More than Just Aversive: A Network Analysis of the Dark Triad, Coping, and Psychopathology

The dark triads are a set of personality traits (subclinical narcissism, subclinical psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) aggregated due to their primarily socially aversive associations. However, recent work has suggested that some dimensions of these traits (e.g., narcissistic extraversion) may be adaptive in coping with psychopathology. Lesser researched are the dimensions of psychopathy and Machiavellianism in association with mental health and coping. The current study, therefore, examined the dimensions of all dark triad traits in association with psychopathology. Participants (N = 350) completed questions on dark triad factors, psychopathology, and coping. Data were analyzed using lasso regularized network analysis. The findings demonstrated that narcissistic extraversion and neuroticism could act positively and negatively, respectively, on depression through Machiavellian agency. Machiavellian agency also connected strongly and negatively to depression; however, centrality indices showed that this connection was not influential. Machiavellian agency instead acted as a bridge node to facilitate the indirect, negative connection from narcissistic extraversion and the positive connection from narcissistic neuroticism to depression. Machiavellian agency is often overlooked in dark triad research. Further research should be undertaken to understand the mechanisms by which Machiavellian agency interacts with narcissistic extraversion to protect against depression.