People with narcissistic and psychopathic traits are more attractive, study finds

Do we like people with negative traits more?

They say that first impressions are crucial, and rightly so.. Considering that time is money when making decisions, the first few minutes in which we come into contact with an unknown person will lead us to decide to what extent this person is attractive or repulsive to us.

We simply cannot afford to examine each person in all their depth, attending to all their details and nuances, if we do not even know if it is worth spending our time on it.

Are narcissists and psychopaths more attractive?

When what we have to decide is whether or not the person in front of us is a potential partner, however, there is the paradox that we are trying to judge whether we can plan a life (or a few years) together from information that we gather in a very short time, with the first conversations. Perhaps This apparent contradiction is what makes it possible for us to find attractive the people we should least count on when it comes to creating common projects. when it comes to creating common projects.

Strangely enough, a study published in the European Journal of Personality has concluded that narcissists and people with psychopathic traits have an advantage in speed dating and are perceived as more attractive than the rest.

The seductive power of the Dark Triad

It has been known for several years that there are three personality traits that, despite having bad press and being frowned upon on paper, are particularly appealing. These three personality traits form the so-called Dark Triad, or dark triad, and are as follows:

• Narcissism: related to constant attention-seeking, undertaking actions to try to get others to like them, steadfast rejection of criticism and potentially self-esteem-damaging messages, and a tendency to manipulate other people.

• Machiavellianismrelated to the constant pursuit of wealth, power and fame, the establishment of long-term personal relationships aimed at manipulating others, and cold, dispassionate thinking focused on how to achieve one's own benefit regardless of the common good.

• Psychopathy: tendency to impulsivity, antisocial behaviors, manipulation of others and constant search for strong emotions.

You may have noticed that these traits do not fit very well with anything that has to do with collective projects and the establishment of common goals, which are fundamental and the establishment of common goals, which are fundamental pillars of family stability. However, from an evolutionary point of view, it is quite possible for people who only care about themselves to be reproductively successful: they just have to manage to manipulate enough people to produce offspring and have them reproduce.

In this way, these personality traits could be inherited, these personality traits could be inherited from generation to generation..

In the study at hand, a team of researchers wanted to see to what extent these three personality traits might be related to greater success in a series of speed dating conducted under their supervision.

How was the study conducted?

First, the researchers selected 90 people (44 men and 46 women) between the ages of 18 and 32. Once this group of volunteers had been identified, they were given a questionnaire measuring their scores on both the Dark Triad traits and the Big Five personality traits (extraversion, responsibility, agreeableness, emotional stability and openness to experience), which in other studies have been linked to success in maintaining long-term relationships.

After completing the questionnaires, participants went on to conduct a series of speed dating with each other. In total, 691 speed dating sessions were conducted, each lasting three minutes. After each date, participants filled out a form in which they rated the other person on several aspects, including their physical attractiveness, how eager they were to start a friendship with them, and the degree to which they would agree to have casual sex with them.

Results: narcissists are more desirable

The scientists found a significant correlation found a significant correlation between scores in psychopathy and narcissism and the chances of being chosen for short relationshipsThe scientists found a significant correlation between scores in psychopathy and narcissism and the chances of being chosen for short relationships, both in men and women, and regardless of their degree of physical attractiveness. That is, people with more narcissistic and psychopathic traits were more desirable as partners for short-term relationships. However, the correlation was inverse in the case of Machiavellianism trait.

In addition, the results reflected that women who scored higher on physical attractiveness also tended to score high on narcissism. As expected, the physical attractiveness variable had a powerful relationship with the likelihood of being chosen as a mate, especially for women.