“The Dark Beholder”: Personality Profile of Dark Visual Art Fans

The present study examined the personality traits of those who are attracted to dark visual art, in an attempt to understand whether their attraction to this dark genre indicates any of the dark traits. The study examined a sample of 241 participants from a specific forum of dark visual art fans (80% women and 20% men), aged between 18–65. Participants completed three online personality questionnaires: the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ / SF), examining the five traits of Extraversion, Neuroticism, Activity, Aggressiveness and Sensation Seeking; the SD3, assessing the Dark Triad traits of Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy; and the Empathy Quotient (EQ-Short). The fan of Dark Art, on average, scores higher than relevant controls on Machiavellianism (but not higher on Narcissism or Psychopathy); scores higher on Aggressiveness (but not higher on Sensation Seeking), but lower on Activity; and scores lower on Extraversion while scoring higher on Neuroticism.