Dark Triad Personalities: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy

About this video lesson:
In psychology, the dark triad represents three personality traits: Narcissism, Psychopathy and Machiavellianism. People scoring high on the 3 traits are more likely to commit crimes, and create severe social problems in society. What do you think? Can these traits be overcome or will they always cause problems for individuals and society?
#psychopathy #machiavellianism #psychopathy #sproutslearning

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CHAPTERS
0:00 The Dark Triad
0:50 Narcissist
1:30 Machiavellian
1:58 Psychopath
2:49 Nature vs Nurture
4:02 Evolutionary explanation
5:59 Our wonderful Patrons
6:08 Support us

COLLABORATORS
Script: Jonas Koblin
Artist: Pascal Gaggelli
Voice: Matt Abbott
Coloring: Nalin
Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa
Production: Selina Bador
Production Assistant: Bianka
Proofreading: Susan

SOURCES

Dark triad and depression

DIG DEEPER
The Big Five Personality Traits - Sprouts
The Light Triad of Personality - Psychology Today

CLASSROOM EXERCISE
What can be done to protect society from individuals scoring highly on dark triad attributes? Do you think that all individuals who score highly will act on these dark impulses and should all highly scoring individuals be treated the same? What can we do to help them overcome their dark triad traits?

These are just a few questions that can help start a discussion on the dark triad with your class. Let us know their opinions in the comments below.

[Woodman-Spare-that-tree]

Psychopaths don’t always “come across as scary”. They can be charming people superficially.

[Cannon]

I actually knew a psychopath in high-school. Kinda cool guy, did pretty much whatever he wanted. He simply didn't seem to want anything that would sit outside general social rules, and saw no point in being aggressive, forceful, or violent unless he needed to.

[DemetriPanici]

*"Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have." -Epictetus*

[shelleyboggs]

Narcissists follow a very specific pattern when dating, and if you identify with any of the patterns listed below then you can possibly be dating a narcissist.

Love bombing/Idealization: When someone love bombs you, they often shower you with excessive or overwhelming levels of affection, gifts, time, and adoration. Some common traits of love bombing include providing excessive amounts of attention, and admiration to the point you feel as if it is overwhelming. You feel like you finally met the one, and it feels like the best love experience you’ve ever experienced to the point of it feeling unreal. Passionate romantic sex like no other. The excessive phone calls, text messages, social media posts etc. Love bombing is often constant, intense, and may even make you feel uncomfortable or overly confident. Love bombing can be a way of establishing control over you when dealing with a narcissist. This is the phase where they get you hook on them, like a drug.

Devaluation phase: is when the narcissist begins to detach, demean, disappear, degrade, demonize, disrespect you rather than getting closer to you. They will begin subtly and covertly putting you down to devalue you. The manipulative statements, and verbal abuse said to you is unfathomable but unfortunately, if you are indeed in a toxic relationship with a narcissist then this is the norm. You may experience a sudden eruption of a mean evil temper, a frighten rage, silent treatment, and Jekyll and Hyde where you don’t know which version of them you will get each day or throughout the day. Eventually, the person with narcissistic tendencies will start picking you apart and finding faults with you.

Narcissistic discard: is when a person with narcissistic tendencies ends their relationship with you without no notice, or closure. Some will tell you or show you that they do not want you anymore, and that you’re no longer useful. They get bored or have used you to their advantage, and they have unbrotherly moved on to someone new, then the cycle repeats itself. If you feel like you’ve been used and discarded like an object as opposed to a human being, which is a very common behavior pattern when dating a narcissist, because they see people as objects, not a person.

[MrGrisha]

That's an interesting overview. I am a psychopath, And my advice to parents raising a psychopath is to raise him with a strict moral code. In my case the biblical law was what kept me in line and away from serious crime.
One thing I have to add is that we as psychopaths have a very strong sense of right and wrong but just like everything else, it has to be learned.

[Rebeing]

Psychology is like Mariana trench deeper you dive, stranger things you see...

[GB-rbup]

This video just described most of those in positions of authority all around the world.

[Shamballa]

Had a bit of machiavelic personality. I was always acting innocently but secretly manipulative. I never quite understood what i was doing though. I just did what i knew that worked in order to get my neeeds met. I later on learned to meet my own needs and now i no longer feel like i want to manipulate anybody. I still think i can, but i usually catch myself doing it, stop, and then do conscious shadow work to heal and integrate this part.

[FeastFamine]

We have to be careful when we are using our empathy while dealing with these dark triad personalities as they will absolutely see that as just another lever to push or pull.

[peterbruns]

Psychopaths don't come across as scary, not unless they're out-of-control A-listers. Quite the opposite actually, they are known for being very charming and disarming. Same with the narcissist, which is why it can be hard to tell the two apart at first. But the narcissist is fragile and needy, whereas the psychopath is truly confident and doesn't care. Sociopaths, on the other hand (pw ASPD like the psychopath but the two are different) usually come off as scary or unhinged... that's because sociopaths have stronger emotions than a psychopath. And Machiavellianism, even though it's listed in the Dark Triad, isn't really a personality trait. It's a cut throat strategy... a methodology for getting what you want. Who would you find practicing Machiavellianism? Greedy corporations and selfish people. That would include narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths.

[Blake-Urizen]

Check the DSM criteria for the Narcissistic (NPD) versus Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD, sociopathy, psychopathy) and you will see that they share many characteristics, some of which manifest in Machiavellian behavior. In other words, the triad is a spectrum of similar personality traits viewed from different directions. As to the "ego insecurity" of narcissists, I think it's quite often a matter of firm belief in personal-superiority coupled with reactivity to others' failures to "acknowledge" their "inherent superiority" = "How dare you criticize me?!"

[G.F.SF]

My dad has some traits of a narcissist, and I was repeating his behavior with my peers, but thanks to my mother I became more aware of my actions and learned to feel remorse for something I wouldn't even give a second thought to, it took years, but I think by learning from other great human beings I'm a better person now

[lesliel.]

I think it's good to have compassion like the video says but my best advice is to have compassion from a distance!

[moustachio]

I am Machiavellianist since childhood. It probably developed as inferiority complex because I often competed with my older and younger brother for attention from my parents. I wanted the care and support my mom treated my little brother with and I wanted to make my father proud in the way my slightly older brother did. My entire school life was riddled with intrusive thoughts of violence. I did a lot of terrible things that I regret til this day. I didn’t know there was a word for it. I eventually matured and found ways to cope with it and feel content and happy but I do have stressors I’ve yet to fully identify. I had a severe concussion three years ago and it felt like my mind lost 10 years of self-control. It’s been a terrible downward spiral for me especially since covid happened. However my self-control is good. Maybe it’s too good because the intrusive thoughts can really hurt my feelings and I often feel ashamed of myself.

[tune_tamer]

As a narcissist, making your loved one’s aware of your condition can help. Telling them how to deal with it can make things easy. Hiding and trying to use it as an advantage will only make your loved ones discard you.

[muricanecount]

2:00 "when you are a psychopath, you come across as cold and scary" - absolutely wrong information. Psychopaths actually come across as charming and funny even. Although the charm proves to be only superficial, eventually, when your usefulness to them ends and hence they stop prtending to care about you.

[funsometimes]

Finally, the Dark Triad in Black Clover makes sense now.

[augmenautus]

the machiavellian father teaching his son how to manipulate the puppet was actually kind of wholesome.

[kirstinstrand]

I believe Dark Triads can be observed frequently, especially in present times. People, in general, are not terribly observant of specific behaviors of strangers, therefore it takes repetitive contact to see through the cracks of Dark Triads. Because most people are amiable and trusting of others, few focus on the behavior of friends, neighbors and associates. Life is truly a learning process of ourselves and of society.

[Milestonemonger]

It took me 30 years to muster up the courage to tell my alcoholic, druggie, narcissistic, psychopath sister that I'd had enough. I could only do it through messaging because face-to-face confrontation absolutely terrified me. I've seen the way she beat her daughter during one of her drunken anger fits. Scary as shit.
After finally telling her what I really thought and that I was done! Predictably, she denied, deflected and played the victim.
After 3 years of zero contact, we are now on friendly terms, but as acquaintances, not sisters. It is the only way to not fall for her tricks again.