A brief academic poster outlining the motives, methodology, and results of my empirical project undertaken during my honours year of my bachelor's degree. The overall aim of this research was to explore the relationship between the Dark Triad model (Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, & Narcissism) and Belief in a Just World.

1. Introduction
TheTheDarkTriad(TDT)ismadeupofthreepersonalitytraitswhicharegenerallyconsid-
eredtobeassociatedwithnegaveandsomemesimmoralacons-thesearePsychop-
athy,Machiavellianism,andNarcissism.Muchdebatehasclassicallycenteredaround
whetherthethreeDTtraitsarepraccallyhomogenous(McHoskey,Worzel,&Szyarto,
1998)orwhethertheyareallstandaloneconstructswithsomeexpecteddegreeofcor-
relaon(Paulhus&Williams,2002).ModernresearchhasgenerallyinvesgatedDT
traitswithregardstootherpersonalitymodels(Douglas,Bore,&Munro,2012),relaon-
shippreferences(Jonason,Luevano,&Adams,2012),andworkbehaviour(O'Boyle,For-
syth,Banks,&McDaniel,2012).However,verylileaenonhasbeenpaidtomorality
beliefsandtheirimplicaonswithregardstoDTtraits,specificallyBeliefinaJustWorld.
BeliefinaJustWorld(BJW)isacognivebiaswhichaffectshowindividualspercievethe
jusficaonforbothposiveandnegaveoutcomesforthemselvesandothers.Lerner
(1980)putforwardthenoonthatindividualsemployalevelofBJW toallowforplan-
ningforthefuture,aswellasbeingawaytopredicttheconsequencesoftheiracons.
LeveloftheBJWinanindividualisimportantasthereisevidenceofitaffecngeveryday
behavioursandacons.Thiscomesinmanyforms,suchasobservaonofvicmderoga-
on(Lerner&Simmons,1966),responsibilityaribuon(Shaver,1970),revengea -
tudestudes(Kaiser,BrookeVick,&Major,2004),andhelpingbehaviours(Depalma,Madey,
Tillman,&Wheeler,1999).WhileBJW hasbeencorrelatedwithsomepersonality
models,suchastheFive-FactorModel(Nudelman,2013),noresearchtodatehasexam-
ineditsrelaonshipwithTDT.
TheaimofthepresentstudywastofindarelaonshipbetweenTDTpersonalitytraits
andBJW,asthiscouldleadtonewwaysofalteringmaladapvebehaviourthrough
changesinmoralitybeliefs.ItwashypothesisedthateachDTtraitwouldcorrelatenega-
velywithBJW.
Method
•Sample
•177UKdomicilesrecruitedviaopportunity&snowballsamplingonsocial
media(Facebook,Twier,OnlineForums).
•74.6%werefemale(n=132),24.3%weremale(n=43),1.1%idenfiedas
“Other”(n=2).Meanageofallparcipantswas24.7,SDwas8.8.
•Measu•Measures
•TheShortDarkTriad(SD3)-(Jones&Paulhus,2014)
•A27-itemquesonnairemeasuringPsychopathy,Machiavellianism,and
Narcissism.Asubscalecomposedof9statementsispresentforeachtrait
andtheseareratedforagreementona1to5Likertscale.
•TheGeneralBeliefinaJustWorldScale(GBJWS)-(Dalbertetal.,1987)
•A6-itemquesonnairemeasuringthelevelofgeneralbeliefinajust
world.Thescaleiscomposedof6statementswhichareratedfor
agreementona1to6Likertscale.
•TheOnlineQuesonnaire
•Adigitallycreatedonlinequesonnaireusedtorecordparcipant
responses.Itcontained:
•Aninformaonformbrieflyexplainingthestudy.
•Ademographicsform(Age,sex,country&uniqueidenfier).
•TheSD3&GBJWSrecreateddigitally.
•Adebriefingformfullyexplainingthestudywithoptoutopon.
•’ThankYou’messageaskingparcipantstosharestudyhyperlink.
DatawascollectedthroughGoogleFormsandexportedintoSPSSfordataanalysis.
Results
MeanoverallscoresforeachDTtraitandBJWcanbeseeninFigure1.MeanDTscores
foreachtraittendedtobehigherinmalescomparedtofemales.However,themean
BJW scorewashigherforfemalescomparedtomales.Fullsamplemeanscoreswere
withintheexpectedaverage.
Fig1.
OOverallscoresforeachDTtraitwerecorrelatedwithoverallBJW scoresintheoverall
sampleusingaSpearman’sRhobivariatecorrelaon.Resultsapproachingsignificance
werefoundbetweenPsychopathyandBJW(r(175)=-.139,p=-.065),andNarcissismand
BJW(r(175)=.144,p=.056).Anon-significantresultwasfoundwhencorrelangMachia-
vellianismandBJW(r(175)=-.029,p=.702).
DDataweresplitbysexandanalysedagainusingaSpearman’sRhobivariatecorrelaon.
AsignificantposivecorrelaonwasfoundbetweenNarcissism andBJW inmales
(r(41)=.315,p=.039*),butthesametrendwasnotobservedinfemales(r(132)=.027,
p=.409).ThissignificantrelaonshipisillustratedinFigure2.
Fig2.
Discussion
TheDarkTriad&Beliefin aJustWorldRelationship
TheThehypothesisthatallthreeDTtraitswillcorrelatenegavelywithBJWisnotsupportedas
nosignificantrelaonshipswereobservedintheoverallsample.Itisworthnong,however,
thatanegavecorrelaonbetweenPsychopathyandGBJW,andaposivecorrelaon
betweenNarcissismandBJW bothapproachedsignificanceatthe.05level.Thissuggestsa
weakrelaonshipbetweentheDTandBJW,withtheexceponofMachiavellianismwhich
showedanalmostorthogonalrelaonshipwithBJW.Futurestudiesmayconsidersexdiffer-
encesandpossiblesocialdesirabilityresponsesoftheirrespondents.
SexdifferencesarelikelyasignificantfactorasstudiesbythelikesofPaulhusandWilliams
(2002)andJonason,Li,andBuss(2010)haveconsistentlyshownthatmalesscorehigherinDT
traitsthanfemales.Anoverabundanceoffemaleresponses(74.6%)mayhaveskewedthe
dataaveragestowardsthelowerendoftheDTspectrum.
SociallydesiSociallydesirablerespondingmayalsohavebeenasignificantfactorashigh-machsaremore
likelytolieinself-reportmeasuresasawayofappearingmoresociallydesirable(Triki,Cook,
&Bay,2015).EventhosenotscoringhighinMachiavellianismhavebeenshowntoelicitsocial
desirabilityrespondingwhenitisperceivedtobebeneficial(Holtgraves,2004).
FuturestudiesinvesgangDTtraitsandjuscebeliefsshouldaimtohaveanevensexsplitin
theirsampletopreventorreduceskewingofdatatowardsanyparcularendofthetrait
spectrums.Proxymeasurescouldalsobeusedtoreducesociallydesirableresponding.
MaleNarcissism &Beliefin aJustWorldRelationship
Althoughnotthemainhypothesis,furtheranalysisuncoveredasignificantposiverelaonship
betweenNarcissismandBJWinmales,howeverthisrelaonshipwasnotobservedinfemales.
ThisThisrelaonshipcouldbeexplainedwithregardstohowsomenarcissistsviewtheworldinrela-
ontothemselves.Suchindividualsmaybelievethemselvestobesuperiortoothersinarange
ofdifferentways,byextensiontheymayalsoseethissuperiorityastheobviousoutcomeina
worldwhere‘good’peoplereceivegoodoutcomes.Inessence,thosemaleshighinbothNarcis-
sismandBJWmayidenfywithastatementsuchas:IfIliveinworldwhereIamuniqueandspe-
cial,thenthatworldmustbejust,asIdeservetheseposivequalies.
Whythisrelaonshipisnotobservedinthefemalesamplemaysimplybeduetomalesgenerally
scoringhigherinDTmeasures(Paulhus&Williams,2002).Futureresearchshouldexplorethese
sexdifferencesinDTandBJWinmoredetail,idenfyinganypossiblesignificantfactors.
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TheRelationshipBetween DarkTriadTraits
ofPersonality&Beliefin aJustWorld
JamiePeutherer-BScHonsPsychology-Glasgow Caledonian University