engleski

Empathy of the devil: Sex differences in the Dark Tetrad and empathy

One of the key features of the Dark Tetrad traits (i.e. Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy and sadism) is low empathy, and there is evidence that empathy mediates sex differences in the Dark Triad traits. The aim of this research was to further examine the mediating role of different types of empathy in explaining sex differences in the Dark Tetrad traits. Data was collected online as a part of a larger research project, on a convenience sample of 144 students (age: M= 22.18, SD= 2.26, 43% male). The Dark Tetrad was measured using Short Dark Triad (αs range from .66 to .80) and The Assessment of Sadistic Personality (α = .85), while empathy was measured using a relatively novel measure –Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy assessing cognitive empathy (α = .89), affective resonance (i.e. compassion ; α = .84) and affective dissonance (i.e. the experience of a contradictory emotional responses –e.g. feeling annoyed with others’ happiness ; α = .86). At the level of bivariate relationships, male sex was significantly associated with lower affective empathy, namely resonance (r= -.27, p= .001), and dissonance (r= -.36, p< .001), and with higher levels of Machiavellianism (r= .19, p= .022), psychopathy (r= .21, p= .013), and sadism (r= .32, p< .001). In order to account for shared variance between the dark traits (as well as between different types of empathy), mediation was examined using single model path analysis, where all four dark traits were simultaneously treated as outcome variables, and all three types of empathy as mediators in the relationship between sex and the dark traits. Sex and three types of empathy explained 10.8% of narcissism variance, 26.4% of Machiavellianism variance, 42.0% of psychopathy variance, and 70.6% of sadism variance. Dissonance was significant mediator of sex differences in Machiavellianism (b= 0.23, z= 3.21, p= .001), as well as in sadism (b= 0.34, z= 3.95, p< .001). Sex differences in psychopathy were mediated by both resonance (b= 0.11, z= 2.52, p= .012), and by dissonance (b= 0.16, z= 2.70, p= .007). Albeit obtained on a relatively small sample, these results further clarify sex differences in Dark Tetrad traits in terms of sex differences in empathy, highlighting specificities of each of these traits which are discussed.

Dark Tetrad, empathy, sex differences

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