The Dark Constellation of Personality, Moral Disengagement and Emotional Intelligence in Incarcerated Offenders. What’s Behind the Psychopathic Personality?

ABSTRACT The study of dysfunctional personality traits and psychological mechanisms related to antisocial behavior is increasingly gaining importance. In this paper we focus on the so-called Dark Constellation of the personality, analyzing Machiavellian, narcissistic, sadistic and psychopathic traits, and their relationship with moral disengagement mechanisms and with emotional intelligence. We specifically focused on the psychopathic personality to examine which studied variables can explain this personality pattern. Participants were 63 prisoners (44 men and 19 women) from three different prisons in Catalonia, Spain. Overall, correlational results indicate that dark constellation personalities are positively associated with moral disengagement and inversely associated with emotional intelligence. Dehumanization is one of the mechanisms most closely related with dark personalities. The study variables explaining psychopathic personality are the sadistic personality pattern and conversely the socio-cognitive mechanism of diffusion of responsibility and the ability to perceive emotions. Finally, the variables that appear as discriminating in extreme cases of psychopathic personality are the sadistic personality trait, and the mechanisms of dehumanization and advantageous comparisons.