What is the “dark side” of personality?

This is not an obvious question. My colleagues, Peter Harms and James LeBreton, and I discussed this to some extent in a review of “The Dark Side of Personality at Work,” published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, by contrasting it with the so-called “light side.” Personality, also known as the “Big Five” – extraversion, neuroticism/emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. These are the key dimensions of normal interpersonal functioning – being outgoing and in control, non-anxious, warm and friendly; Hardworking and organised, and interested in new ideas, values and experiences, respectively.

We view the dark side as those characteristics that lie between the above normal range dimensions and severely problematic or dysfunctional personality disorders—that is, the dark side is more extreme than the above traits, but less severe than recognized personality disorders.

Related: THIS Is Why You Keep Attracting Narcissists (And How You Can Stop It)

Pros and Cons

The dark side can be helpful in some situations but can undermine people who live in difficult or stressful circumstances. Consider, for example, being somewhat paranoid. You may be suspicious of other people’s motives, and believe that the world is relatively hostile: “I think Jason is after my job”; “Angela might be trying to steal one of my clients.” Ideas like these may, in general, help protect you from legitimate power plays at work, but they may also lead you to perceive threats that do not exist.

Machiavellian

In our review, we link the dark side of Machiavellianism to paranoia, as described above. But perhaps this is an oversimplification. People high in Machiavellianism—sometimes called “high Mach”—are manipulative. They enjoy deceiving others, and are willing to do almost anything to get their way. Consider Walter White in Breaking Bad: he would lie in almost any way, even giving the appearance of weakness to do so, if it suited his current needs. But he wasn’t always good at it! His big, elaborate tricks were often effective, but his small, everyday lies could be laughably clumsy.

Machiavellians are eager to manipulate others, but they are not necessarily more skilled at manipulation than anyone else.

Psychopathy

The second trait of the Dark Triad is called psychopathy, which is called an “antisocial” personality. We should be clear that this does not mean what people usually mean when they say antisocial, which is better classified as antisocial (i.e. introverted, not introverted). “Wanting to be around others.) What “antisocial” means in this context is the opposite of “prosocial.” This means that an antisocial person is generally harmful to others — or perhaps just too focused on themselves rather than on others .

Psychopathy and Machiavellianism share a lack of empathy, but are combined with impulsivity. Psychopaths are risk takers and do whatever they want in the moment. I have described psychopathy as probably the darkest of the Dark Triad. Psychopaths do not feel as much guilt or shame as most people do, but they also experience below-average levels of anxiety.

This may be an advantage if your work requires unpleasant procedures. In the first episode of House of Cards, main character Frank Underwood sums this up well, saying: “Moments like this require someone like me. Someone who will act. Who will do what no one else has the courage to do. Someone who will do the unpleasant thing. The unpleasant thing.” the necessary.”