Skip to main content
Dryad

Data from: Is narcissism a slow life history strategy indicator? The answer depends on the LHS instrument

Manson, Joseph1

Published Jul 29, 2020 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5068/D1MQ18

Data files

Jul 29, 2020 version files 229.81 KB

Abstract

The Dark Triad (DT) traits are differentially related to psychometrically assessed life history strategy (LHS), such that psychopathy is strongly associated with a faster LHS whereas narcissism appears to be, if anything, a slow LHS indicator.  However, the research supporting these generalizations has been based largely on undergraduate samples in which LHS has been measured using the Arizona Life History Battery (ALHB) (or its short version the Mini-K), an instrument that arguably lacks adequate coverage of low-extraversion content linked to a slower LHS.  In August 2017, 929 U.S. MTurk workers completed three DT instruments (the Trimmed MACH*, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Self-Report of Psychopathy), a 10-item Big Five inventory, a 42-item version of the ALHB (the K-SF-42), and the Life History Rating Form (LHRF), which is less weighted toward high extraversion content than the ALHB.  Factor analysis of the DT instruments yielded factors corresponding to callousness, secondary psychopathy, and “socially adaptive” narcissism (leadership/authority and grandiose exhibitionism).  Callousness and secondary psychopathy were fast LHS indicators with respect to both LHS instruments.  “Socially adaptive” narcissism appeared as a slow LHS indicator with respect to the K-SF-42 but as a fast LHS indicator with respect to the LHRF.  Variation in extraversion accounted entirely for the K-SF-42’s positive association with “socially adaptive” narcissism.  This study suggests that narcissism’s apparent status as a slow LHS indicator may be more a matter of measurement than of substance.