Do employees with dark personality traits review their jobs unfavorably? Textual content analysis of online employee reviews

Abstract This study investigates the association between Dark Triad traits (DTT), narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, and employee review generation and consumption on Glassdoor. Using 533,007 reviews of S&P 500 companies, we applied the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count method to infer DTT-linked language markers. Results show small but statistically reliable negative associations between narcissism and psychopathy and both review rating and perceived helpfulness. In contrast, Machiavellianism shows a small negative link to review ratings but a positive link to helpfulness. Confidence intervals and incremental fit statistics confirm the modest, context-dependent nature of these effects. Theoretically, the findings link trait-based organizational psychology with communication perspectives on online disinhibition and cue-reduced contexts, showing how antagonistic tendencies can surface in discursive evaluations outside the workplace. The study also advances a behavioral–linguistic approach to measuring personality at scale, complementing traditional self-report methods. Managerially, the results suggest that personality-linked patterns in employee reviews exist but operate alongside situational and platform factors, emphasizing the importance of context when interpreting online employer reputation signals.