The dark tetrad in the prediction of self-reported and behavioural risk-taking

Objective The explanatory power of the Dark Tetrad of personality (i.e., sub-clinical traits of sadism, psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism) in the prediction of risk-taking behaviours is yet to be determined. This study aimed to predict both self-reported and behavioural risk-taking from the four dark trait variables. Method Participants (N = 216) completed an online survey using the Short Dark Triad, the Assessment of Sadistic Personality, the Domain-Specific Risk-Taking Scale and the automatic Balloon Analogue Risk Task. It was hypothesised that psychopathy would positively predict risk-taking, and sadism would uniquely positively predict risk-taking. Results Both hypotheses were partially supported as psychopathy and sadism positively uniquely predicted self-reported risk-taking, but this was not significant for psychopathy after a Bonferroni correction. Furthermore, psychopathy and sadism were not significant predictors of behavioural risk-taking. Conclusions Detection of factors that motivate individuals to engage in risk-taking behaviours could be valuable in clinical interventions.