Short Dark Triad Personality Test - SD3

Technical Manual

Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Created: January 01, 2021

Last Modified: January 15, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond

Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC

Background

This script implements the Short Dark Triad Questionnaire (SD3) to assess the 'dark triad' of the three socially aversive traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (Jones et al, 2013).

References

Jones, Daniel & Paulhus, Delroy. (2013). Introducing the Short Dark Triad ( SD3): A Brief Measure of Dark Personality Traits. Assessment. 21. 10.1177/1073191113514105.

More info (including norming data) at: https://www.psych.ubc.ca/~dpaulhus/Paulhus_measures/SD3.1.1.doc

Duration

3 minutes

Norms

Norming data: obtained from
https://www.psych.ubc.ca/~dpaulhus/Paulhus_measures/SD3.1.1.doc
(means and standard deviations based on a sample of 387 undergraduate students)

Summary Data

File Name: sd3_summary.iqdat' (Inquisit Lab: one data file per participant)

Data Fields

NameDescription
inquisit.version Inquisit version number
computer.platform Device platform: win | mac |ios | android
computer.touch 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities
computer.hasKeyboard 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected
startDate Date the session was run
startTime Time the session was run
subjectId Participant ID
groupId Group number
sessionId Session number
elapsedTime Session duration in ms
completed 0 = Test was not completed
1 = Test was completed
m The mean score (1-5) on the Machiavellianism subscale
mZScore The calculated Machiavellianism z-score based on provided norming data (see below)
mPercentile The calculated percentile of the Machiavellianism z-score based on provided norming data (see below)
n The mean score (1-5) on the Narcissism subscale
nZScore The calculated Narcissism z-score based on provided norming data (see below)
nPercentile The calculated percentile of the Narcissism z-score based on provided norming data (see below)
p The mean score (1-5) on the Psychopathy subscale
nZScore The calculated Psychopathy z-score based on provided norming data (see below)
nPercentile The calculated percentile of the Psychopathy z-score based on provided norming data (see below)

Raw Data

File Name: sd3.iqdat

Data Fields

NameDescription
date Date the session was run
time Time the session was run
subject Participant ID
group Group number
session Session number
build Inquisit version number
q*_response Response given (in assigned values)
Scale: 1 (Disagree strongly) to 5 (Agree strongly)
R = automatically reversed scored questions
q*_latency How much time (in ms) the participant spent on the surveyPage with this particular
question (the last time this particular surveyPage was visited)

Parameters

The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.

NameDescriptionDefault
pageInstructions The instructions that appear on each survey page""