You’d often come across people who are egoistic, sadistic, narcissist, bordering on the lines of psychopathy. These characteristics define a person with a dark side. A new study has thrown light on their behavioral traits, and one thing that is common among them all.
While your colleague who does not miss an opportunity to put you in trouble may not be as close to being a full-blown psychopath, scientists have found out a link between the two and the trait is not so uncommon as you may like to believe.
The most dominant tendency among them is called the dark triad, which encompasses traits like lacking empathy (psychopathy), heavily absorbed in self (narcissism) and believing that the final results justify the means (Machiavellianism). It is also known as the D-factor.
These people always put themselves first, even if it means harming another- that too without any guilt or shame.
The dark aspects of human personality also have a common denominator, which means that similar to intelligence one can say that they are all an expression of the same dispositional tendency.
For example, in a given person, the D-factor can mostly manifest itself as narcissism, psychopathy or one of the other dark traits, or a combination of these.