interactions.