A test of two brief measures of the dark triad: The dirty dozen and short dark triad.

Abstract

There has been a substantial increase in the simultaneous study of 3 related constructs--psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism--since being termed the dark triad (DT; Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Growing interest in the DT has led to the development of 2 short, efficient measures that reduce the number of items typically used from 124 to 12 (Dirty Dozen, or DD; Jonason & Webster, 2010) and 27 (Short Dark Triad, or SD3; Jones & Paulhus, in press), respectively. Using a community sample collected online (N = 287), we examined the convergent, discriminant, incremental, and criterion validity of scores from 2 brief measures of the DT. In general, scores from the SD3 scales manifested stronger convergent and incremental validity in relation to longer, more established measures of the DT constructs. Scores from both brief DT measures evidenced adequate discriminant validity as well as criterion validity in relation to traits from the five-factor model. However, the SD3 Narcissism Scale appears to assess primarily the grandiose aspects of this construct, whereas the DD captures both vulnerable and grandiose features of narcissism. Overall, if a short measure of the DT is required, the SD3 yields data that are more consistent with these constructs as they are measured using more established and validated measures.

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