Motivation and emotion/Book/2025/Dark triad and power seeking motivation

Dark triad and power seeking motivation:
How do dark triad traits influence power seeking motivations?

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Overview

Figure 1. Dark triad traits

Imagine you are walking home in tears after another soul crushing day at wok having dealt with your boss with upwards to a nine hours that day. You have once again been underappreciated, undermined, and gaslight by your boss at every turn, and you just can't see to figure out why they are like this. You are wiping away your tears as you flick through Indeed and advice columns on dealing with a toxic workplace environment when you stumble upon an article about the Dark triad, what that is, and how dark triad traits manifest in a quest for power. And how they don't care who they have to step to get ahead.

The dark triad (See figure 1) is a popular collection of traits representing antisocial personality traits within the general public (Kajonius et al., 2015). From self serving underlings that will stab their liege in the back as soon as the tides turn, arrogant bosses that see all their staff as monkeys, and to the detached killers; this collection of traits help identify antisocial behavior that can be seen in current media, everyday life, and may provide an interesting context to a historical setting to someone's action. But identification is not explanation, and this chapter hopes to answer one fundamental question: How do dark triad traits influence power seeking motivations?

Focus questions How do high dark triad traits impact someone's reasoning for power motivation? What are power seeking motivations? Some of the main psychological theories towards power motivation and the role the dark triad plays into it Can there be such a thing as the altruistic motivation for power?

The Overview is typically consists of one to four paragraphs inbetween the scenario and focus questions. Suggested word count aim for the Overview: 180 to 330 words

What is the dark triad?

• Aim for three to six main headings inbetween the Overview and Conclusion

History of the dark triad theory

• • avoid having sections with only one sub-heading
  • provide an introductory paragraph before breaking into sub-sections

Relationship between dark triad traits and power seeking motivations

Dark triad bosses: Anastasia and David David's boss, Anastasia, angrily slams down a stack of reports on his desk as she says 'Unacceptable, redo all of these reports by this evening, or else'. David has to fight back tears as he hears Anastasia mercilessly mock his work with his colleagues and other higher members of the company. Then he swirls around in confusion as Anastasia offers to stay late to help him redo the reports while the owner of their company in ear shot, only for Anastasia to take all of the reports and do them herself saying, 'I would not trust you to run a bath without a lifeguard present'.

Main area of research

• The Dark Side of Power: The Dark Triad in Opportunistic Decision-Making - found that higher the dark triad the more likely they where to make ruthless, and opportunistic business decisions (Maneiro et al., 2019)
• The power of the dark side: personality, the dark triad, and political ambition - Machiavellianism and narcissism are significantly related to perceived qualifications for a career in politic (Blais & Pruysers, 2017)
• The positive connection between dark triad traits and leadership levels in self- and other-ratings - The results reveal that people in higher leadership levels display both higher self-rated and subordinate-rated dark triad scores, highest being narcissm followed by machuiavllisams (Diller et al., 2021)
• add another research??
  

Test yourself!

1 Question #1 goes here: True False 2 Question #2 goes here: True False

Conclusion

• The Conclusion is arguably the most important section
• Suggested word count: 150 to 330 words
• It should be possible for someone to only read the Overview and the Conclusion and still get a pretty good idea of the problem and what is known based on psychological science

Suggestions for this section: What is the answer to the sub-title question based on psychological theory and research? What are the answers to the focus questions? What are the practical, take-home messages? (Even for the topic development, have a go at the likely take-home message)

See also

• Dark triad (Wikipedia)
• Dark tetrad and emotion (Book Chapter, 2023)
• Dark tetrad and motivation (Book chapter, 2023)

References

Blais, J., & Pruysers, S. (2017). The power of the dark side: Personality, the dark triad, and political ambition. Personality and Individual Differences, 113(2), 167–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.03.029

Bolelli, M., & Ekizler, H. (2024). Dark triad, motivation to achieve power and social value orientation: A study from Türkiye. Journal of Yaşar University, 19(74), 130–149. https://doi.org/10.19168/jyasar.1338960

Diller, S. J., Czibor, A., Szabó, Z. P., Restás, P., Jonas, E., & Frey, D. (2021). The positive connection between dark triad traits and leadership levels in self- and other-ratings. Leadership, Education, Personality: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 3(2), 117–131. https://doi.org/10.1365/s42681-021-00025-6

D’Souza, M. F., & Lima, G. A. S. F. de. (2015). The dark side of power: The dark triad in opportunistic decision making. Advances in Scientific and Applied Accounting, 8(2), 135–156. https://doi.org/10.14392/asaa.2015080201

Ekizler, H., & Bolelli, M. (2020). The effects of dark triad (machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy) on the use of power sources. İstanbul Ticaret Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 19(37), 27-44. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341788788_The_Effects_of_Dark_Triad_Machiavellianism_Narcissism_Psychopathy_on_the_Use_of_Power_Sources#full-text

Guillén, L., Jacquart, P., & Hogg, M. A. (2022). To Lead, or to follow? How self-uncertainty and the dark triad of personality influence leadership motivation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 49(7), 1043-1057. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221086771

Kajonius, P. J., Persson, B. N., & Jonason, P. K. (2015). Hedonism, achievement, and power: Universal values that characterize the dark triad. Personality and Individual Differences, 77, 173–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.055

Maneiro, L., López-Romero, L., Gómez-Fraguela, J. A., Cutrín, O., & Romero, E. (2019). Pursuing the dark triad. Journal of Individual Differences, 40(1), 36–44. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000274

External links

• Dark triad (Psychology Today)
• Dark Triad Personalities: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy (YouTube)
• Understanding the Dark Triad (Mind Tools)
• Six top tips for writing a great essay (University of Melbourne)