A Brazilian study finds people high in so-called dark traits rate those traits as more appealing in a partner, but fame, wealth and looks did not make an assault-linked profile attractive.
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Sex News) – The idea that charming but manipulative partners hold a special pull is a staple of popular psychology. A new study from researchers working in Brazil tested it directly and found a more nuanced pattern: people who score higher on so-called dark personality traits tend to find those traits more desirable in a partner, yet adding fame, wealth or good looks did not make a profile linked to violence any more appealing.
The study and the researchers
The paper, “Dark side of mate choice: homogamy drives attraction to dark triad, but desirability of antisocial traits and criminal behavior is not enhanced by fame, wealth, or looks,” appeared in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. PsyPost’s coverage of the study names the authors as Katharina P. da Silva, Bruno H. Amaral, Marco Antonio C. Varella and Jaroslava V. Valentova. Da Silva carried out the work at the Behavior, Evolution and Sexuality Lab in the Institute of Psychology at the University of Sao Paulo, under Valentova’s supervision, and is now a doctoral student at the Federal University of Sao Paulo. The full paper can be found through its journal DOI.
The “dark triad” is the label psychologists use for three traits: Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism. In this study they were measured as scores on a scale from 1 to 5 rather than as categories, so every participant has some level of each trait, and the study reports how those levels related to partner preferences.
How participants were tested
The team recruited 400 Brazilian adults aged 18 to 60, with an average age of about 28. The group included 193 women, 176 men and 31 participants who were non-binary, travesti or did not disclose a gender. Those 31 were left out of the gender comparisons, which left 369 for those models.
Participants completed a 12-item questionnaire called the Dirty Dozen to measure their own dark traits, and an adapted version asking how desirable each trait would be in a partner. They also answered 10 questions on sexual sensation-seeking and 12 on general sensation-seeking. In a second task, each person read one of six randomly assigned written profiles: a prosocial control, a dark-trait profile without a crime, the same profile plus physical assault, and the assault profile with added fame, wealth or good looks. They then rated their willingness to have a casual or a long-term relationship with that person.
Similarity, not a universal thrill
The clearest result was homogamy, the tendency to be drawn to people like oneself. People with higher dark-trait scores rated those same traits as more desirable in a partner. Correlations between self-ratings and preferences were about 0.59 for Machiavellianism, 0.66 for psychopathy and 0.69 for narcissism. Sensation-seeking had weak links to preferring dark traits, but those links disappeared once the participants’ own dark-trait scores were taken into account.
This fits earlier reporting. PsyPost has covered research suggesting real couples often share dark traits, which makes the stated preferences in this new study consistent with patterns seen in actual pairings, although the new study did not measure real partner choices.
Fame, wealth and looks did not rescue a violent profile
The second question was whether attractive extras could offset antisocial behavior, an idea sometimes described as the “bad boy” effect. They did not. On a 1 to 7 scale, the prosocial profile earned a mean willingness of 5.92. The dark-trait profile without a crime scored 2.40, and the version with assault dropped to 1.52. The assault profiles with fame (1.46), wealth (1.49) or good looks (1.60) did not differ significantly from the plain assault profile.
Willingness was slightly higher for short-term than long-term relationships across profiles, and men gave slightly higher short-term ratings than women, but dark profiles gained no special advantage in casual settings. Da Silva is quoted by PsyPost as saying: “prosociality still remains a far more desirable trait in the context of mate choice.” A previous PsyPost report examined the same question in a different vignette design, under the headline is the bad boy appeal a myth.
Limits of the findings
- Most participants rated themselves and their ideal partners low on dark traits, with average self-ratings of 1.62 for Machiavellianism, 1.58 for psychopathy and 2.45 for narcissism. These floor effects can inflate similarity estimates.
- The homogamy results reflect stated preferences, not actual partner choices.
- The Dirty Dozen had slightly weak internal consistency for two of the traits, and there were no attention checks.
- Every fame, wealth or looks profile also included assault, so the study could not test non-violent offenses, and physical violence may signal a direct threat that overrides other qualities.
- The sample was a convenience group that was more educated than average and recruited through universities and social media, so it may not reflect other settings.
What readers can take from it
The study does not show that people with dark traits are doomed to end up together, nor that charming rule-breakers never attract anyone. It supports a narrower point: similarity appears to shape what people say they want, and added glamour did not soften reactions to a violent profile in this sample. People concerned about controlling or abusive behavior in a relationship can contact a local support service or a qualified professional.
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