The Dark Tetrad and academic dishonesty: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of personality predictors of cheating, plagiarism, and deception in education

BACKGROUND: The subclinical personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism (i.e., the Dark Triad/Tetrad) have been linked to a range of antisocial and deceptive behaviours. With increasing concern about integrity in higher education, it is important to understand how these traits relate to academic misconduct with AI-assisted misconduct becoming more commonplace. METHODS: This systematic review and narrative synthesis examined evidence from 23 studies that investigated associations between dark traits and dishonest academic practices, including plagiarism, exam cheating, contract cheating, academic dishonesty, and AI-assisted cheating. RESULTS: Psychopathy showed the most consistent pattern of associations across misconduct behaviours. Machiavellianism was associated with some forms of dishonesty, such as plagiarism and cheating, but was not consistently associated with contract cheating. Narcissism showed weaker and more context-dependent associations. Everyday sadism was examined in comparatively few studies. Preliminary evidence linked sadism to some forms of academic dishonesty, including lying in academic contexts and AI assisted misconduct, but the small evidence base means that conclusions about its contribution to the Dark Tetrad framework remain tentative. CONCLUSIONS: Further research is needed before stronger conclusions can be drawn about sadism's role in academic misconduct. Future directions and implications, including suggestions for replication and expansion, are discussed.