The Dark Side of the Affective Profiles

The affective profiles model is based on the combination ofindividuals’ experience of high/low positive affect and high/low negative affect:self-fulfilling, high affective, low affective, and self-destructive. We used theprofiles as the backdrop for the investigation of individual differences in malevolentcharacter traits (i.e., the Dark Triad: psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism).A total of 1,000 participants (age: M = 31.50 SD = 10.27, 667 males and 333 females),recruited through Amazons’ Mechanical Turk (MTurk), responded to the Positive AffectNegative Affect Schedule and the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen. Individuals with a highaffective profile reported higher degree of narcissism than those with any otherprofile, and together with individuals with a self-destructive profile, also higherdegree of Machiavellianism and psychopathy than individuals with a low affective andself-fulfilling profile. Males scored higher in Machiavellianism and psychopathy.Together with earlier findings, our results show that while individuals in both theself-fulfilling and high affective profiles are extrovert and self-directed, only thosein the high affective profile express an immature and malevolent character (i.e., highlevels of all Dark Triad traits). Conversely, individuals in the self-fulfilling profilehave earlier reported higher levels of cooperativeness and faith. More importantly, theunique association between high levels of positive emotions and narcissism and theunified association between negative emotions to both psychopathy and Machiavellianismimply a dyad rather than a triad of malevolent character traits