Traduction et étude de validation de la version française de l’échelle « Short Dark Triad, SD3 » (Échelle Courte de la Triade Noire)

Abstract

Objectives

The Short Dark Triad (SD3) scale has been created by Delroy L. Paulhus and his team in 2013 (University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, Canada). Its purpose is to provide a brief measure of three socially aversive traits known as the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy). This study aims to explore the psychometric properties of this French version of the scale and to validate this translation.

Materials and methods

The SD3 scale has been translated from English to French, then retro-translated to English again to compare it to the original version. The validation continued with an online survey (LimeSurvey) allowing to compare the results of the three sub-scales with the results of the three existing scales previously validated in French (MACH-IV-fr, NPI-fr, LSRP-fr). A total of 787 participants answered the online survey.

Results and conclusions

Statistical analyzes suggest a good internal consistency (n = 580 and Cronbach's alpha coefficients: 0.85 on the full scale, 0.78, 0.70, 0.69 on the sub-scales of Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy) and a good external validity of the SD3-fr translated in the present work (n = 500 and SD3 Machia–MACHIV-fr correlation: 0.70; SD3 Narcis – NPI-fr: 0.74; SD3 Psychopathy – LSRP-fr: 0.67). The confirmatory factor analysis suggests a three correlated factors model. This SD3-fr scale will be used in a further study.