Dark Triads: Working With Bad People
Written by Dr. Farhan Shahzad and Sarah Davies-Robertson
The dark triad of personalities are as the name suggests; bad. They can be particularly challenging within the workforce. They are the personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellian, and psychopathy. These are the people that do great harm in the world. They lack empathy, seek power, and control, and manipulate for personal gain. They can cause terror and damaged self-esteem in their wake, but also fatalities. These are the people that you find in positions of power, or in prisons. They seek power and control and will manipulate to get what they want. There are three key personality types within the Dark Triad; narcissists, Machiavellian types, and psychopaths.
Narcissists
Narcissists are those that are incredibly self-absorbed, need constant affirmation, seek out strokes whether positive or negative, and engage
people to gain narcissistic supply. The term narcissist is quite ubiquitous, but few people actually fit the diagnostic term for narcissism.
Narcissists obsess about themselves. They focus on materialism and even their looks. They will often use people for personal gain before discarding them; they seek out people for narcissistic supply, emptying the person of emotions and leaving them feeling like a shadow of their former selves.
Machiavellian Personality Traits
Machiavellians are a scary bunch. This personality is based on Machiavelli himself. You may have read the book, Power. It was based on the ability to manipulate for control. Machiavelli’s, The Prince, was based on using immoral suggestions to maintain power. In The Prince, Machiavelli stated that it is the father that owns his children, and therefore, the father can choose whether he keeps them alive.
Machiavellians crave power and they don’t care about the means to which they gain it. They only care about themselves and their own goals and dreams. They prioritise money and power, lie and deceive others for personal gain, and lack a moral compass. Machiavellians, like narcissists, often come across as flattering and charming, with many saying that
they “have the gift of the gab.” Despite this, Machiavellians may be difficult to get to know, they will often be cynical of goodness and morality, questioning those that display these traits, and will have low levels of empathy.
We know a lot more about narcissism and psychopathy than we do Machiavellianism. However, the consequences of this personality are just as grave.
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is probably the most famous of the dark triad personalities. It is one that frequently appears in the media. Psychopaths have no empathy or remorse. They are often without feeling, which is the scary part, as
it means that nothing disturbs them. They are prone to pathological lying, are extremely charming, need stimulation, have poor impulse control, are callous, are grandiose, manipulative, and live a parasitic lifestyle.
Psychopaths, if they are not in prison, often rise to the top of the ranks in the business, finance, political, legal or medical professions. Their craving for power, and lack of sensitivity and empathy, makes them particularly frightening. They are the ones that are in prison for murder, whose modus operandi is to hide the bodies of their victim so that they are continuously on a power trip. When they aren’t overt criminals, they can wreak havoc in senior positions in the workforce, crushing subordinates in their desire for control.
Those with a dark triad personality are great at superficial relationships due to their charm. The following characteristics are normal:
- Love bombing: this is when the person with a dark triad personality will throw out all the stops. They may be overtly affectionate, often making the other person feel so loved, like they have never felt so before. As they do not feel empathy, the love bombing is a way to
get their ego stroked and fed. - Mimicking: people that have the dark triad personality traits will often mimic other people’s emotions as they do not know how to show and feel empathy.
- Gaslighting: this is when the person with a dark triad personality will deny the reality of a situation. It has their victims questioning their reality, often feeling like they are going insane. They do this to damage the person’s self-esteem so that they feel like they are going crazy.
- Exhausting victims: dealing with somebody with a dark triad personality is exhausting as it often feels like you are jumping through hoops.
- Rage: while the person with the dark triad will often feel emotionless, if their ego is not stroked, they may fly into rage.
- Repetitive behaviour: a person who has a dark triad personality will repeat their style of behaviour with others. Without help, they will continue charming and then discarding their victims.
The Light Triad
Wherever you see a need for power and personal gain, the dark triad personality is at work. While there has been so much focus on the dark triads, more recent research is focusing on the light triads. These are the people like the mother Theresas of the world. These people are the
humanitarians. They display love, warmth, compassion, curiosity, zest, kindness, forgiveness, collaboration and gratitude. The Light Triad is a newer form of research. One thing it tells us that these traits, whether good or bad, are on a spectrum.
