On the Dark Triad and wrongness admission: An exploration of associations in scenarios, hypotheticals, and daily life

The Dark Triad of personality (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) has been associated with low levels of general and intellectual humility. In the present research, we explore the unique relationships between Dark Triad traits and the public facing mechanism of intellectual humility: wrongness admission. We analyzed data from three different studies that investigated self-reported hypotheticals and current behavior using both cross-sectional reports and longitudinal daily diary methodologies. We found distinctive patterns across the Dark Triad traits and admitting wrongness. Those higher in Narcissism were more willing to engage in wrongness admission, whereas those higher in psychopathy were both less willing to engage in wrongness admission and did so less. Those high in Machiavellianism seemed particularly concerned with the reputational concerns.