The association of Dark Triad personality traits with infidelity: Evidence from the Greek-cultural context

Abstract

The Dark Triad is an important aspect of human personality, and there is evidence that it associated with infidelity. The current research aimed to examine the association between Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Machiavellianism traits and different aspects of infidelity in the Greek cultural context. In particular, using a sample of 509 Greek-speaking participants [57.5% women, mean age 36.5 (SD = 11.7), 42.5% men, mean age 40.1 (SD = 13.1)], we found that higher scores in Psychopathy were associated with higher incidence of infidelity and willingness to be unfaithful to one's partner. Moreover, men and women who scored higher in Psychopathy were more likely to be detected by their partners when unfaithful. Men who scored high in Psychopathy were also more suspicious of their partners for being unfaithful than men who scored low. However, the scores in the Dark Triad traits did not predict the probability to detect a partner's infidelity neither for men nor for women. Overall, in the Greek cultural context, the Dark Triad traits were associated with certain aspects of infidelity.