D: The Dark Factor of Personality

What is D?

A unified theory of aversive personality

Ethically, morally, and socially questionable behavior is part of everyday life and instances of ruthless, selfish, unscrupulous, or even downright evil behavior can easily be found across history and cultures. Psychologists sometimes use the umbrella term “dark traits” to subsume personality traits that are linked to these classes of behavior — most prominently, Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Over the years, more and more allegedly distinct and increasingly narrow aversive traits have been introduced, resulting in a plethora of constructs lacking theoretical integration.

In proposing D — the Dark Factor of Personality — we specify the basic principles underlying all aversive traits and thereby provide a unifying, comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding aversive personality. In analogy to the general (g) factor of intelligence, D represents the one basic general dispositional tendency from which specific aversive traits arise as manifestations. All commonalities between various aversive traits can thus be traced back to D, so that D represents the common core of all these traits.

For example, D may be evident in Narcissism and/or Psychopathy, but also in any other specific traits such as Amorality, Egoism, Greed, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, Sadism, or Spitefulness, as well as in any combination thereof. Thus, instead of saying that an individual is an amoral, egoistic, narcissistic psychopath who selfishly acts according to her/his own interests and, in doing so, engages in sadistic and spiteful behaviors, one may just say that this individual displays high levels in D. D explains why aversive traits are connected and thereby forms the theoretical basis for the emergence of aversive personality in general.

The definition of D

D is defined as:

The general tendency to maximize one's individual utility — disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others —, accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications.

Put simply, D describes the tendency to ruthlessly pursue one's own interests, even when this harms others (or even for the sake of harming others), while having beliefs that justify these behaviors.

D is a basic, general dispositional tendency, which means that D is responsible for and can be evident in any specific aversive trait (such as, for example, Psychopathy) and any malevolent behavior (for example, abusing, bullying, cheating, intimidating, insulting, exploiting, harassing, humiliating, hurting, lying, manipulation, molesting, stealing, taunting, threatening, tormenting, torturing, trolling, etc.).

The content of D

Individuals with high levels in D will generally aim to maximize their individual utility at the expense of the utility of others. Utility is understood in terms of the extent of goal achievement, which includes different (more or less) visible gains such as excitement, joy, money, pleasure, power, status, and psychological need fulfillment in general. Thus, individuals high in D will pursue behaviors that unilaterally benefit themselves at the cost of others and, in the extreme, will even derive immediate utility for themselves (e.g., pleasure) from disutility inflicted on other people (e.g., pain). Individuals high in D will generally not be motivated to promote other’s utility (e.g., helping someone) and will not derive utility from other’s utility (e.g., being happy for someone).

Further, those with high levels in D will hold beliefs that serve to justify their corresponding actions (for example, to maintain a positive self-image despite malevolent behavior). There are a variety of beliefs that may serve as justification, including that high-D individuals consider themselves (or their group) as superior, see others (or other groups) as inferior, endorse ideologies favoring dominance, adopt a cynical world view, consider the world as a competitive jungle, and so on.

More about D

In the section below, you can find an annotated list of all published papers on D, briefly summarizing their content and providing links to download a copy.

For very informative summaries about the idea of D take a look at Scientific American and Psychology Today.

Papers on D

The theory of D and its defining aspects

Moshagen, M., Hilbig, B. E., & Zettler, I. (2018). The dark core of personality. Psychological Review, 125, 656-688. (doi) (download pdf)

Hilbig, B. E., Moshagen, M., Thielmann, I., & Zettler, I. (2022). Making rights from wrongs: The crucial role of beliefs and justifications for the expression of aversive personality. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 2730–2755. (doi) (download pdf)

Stability of D over time and situations

Zettler, I., Moshagen, M., & Hilbig, B. E. (2021). Stability and change: The dark factor of personality shapes dark traits. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12, 974-983. (doi) (download pdf)

Thielmann, I., Hilbig, B. E., Schild, C., & Heck, D. W. (in press). Cheat, cheat, repeat: On the consistency of dishonest behavior in structurally comparable situations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. (download pdf)

Measuring (and modeling) D

Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2020). Measuring the dark core of personality. Psychological Assessment, 32, 182-196. (doi) (download pdf)

Bader, M., Hartung, J., Hilbig, B. E., Zettler, I., Moshagen, M., & Wilhelm, O. (2021). Themes of the dark core of personality. Psychological Assessment, 33, 511–525. (doi) (download pdf)

Horsten, L. K., Moshagen, M., & Hilbig, B. E. (2023). On the (number of) aversive traits it takes to approximate the common core of aversive personality. Scientific Reports, 13, 15021. (doi) (download pdf)

Measuring D in languages other than English

Bader, M., Horsten, L., Zettler, I., Hilbig, B. E., & Moshagen, M. (2022). Measuring the dark core of personality in German: Psychometric properties, measurement Invariance, predictive validity, and self-other agreement Journal of Personality Assessment, 104, 660-673. (doi) (download pdf)

Bader, M., Jobst, L. J., Zettler, I., Hilbig, B. E., & Moshagen, M. (2021). Disentangling the effects of culture and language on measurement non-invariance in cross-cultural research: The culture, comprehension, and translation bias (CCT-) procedure. Psychological Assessment, 33, 375-384. (doi) (download pdf)

Bonfá-Araujo, B., Ferreira, L. B., Jesuíno, A. D. S. A., Hauck-Filho, N., & Iglesias, F. (2023). Measuring the dark core: A Brazilian adaptation and comparison between the general population and incarcerated men. Journal of Criminal Justice, 89. (doi)

Pechorro, P., Rodrigues, R., Bonfá-Araujo, B., DeLisi, M., & Simões, M. R. Measuring the Dark Core of Personality in Portugal: A Psychometric Examination of D. Deviant Behavior, 1-14. (doi)

García-Fernández, J., Postigo, Á., Cuesta, M., & Moshagen, M. (2024). Spanish Adaptation of the D70 – The Dark Core of Personality in Spanish-Speaking Countries. European Journal of Psychological Assessment. (doi)

Streckert, N., Kurtz, L., & Kajonius, P. J. (2023). Can your darkness be measured? Analyzing the full and brief version of the Dark Factor of Personality in Swedish. International Journal of Testing, 23, 145-189. (doi)

D vis-a-vis specific dark traits (especially Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Sadism)

Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2023). The dispositional essence of proactive social preferences: The dark core of personality vis-à-vis 58 traits. Psychologial Science, 34,143-278. (doi) (download pdf)

Bader, M., Hilbig, B. E., Zettler, I., Moshagen, M. (2023). Rethinking aversive personality: Decomposing the Dark Triad traits into their common core and unique flavors. Journal of Personality, 91, 1065-1271. (doi) (download pdf)

Hilbig, B. E., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2024). A little parsimony goes a long way: Aversive (‘dark’) personality and pro-environmentalism. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 96, 102291. (doi) (download pdf)

Scholz, D. D., Thielmann, I., Hilbig, B. E. (2023). Down to the core: The role of the common core of dark traits for aversive relationship behaviors. Personality and Individual Differences, 213, 112263. (doi) (download pdf)

Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., & Heck, D. W. (in press). Filling in the missing pieces: Personality traits (un)related to dishonest behavior. European Journal of Personality. (doi) (download pdf)

D and psychopathology

Scholz, D., Zimmermann, J, Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2024). Theoretical and empirical integration of ‘dark’ traits and socially aversive personality psychopathology. Journal of Personality Disorders, 38, 241-267. (doi) (download pdf)

Scholz, D. & Hilbig, B. E. (2024). Disentangling the shared and unique aspects of clinical and subclinical socially aversive traits relevant for interpersonal personality dysfunction. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment. (doi) (download pdf)

Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Klein, S. A., Moshagen, M. & Zettler, I. (2021). The dark core of personality and socially aversive psychopathology. Journal of Personality, 89, 216-227. (doi) (download pdf)

D and socio-political attitudes

Moshagen, M., Hilbig, B. E., & Zettler, I. (2024). How and why aversive personality is expressed in political preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 127, 664-683. (doi) (download pdf)

Thielmann, I., & Hilbig, B.E. (2023). Generalized dispositional distrust as the common core of populism and conspiracy mentality. Political Psychology, 44, 789-805. (doi) (download pdf)

D vs. HEXACO Honesty-Humility, Big Five Agreeableness, and other candidates for the common core of aversive traits

Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., Horsten, L. K., & Hilbig, B. E. (2020). Agreeableness and the common core of dark traits are functionally different constructs. Journal of Research in Personality, 87, 103986. (doi) (download pdf)

Horsten, L. K., Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2021). Theoretical and empirical dissociations between the Dark Factor of Personality and low Honesty-Humility. Journal of Research in Personality, 95, 104154. (doi) (download pdf)

Scholz, D. D., Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Moshagen, M., & Zettler, I. (2022). Beyond (low) Agreeableness: Towards a more comprehensive understanding of antagonistic psychopathology. Journal of Personality, 90, 956–970. (doi) (download pdf)

Hilbig, B. E., Moshagen, M., Horsten, L. K. & Zettler, I. (2021). Agreeableness is dead. Long live Agreeableness? Reply to Vize and Lynam. Journal of Research in Personality, 91, 104074. (doi) (download pdf)

Horsten, L. K., Thielmann, I., Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., Scholz, D., & Hilbig, B. E. (2024). Testing the equivalence of the aversive core of personality and a blend of Agreeableness(-related) items. Journal of Personality, 92, 393– 404. (doi) (download pdf)

Horsten, L. K., Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2022). Fast, but not so furious. On the distinctiveness of a fast life history strategy and the common core of aversive traits. Personality Science, 3, e6879. (doi) (download pdf)

D and its relation with other characteristics, traits, and behaviors

Moshagen, M., Bader, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2023). The role of impulse and interference control in aversive personality: A comprehensive assessment. Acta Psychologica, 239, 104018. (doi) (download pdf)

Hartung, J., Bader, M., Moshagen, M., & Wilhelm, O. (2021). Age and Gender Differences in Socially Aversive ("Dark") Personality Traits. European Journal of Personality, 36, 3-23. (doi) (download copy (PDF))

Tiwari, S., Moshagen, M., Hilbig, B. E., & Zettler, I. (2021). The Dark Factor of Personality and Risk-Taking. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18, 8400. (doi) (download pdf)

Hilbig, B. E., Zettler, I., & Moshagen, M. (2023). Dark Factor of Personality and Heroism. In S. T. Allison, J. K. Beggan, & G. R. Goethals (eds) Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies . Springer, Cham. (doi) (download pdf)

Measuring D

General issues

D explicitly represents a fluid construct and will thus be reflected in all indicators used to assess dark traits. Nonetheless, the operational definition of D obviously depends on the specific indicators included. For example, if using an inventory designed to assess Narcissism, the resulting scores will of course primarily reflect Narcissism and only secondarily reflect D. A particular operationalization of D will thus be flavored depending on the dark trait measures included, so that (slight) shifts in meaning are to be expected when different sets of dark traits are investigated. Thus, although the indicators of any particular dark trait will — to a certain extent — also reflect D, measuring D itself requires the inclusion of a sufficiently large number of indicators in order to capture the full theoretical breadth that D represents.

Measuring and modeling D

Based on rational item selection techniques, we have identified sets of items that allow for a psychometrically sound, reliable, valid, and concise assessment of D. These sets come in different lengths, comprising 70, 35, or 16 items respectively (thus referred to as D70, D35, and D16). Details on item selection, psychometric properties, and validation results can be found in

Moshagen, M., Zettler, I., & Hilbig, B. E. (2020). Measuring the dark core of personality. Psychological Assessment, 32, 182-196. (doi) (download copy (PDF))

and details on how to model D when relying on these item sets and the D70 in particular can be found in

Bader, M., Hartung, J., Hilbig, B. E., Zettler, I., Moshagen, M., & Wilhelm, O. (2021). Themes of the dark core of personality. Psychological Assessment, 33, 511–525. (doi) (download copy (PDF)).

Moreover, a growing number of translations of these item sets are available (Arabic, Chinese (Simplified / Traditional), Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi (Devanagari script / Latin script), Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (European / Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish (Castilian), Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese), all of which were translated by native speakers with expertise in psychology, independently backtranslated by native speakers, and checked for inconsistencies by us. If you are considering adapting the items to any other language, please contact us.

Download the item sets and translations

By filling out the form below you can obtain a copy of the final items sets in all currently available versions (16, 35, and 70 items) and languages. Once you have clicked the 'download'-button you will receive an email to the address you entered containing a download link.

The Dark Factor
of Personality