Dark Triad test: Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy
Shows how you rate yourself on three personality styles that people tend to call dark: a calculating, manipulative outlook, a craving for admiration, and an impulsive, hard-edged streak. Everyone has these traits to some degree. The result describes a style, not a diagnosis and not a verdict on you as a person.
The Short Dark Triad (SD3) was developed by Daniel Jones and Delroy Paulhus in 2014 as a brief measure of three overlapping personality traits that psychologists study together as the Dark Triad. It has 27 statements, nine for each trait: Machiavellianism (a strategic, manipulative view of people), narcissism (grandiosity and a wish for admiration) and psychopathic traits (impulsivity, callousness and antisocial behavior), all in the subclinical form seen in ordinary people. Each answer scores 1 to 5, five statements are scored in reverse, and each trait is the mean of its nine answers. There is no total score.
This is not a diagnosis
The SD3 describes subclinical traits, the ordinary variation in how people deal with others, and it rests on your own ratings of yourself. A high score is not a personality disorder and not a verdict on your character. Only a clinician can assess a disorder, after a conversation.
What happens to your answers
Your score is calculated right in your browser. Your answers reach our server only if you ask for your result by email: we write the email and do not keep them.
Does a high score mean I am a psychopath or a narcissist?
No. The SD3 measures milder, subclinical versions of these traits as a matter of degree, and Sessio does not label anyone. A high score on a trait means you rate yourself as closer to its style. Whether a personality disorder is present can only be judged by a clinician, after a conversation.
How are the three scores calculated?
Each answer scores from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Five statements are scored in reverse: hating to be the center of attention, feeling embarrassed by compliments, being an average person, avoiding dangerous situations and never having been in trouble with the law. A trait score is the mean of its nine answers, so it runs from 1 to 5. The SD3 has no total score.
Why are there no low, medium and high levels?
The authors' form gives no cut-offs for these scores, so Sessio shows none. The three numbers only show which of the styles you rate yourself highest on and lowest on.
Source: Short Dark Triad (SD3): Jones D. N., Paulhus D. L., 2014, Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A brief measure of dark personality traits, Assessment 21(1), 28-41, DOI 10.1177/1073191113514105. Text: the authors' form SD3.1.1 (D. L. Paulhus, University of British Columbia, May 2014); the response labels are in sentence case and the phrase "using the following guidelines" is dropped.
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