Understanding prejudice in terms of approach tendencies: The Dark Triad traits, sex differences, and political personality traits

Abstract We examined whether the Dark Triad traits predict race- and sex-based prejudice or just a generalized antisociality. American MTurk workers (N = 266) reported their approach tendencies towards targets who were varied by sex (i.e., same sex, other sex) and race (i.e., same race, different race) and responded to questionnaires capturing the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and political personality (i.e., social dominance and authoritarianism). Social dominance, narcissism, and psychopathy revealed a generalized pattern of limited approach (i.e., prejudice) towards members of both sexes and racial in-group and out-group members. In contrast, Machiavellianism and authoritarianism were only linked to limited approach towards racial out-group members. Sex differences in approach tendencies towards different race and opposite-sex others were fully and partially mediated by individual differences in the Dark Triad traits and social dominance (respectively), the Dark Triad traits accounted for more variance than social dominance in same sex and different race approach tendencies, and some of the links between personality and approach tendencies were moderated by the sex of the participant. Results were discussed in relation to how personality traits can account for prejudicial attitudes.