Dark core personality test also called as D-factor is a psychological test which determines the dark personality traits of people.
This test can be taken by anyone to measure the dark side of their personality but most of the tests available online are not that much accurate.
Dark personality traits can often be recognized by people in others which appear in them at times visibly but it is not always possible to prominently get to know if there are any other dark traits in someone’s personality or how much that person possess that dark evil inside him. For that purpose, this test works best to evaluate if someone possesses dark traits in his personality.
Here, we will look at the history and research which was conducted about dark core personality.
History
About 100 years ago, an English psychologist, Charles Spearman, had conducted a research and found that there is a general factor of intelligence (g).
What he meant by this was that if someone performs a higher score in one intelligence test then he must be able to perform a higher score in other forms of intelligence tests as well.
After this, in year 2018 another research was conducted which studied dark traits of humans and found that all dark traits are linked to each other.
Charles Spearman Research is now being compared to the latest research conducted on dark traits which also have showed that all dark traits have one common core or are linked with one another.
Who presented Dark Core Personality Research?
In 2018, a team of researchers from Germany and Denmark comprising of Morten Moshagen, Benjamin E Hilbig, Ingo Zettler had conducted and published a research in Psychological Review, an academic journal, where they studied different nine dark personality traits, each of which had already been studied individually in personality psychology.
The dark traits which were selected to be studies are as follows.
- Psychological entitlement
- Narcissism
- Self interest
- Moral disengagement
- Machiavellianism
- Psychopathy
- Spitefulness
- Sadism
- Egoism
The research study was conducted on more than 2500 people.
Research findings
Let us see what this research mainly has to share with us.
Findings of their research showed that all the common features of dark traits arose or come from the dark core or that they share the same ‘dark core’ which means that if you have one of these traits then you must have more of these dark traits as well.
To make it more simple to understand, it means that if someone has an ego than he may be a psychopath as well, means if you have one of the dark traits which they worked on, then you must have one or more other dark traits as well, means these all dark traits are linked very closely.
As much they might seem distinguishable on the outside, as much they are interlinked with each other.
What does D-factor result indicate?
If a person gets a higher score on D-factor it means he carries one or more other dark traits as well. Like if he is used to humiliate others then he must also possess other monovalent traits like lying, cheating, etc.
Best test to use for evaluating person’s dark core?
Big Five test is the best for evaluating it.
Who uses dark core personality test?
Online psychological tests are very common among young generation which is why many psychological tests are available online, but we cannot say anything about their reliability.
Personality tests are used by the following.
1. Average people:
Average people who wants to know about their personality.
2. Professionals:
Used by career counselors, researchers, therapists, psychologist and other professional institutes.
Conclusion
-
This research has opened new doors to understanding of human personality especially its dark side which would be very helpful in future to understand further more about relations between different variables involved in the dark side of human personality.
-
After this research, in the fields of behavioral economics and criminology there is an increased interest in understanding these dark traits which could later help the defense, law enforcements, doctors and people from other fields as well all around the world in understanding dark aspect of human personality.