Examining the conceptual and empirical distinctiveness of Agreeableness and "dark" personality items

A growing research literature has focused on what have been termed "dark" personality traits/constructs. More recently, the "dark factor" of personality has been proposed as a unifying framework for this research. To date, little work has rigorously investigated whether the traits/constructs investigated in the context of the dark factor can be captured by existing models of normative personality, namely Agreeableness from the Five-factor Model. Thus, the "dark factor" may be an instance of the "jangle" fallacy, where two constructs with different names are in fact the same construct.

We used a preregistered approach that made use of bass-ackward factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and nomological network analysis to investigate the distinction between the D factor and Agreeableness.

Agreeableness and the D factor were similar in their coverage of antagonistic personality content, strongly negatively related (latent r = -.90), and showed near perfect profile dissimilarity (r_ICC  = -.99).

The results suggested that the D factor can be understood as the opposite pole of Agreeableness (i.e., antagonism) and not as a distinct construct. We discuss the implications for researchers interested in continuing to advance the study of antagonistic personality traits.