The Dark Factor
of Personality

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

Original publication spelling out the theoretical idea and definition of D and demonstrating that (i) many dark traits are (largely) subsumed by D, (ii) D accounts for diverse aversive (behavioral) outcomes, whereas the specific dark traits provide little to no additional explanation of these outcomes (beyond D), (iii) D can be fully represented by subsets of indicators in line with its fluid nature (i.e. D can be measured by any combination of dark trait indicators), and (iv) within models of basic personality structure, D is located across multiple dimensions (especially Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness).

Hilbig, B. E., Moshagen, M., Thielmann, I., & Zettler, I. (in press). Making rights from wrongs: The crucial role of beliefs and justifications for the expression of aversive personality. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. (download copy (PDF))

Theoretically specifies and empirically tests the role of beliefs and justifications as per the definition of D, showing (i) that D involves higher subjective justifiability of those aversive behaviors that individuals high in D are more likely to engage in, (ii) that D uniquely relates to diverse descriptive and injunctive beliefs – related to distrust (e.g. cynicism), hierarchy (e.g. authoritarianism), and relativism (e.g. normlessness) – that serve to justify aversive behavior, and (iii) a theoretically derived pattern of moderations and mediations supporting the view that D accounts for aversive behavior because it fosters subjective justifiability thereof – at least in part due to certain beliefs and the justifications they afford.

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

Based on rational item selection techniques and data from seven large and highly heterogeneous samples (total N > 165,000), item sets (comprising 70, 35, and 16 items, respectively) suited for an economic and psychometrically superior direct assessment of D are identified. For more on measuring D and all item translations, see Measuring D below.

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))

Further investigates the internal structure of the D70 item set to measure D based on three large and heterogeneous samples. Shows that a bifactor structure modeling D along with five specific factors — or themes — labeled Callousness, Deceitfulness, Narcissistic Entitlement, Sadism, and Vindictiveness, yields a superior measurement model for D. For more on measuring D and all item translations, see Measuring D below.

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

Tests the theoretical notion that D is the underlying tendency from which specific dark traits arise as flavored manifestations. Shows in 4-year longitudinal data that D is stable and indeed more so than specific dark traits and that D longitudinally accounts for (change in) dark traits, sometimes more so than the dark traits themselves. For example, D (modeled without any spitefulness items!) is a descriptively better predictor of spitefulness four years later than spitefulness itself.

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))

Investigates the structure of the D Factor of Personality across age and gender using Local Structural Equation Modeling. Shows that the structure of D is highly stable across both age and gender, thereby supporting the conceptualization of the D factor. Further, men exhibited higher levels on D than females, and the level on D decreases as age increases.

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 copy (PDF))

Specifies the theoretical and conceptual differences between the common core of dark traits, the D factor, and HEXACO Honesty-Humility. Demonstrates across four studies and several criteria (pretentiousness, distrust-related beliefs, and empathy) that D and low Honesty-Humility are best understood as functionally different and nomologically distinct constructs.

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. (doi) (download copy (PDF))

Tests and rejects the notion that the common core of dark traits, the D factor, is essentially equivalent to the low pole of (Big Five) Agreeableness. Shows that D and Agreeableness are functionally distinct, that is, account for different variance components in theoretically relevant criteria, especially dishonest behavior, justifying beliefs, and (lack of) empathy and guilt.

Note also a recent comment on this paper:
Vize, C. E., & Lynam, D. R. (2021). On the importance of the assessment and conceptualization of Agreeableness: A commentary on ‘‘Agreeableness and the common core of dark traits are functionally different constructs”. Journal of Research in Personality, 90, 104059. (doi)

and our reply:
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 copy (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 copy (PDF))

Demonstrates the conceptual and empirical overlap between D and socially aversive tendencies as studied in abnormal psychology: narcissistic, antisocial, paranoid and borderline psychopathology. Shows that – despite the limited theoretical and operational correspondence between specific dark traits and instances of psychopathology – D is well suited as a common cause explanation and outpredicts not only the full range of basic personality dimensions (including those most strongly related to D: Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness) in accounting for aversive psychopathology, but actually the same instances of psychopathology themselves.

Scholz, D. D., Hilbig, B. E., Thielmann, I., Moshagen, M., & Zettler, I. (in press). Beyond (low) Agreeableness: Towards a more comprehensive understanding of antagonistic psychopathology. Journal of Personality. (doi) (download copy (PDF))

Compares the broad dispositions D, HEXACO Honesty-Humility, and Big Five Agreeableness in term of how (well) they accound for antagonistic psychopathology. Shows that only D sufficiently and similarly covers all aspects of antagonistic traits (affect, behavior, and cognition) and thus affords a more balanced representation of antagonistic psychopathology.

If you would like to know your level in D, you can take a questionnaire online at qst.darkfactor.org.

Determine your D-score

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, 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

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