Would the Real Trait Sadism Please Stand Up? On the Factor Structure of Trait Sadism

We analyzed the items of trait sadism measures to identify a coherent, hierarchical factor structure.

Numerous models and measures purport to assess trait sadism. Some of these measures overlap to a limited extent only. Simultaneously, trait sadism measures show strong redundancies with measures of psychopathy. These features suggest the presence of jingle and jangle fallacies.

In this preregistered study (N = 917), we applied the Bass Ackwards approach to trait sadism items to investigate their hierarchical factor structure. The resulting structure was then validated against criterion measures and a measure of psychopathy.

From 68 original items, 41 were not redundant with each other. Thereof, 19 remained after the Bass Ackwards analyses. We derived three factors that can be interpreted as active sadism, social sadism, and passive sadism. We estimated the correlations of trait sadism and psychopathy scores with scores of aggression, dominance striving, empathy, Big Five features, impulsivity, and honesty-humility. Furthermore, we tested for the similarity between the correlation profiles.

The hierarchical factor structure exhibited similarities with different models of trait sadism. At the same time, the correlation profiles observed for the integrative measure overlapped considerably with those of psychopathy, underscoring the assumed jangle fallacy.