Short Dark Triad Personality Test (SD3)
Background
The Short Dark Triad (SD3) questionnaire is a quick self-assessment of three socially aversive personality traits, collectively known as the 'Dark Triad': Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. The 27-item assessment tool was developed by Delroy L. Paulhus and Daniel N. Jones in 2013 to circumvent the need for using three separate scales in assessing subclinical populations.
The three core traits measured by the SD3 are:
- Machiavellianism: A manipulative, strategic, and cynical attitude that prioritizes self-interest.
- Narcissism: Characterized by a grandiose self-image, a sense of entitlement, and a constant need for superiority.
- Psychopathy: Defined by high impulsivity, a lack of empathy, and a callous disregard for the feelings or rights of others.
Research supports that the SD3 provides efficient, reliable, and valid measures of the 'Dark Triad' of personalities.
Task Procedure
The SD3 consists of 27 self-report statements (9 items per subscale) such as "People see me as a natural leader" and Participants rate their agreement with these statements on a 5-point scale with the anchors ranging from "Disagree strongly" to "Agree strongly". The higher the agreement with the 'aversive personality trait', the higher the assigned scores. Note that 5 items are reversed coded to conform with this scoring rule. The order of the 27 items is fixed with the items of the three scales being presented in semi-random order.
What it Measures
The SD3 is a self-report measure of three personality traits, called the dark triad (Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy)
Psychological domains
- Machiavellianism: A manipulative, strategic, and cynical attitude that prioritizes self-interest.
- Narcissism: Characterized by a grandiose self-image, a sense of entitlement, and a constant need for superiority.
- Psychopathy: Defined by high impulsivity, a lack of empathy, and a callous disregard for the feelings or rights of others.
Main Performance Metrics
- Subscale Subscores: Mean of all individual scores on each subscale
Psychiatric Conditions
Because the Short Dark Triad (SD3) was intentionally designed to measure subclinical (everyday, non-pathological) traits, it is rarely used as a standalone primary diagnostic tool for psychiatric inpatients.
A questionnaire by Jones & Paulhus (2013) consisting of 27 5-point Likert questions assessing the "dark triad" of socially aversive traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.
References
Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Short Dark Triad Personality Test (SD3).
Jones, Daniel & Paulhus, Delroy. (2013). Introducing the Short Dark Triad ( SD3): A Brief Measure of Dark Personality Traits.
Vaughan, R., Madigan, D., Carter, G., & Nicholls, A. (2019). The Dark Triad in male and female athletes and non-athletes: Group differences and psychometric properties of the Short Dark Triad (SD3). Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 43, 64-72.
Pechorro, P., Caramelo, V., Oliveira, J., Nunes, C., Curtis, S., & Jones, D. (2019). The Short Dark Triad (SD3): Adaptation and Psychometrics among At-Risk Male and Female Youths. Deviant Behavior, 40(3), 273-286.