DARK TRAITS
Dark Triad
Three socially aversive traits everyone carries in some measure.
WHAT IT MEASURES
The Dark Triad measures three related but distinct tendencies: Machiavellianism (strategic manipulation), Narcissism (grandiosity and entitlement) and Psychopathy (callousness and low remorse). Everyone scores somewhere — these are dimensions, not diagnoses.
THE SCIENCE
The Dark Triad construct was named by Paulhus and Williams in 2002 to describe three overlapping but separable socially aversive personality traits. This test uses the Dirty Dozen, a widely used 12-item short form developed by Jonason and Webster for research settings.
Jonason, P. K., & Webster, G. D. (2010). The Dirty Dozen: A concise measure of the Dark Triad. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 420–432.
This is not a diagnosis. Elevated scores describe tendencies, not character verdicts — and brief self-report screens like this one trade precision for speed.