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A Behavioral Genetic Study of the Dark Triad of Personality and Moral Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Jennifer Campbell ,
Julie Aitken Schermer ,
Vanessa C. Villani ,
Brenda Nguyen ,
Leanne Vickers  and
Philip A. Vernon
Jennifer Campbell
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University ofWestern Ontario, Canada.
Julie Aitken Schermer
Affiliation:
Management and Organizational Studies, University ofWestern Ontario, Canada.
Vanessa C. Villani
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Canada.
Brenda Nguyen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Canada.
Leanne Vickers
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University ofWestern Ontario, Canada.
Philip A. Vernon*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University ofWestern Ontario, Canada. [email protected]
*
*Address for correspondence: Philip A. Vernon, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

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The present study is the first behavioral genetic investigation of relationships between the Dark Triad of personality — Machiavellianism, narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy — and moral development. Participants were 154 monozygotic twin pairs and 82 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs. Higher scores on Machiavellianism and psychopathy were positively correlated with low levels of moral development; high psychopathy scores also correlated negatively with high levels of moral development. Individual differences in lower levels of moral development were attributable to genetic and nonshared environmental factors but, very interestingly, individual differences in the highest levels of moral development showed no genetic basis but were entirely attributable to shared and nonshared environmental factors. Finally, correlations between the Dark Triad and moral development variables showed no genetic basis while correlations among the moral development variables were variously attributable to correlated genetic and correlated environmental factors.

Keywords

dark triadmoral developmenttwin study
Type
Articles
Information
Twin Research and Human Genetics , Volume 12 , Issue 2: SPECIAL SECTION: Genes for Health Meeting 2009 , 01 April 2009 , pp. 132 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009