No empathy for people nor for God: The relationship between the Dark Triad, religiosity and empathy

Abstract Religiosity has been linked to low levels of antisocial personality traits. In the present study ( N  = 661), we examined the relationship between various aspects of religious beliefs (general religiosity, intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation), empathy, and the Dark Triad. We found that both empathy and general religiosity were negatively associated with psychopathy and Machiavellianism, and that religious beliefs were positively associated with empathy. Further analyses revealed that empathy partially mediated the inverse relation between dark traits and religious beliefs. These results were discussed in the context of recently emerging concepts suggesting that empathic skills and mentalization are crucial factors for religion. The capability to attribute mind to another being (human or supernatural) is argued to be an essential condition for developing religious beliefs as people usually think of deities as intentional agents with their own mental states. Additionally, the results indicated that psychopathy and Machiavellianism were negatively associated with intrinsic orientation, whereas grandiose and vulnerable narcissism were positively associated with extrinsic orientation.