The leader-member exchange (LMX) theory emphasises the relationship between leaders and subordinates at the workplace, suggesting that leaders quickly create in and out-groups with certain...Show moreThe leader-member exchange (LMX) theory emphasises the relationship between leaders and subordinates at the workplace, suggesting that leaders quickly create in and out-groups with certain subordinates which can lead to in-group bias, the act of favouritism of members of your in-group compared to members of an out group. An in-group is a social group which an individual identifies with, whilst an out-group is consequently the dissimilarity to an in-group. It has also been found that people who score highly on the Dark Triad are likely to hold leadership positions. The Dark Triad is a psychological theory of personality illustrating three dark personality types consisting of malicious qualities: Machiavellianism, sub-clinical narcissism and sub-clinical psychopathy. With leaders scoring highly on the Dark Triad and the plausibility of in-group bias occurring in organisations, it is important to investigate whether the Dark Triad influences in-group bias to remove in-group bias from a leader and organisation and cease LMX from forming. Therefore, this paper examines whether in-group bias is present using the dictator game and whether the Dark Triad (both traits individually and as a whole) accentuates in-group bias. First-year psychology students from Leiden University (n = 75) participated in a dictator game to measure in-group bias, before completing the SD3 questionnaire to measure levels of the Dark Triad. Three hypotheses were made: firstly, dictators will allocate a higher endowment to in-group recipients compared to out-group recipients. Secondly, participants scoring highly on either Machiavellianism, narcissism, or both will have a higher in-group bias. Thirdly, participants scoring highly on the Dark Triad as a whole will demonstrate higher in-group bias. Results indicate in-group bias, however, no significant results were found in the relationship between the Dark Triad and in-group bias. This is the first paper to directly investigate the relationship between the Dark Triad and in-group bias with many limitations obstructing the accuracy and generalisability of the results. Therefore, this study lays the groundwork for future research in investigating this relationship.Show less
Previous research on the connection between the Dark Triad traits and aggression is largely based on self-report measures. This paper examines how the traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy and...Show morePrevious research on the connection between the Dark Triad traits and aggression is largely based on self-report measures. This paper examines how the traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism affect aggression in an experimental setting. Based on the previous literature, we hypothesized that Machiavellianism and psychopathy were positively correlated with aggression, while narcissism would be unrelated. We used the Attacker-Defender Conflict (AD-C), an economic contest well suited to study aggression. The incentivized AD-C was implemented in an online environment where attackers and defenders, who were matched afterwards, competed for resources. Attackers decided how much they would invest in order to beat the defender and gain money at their expense. If the defender successfully defended by investing more or an equal amount as the attacker, both parties kept their non-invested resources. Out of 301 participants, the attacker conflict investment of 132 attackers was used to measure aggression. Participants also completed the Short Dark Triad, a self-report questionnaire that evaluates Dark Triad traits. Our analysis showed a positive correlation between Machiavellianism and aggression, but only when the other two traits were held constant. Contrary to our assumption, psychopathy was negatively related to aggression. Finally, narcissism was not significantly correlated with aggression. These findings imply that, while the understanding of Machiavellianism and narcissism based on self-report measures of aggression are supported in our study, psychopathy’s connection to aggression may have either been misunderstood before or unknown factors played a significant role by confounding the results. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed.Show less
