The Dark Triad of personalities—Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy—all project onto Quadrant 2 of the interpersonal circumplex. That spatial similarity reflects their common interpersonal exploitativeness. An explanation of their distinctive behavioral tactics, however, requires both circumplex location and a specification of two moderators—temporal orientation and identity need. Temporal orientation (strategic vs. impulsive) distinguishes the strategic Machiavellians from the impulsive psychopaths and narcissists. Identity need distinguishes narcissists (high) from the psychopaths and Machiavellians (low). These two moderators may prove equally useful in the other quadrants by showing distinctions among variables that project onto the same location on the circumplex.
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