A series of four studies of German-speaking adults found that individuals with more pronounced dark core personalities tended to have a more pessimistic worldview. In other words, these people tended to see the world as less enjoyable, less stable, less regenerative, and less meaningful. The paper was published in. personality journal.
The dark core of personality is a common underlying tendency that connects various sociophobic personality traits. It was proposed to explain why traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, everyday sadism, and meanness tend to correlate with each other. This concept suggests that these traits are not completely separate traits, but rather share a common temperament core.
This core is described as a general tendency to maximize one’s own benefits while ignoring or accepting harm to others. People with high levels of dark core are more likely to justify unethical behavior when it serves their own interests. The concept builds on earlier ideas such as the “Dark Triad”, which focused on three related traits, by suggesting a broader common factor. In this way, the dark core helps explain why different forms of manipulative, exploitative, or ruthless behavior tend to co-occur in the same individuals.
Study authors Robin Schroeder and Benjamin E. Hilbig wanted to investigate whether the dark core of personality is associated with more negative primitive world beliefs. Primitive world beliefs are basic, deeply ingrained assumptions that people have about the overall nature of the world, such as whether it is safe or dangerous, good or bad, abundant or lacking. The study authors wanted to examine whether the negativity common among individuals at the top of the Dark Core is limited to beliefs that justify abusive behavior, or whether it reflects a broader view of the world as fundamentally dark.
They conducted four studies with 400 to 640 participants in each study. Across studies, the average age of participants ranged from 34 to 40 years. There were slightly more men than women in each of the four samples. More than 85% of participants in each of the four studies were residents of Germany. The remaining participants came from Namibia, Austria, and Switzerland. There were also a few participants from other countries.
The four studies differed in the assessments they used. Two studies administered a 16-item measure of the dark core, and the other two studies administered a 70-item measure (e.g., “I would say anything to get what I want” or “I can’t imagine how exciting it would be to be mean to others”). However, the researchers analyzed a subset of 16 items that were consistent across all four studies to maximize consistency. The first study used a short 18-item measure of Primitive World Beliefs (Primitive Inventory, German version), while the remaining three studies used a longer form of the Primitive World Beliefs Assessment, each focusing on a different specific aspect of Primitive World Beliefs (“alive,” “safe,” “attractive”).
The results showed that, in general, people with more pronounced dark core personalities tended to hold more negative primitive world beliefs, especially regarding whether the world was safe and attractive. For example, they tended to think the world was less rich, beautiful, improveable, interesting, meaningful, and worth exploring. They also tended to see the world as less cooperative, less benign, less fair, less joyful, less progressive, less regenerative, and less stable.
However, the researchers found a different pattern when it comes to the “living” dimension, or the belief that the universe is moving with purpose or intentionality. Dark core showed no meaningful association with this dimension overall. However, there is a small positive association with the “interactive” aspect, indicating that people high in dark traits are slightly more likely to believe that the universe or higher powers are actively involved in their personal lives and communications.
The authors suggest that this detached belief does not necessarily mean that they view the world positively, but rather is consistent with a grandiose, narcissistic self-view that is often seen in people with aversive personalities.
“Specifically, the dimension of meaningfulness was found to be uniquely associated with D (dark core). This suggests that perceiving many aspects of life as meaningless reflects a broader worldview that underlies D, one that goes beyond the specific beliefs used to justify aversive behavior,” the study authors concluded.
This study contributes to the scientific understanding of the psychological underpinnings of the dark core of personality. However, it should be noted that the cross-sectional correlational design of these studies does not allow causal inferences to be drawn from the results.
This paper, “Seeing the World Through a Dark Lens: The Relationship between the Dark Core of the Personality and Primitive World Beliefs,” was authored by Robin Schroeder and Benjamin E. Hilbig.
