The Sociable and the Deviant: A Latent Profile Analysis of HEXACO and the Dark Triad

Abstract This paper adopts a person-centered approach to explore how personality traits from the HEXACO and Dark Triad cluster into profiles. We examine how these emergent profiles correlate with behavioral deviance and prosociality. Three studies (total N = 792) reveal five qualitatively different latent profiles which we label: ‘emotional dysregulated’, ‘dark social recluse’, ‘all-round malevolent’, ‘socially considerate’, and ‘social narcissist’. These profiles were differentially related to self-reported deviance and prosociality, as well as behavioral expressions of deviance. In particular, the ‘all-round malevolent’ openly expressed their deviance in both word and deed. However, although the ‘social narcissist’ disguised their deviance when self-reporting, they cheated as much as the ‘all-round malevolent’ in behavioral tasks when they believed themselves unaccountable. These findings suggest that certain combinations of HEXACO and Dark Triad traits may be more pernicious than Dark Triad alone.