Well-being and the Dark Triad

a r t i c l e i n f o Much of the research in the last few years has linked the Dark Triad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machi-avellianism) to negative outcomes. In a sample of Polish undergraduate students, we examined how the Dark Triad traits differ in their relationships with eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. Narcissism was positively related to both variants of well-being, and after controlling for its shared variance with the other two dark traits its relations to well-being outcomes have noticeably increased. While psychopathy was related to lower levels of both eudaimonic and hedonic well-being, Machiavellianism was generally unrelated to well-being outcomes. The Dark Triad managed to predict unique variance in most of well-being scales, beyond broad personality factors. This research, depicting independent contributions of the Dark Triad traits to eudaimonic and hedonic well-being, suggested that having a sub-clinical narcissistic personality is helpful for living a good, full functioning life, and may even be useful for well-being of others. In recent years there has been exponential increase of interest in a set of socially aversive traits collectively referred to as the Dark Triad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and their psy-chosocial determinants and correlates. Although narcissism and psy-chopathy are originated in clinical literature and practice, they are treated as sub-clinical traits in the Dark Triad composite. Hence, the Dark Triad deals with narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism at non-clinical levels that varies within the normal population. People high on these " dark " personalities are characterized by disagreeable-ness, callousness, dishonesty, duplicity, and aggressiveness; they tend to lead a fast and exploitive, rather than a caring and prosocial, Of these three dark traits narcissism is on the " lighter " side while the other two, the Malicious Two, are further on the dark side (Furnham et al., 2013; Rauthmann & Kolar, 2012). For instance, while people showing psychopathic or Machiavellian traits do not particularly live a long, and happy life, high scorers on narcissism often report higher levels of self-esteem and subjective well-being Additionally, higher levels of attractiveness (a desirable feature in both short-term and long-term relationships) in narcissists " lead to positive feedback from others that enhances self-views " (Holtzman & Strube, 2010, p. 134). Nevertheless, this does not mean that narcissism is a purely adaptive trait; it is clearly maladaptive in a number of respects, and has long-term interpersonal costs, such as mate abandonment, and attachment …