Relationships between the Dark Triad and humor styles: A replication [622084]

Relationships between the Dark Triad and humor styles: A replication
and extension
Rod A. Martina, Jessica M. Lastuka, Jennifer Jefferyb, Philip A. Vernona,⇑, Livia Veselkaa
aDepartment of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
bFaculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
article info
Article history:
Received 28 May 2011
Received in revised form 3 October 2011Accepted 11 October 2011Available online 8 November 2011
Keywords:
Dark TriadHumor stylesabstract
Two hundred undergraduate students completed paper-and-pencil measures of the Dark Triad
(Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) and the Humor Styles Questionnaire, which taps twoadaptive (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating) styles of
humor. The first purpose of the study was to replicate relationships between these variables reported
byVeselka et al. (2010) . The second purpose was to expand on their results by investigating relationships
between several sub-factors of the Dark Triad (in addition to global scores) and the humor styles. Resultsprovided substantial replication of Veselka et al. at the global level and, at the sub-factor level, provided
additional insights into the potential role of adaptive and maladaptive humor styles in the personality
dynamics of individuals characterized by the various facets of the Dark Triad.
/C2112011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Among the many aversive personality traits that have been
investigated, three make up the Dark Triad: Machiavellianism,
psychopathy, and narcissism. Machiavellianism is defined by self-
interest and tendencies toward deceptiveness and manipulative-
ness ( Christie & Geis, 1970 ); psychopathy is exhibited through high
thrill-seeking paired with low empathy ( Hare, 1985 ); and narcis-
sism is characterized by self-absorption and feelings of superiority
and entitlement ( Emmons, 1984 ). This antisocial trinity has
received considerable attention in recent years, both because of
its prominence in subclinical populations and because of its impact
on psychological well-being (e.g., Hicks, Vaidyanathan, & Patrick,
2010; McHoskey et al., 1999; Zuckerman & O’Loughlin, 2009 ).
Associations between aversive traits and well-being inspire
interest in the potential relations between humor styles and the
Dark Triad traits, given the link between positive humor and
improved mental health (e.g., Erickson & Feldstein, 2007; Kuiper
& McHale, 2009 ). In particular, the four humor styles identified
byMartin (2007) represent both adaptive (affiliative and self-
enhancing) and maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating)
expressions of humor ( Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, & Weir,
2003 ). Affiliative humor involves the use of humor to facilitate
social relationships; self-enhancing humor is characterized by
the ability to maintain a humorous perspective in the face of
stressful situations; aggressive humor is exhibited by the ridiculeof others; and self-defeating humor is expressed by excessively
self-denigrating humor as a potential form of ingratiation.
To date, Veselka, Schermer, Martin, and Vernon (2010) have
been the only researchers to investigate relations between the
Dark Triad variables and humor styles. They reported that psy-
chopathy and Machiavellianism correlated positively with both
aggressive and self-defeating humor, while narcissism correlated
positively with affiliative humor. The association between narcis-
sism and self-enhancing humor was inconsistent, with one sample
showing a weak positive correlation and the other showing no sig-
nificant relation. Given this inconsistent result, a replication of
their findings is appropriate. Moreover, an extension of their find-
ings is also possible through an assessment of potential relations
between the humor styles and subscales in addition to global
scores of the Dark Triad traits.
1.1. Factors and correlates of the Dark Triad traits
In addition to being defined as unitary constructs, each of the
Dark Triad traits comprises a number of lower-order dimensions.
Psychopathy, as measured by the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale
(SRP-III-R12; Hare, 1985 ), is made up of four factors: Callous Affect,
characterized by antisocial behavior and emotional detachment
from others; Criminal Tendencies, as exhibited by stealing and
other illegal acts; Erratic Lifestyle, as defined by irresponsibility
and impulsivity; and Interpersonal Manipulation, as classified by
lying and deception ( Williams, Paulhus, & Hare, 2007 ). In relation
to the Big Five factors of personality, all four factors have been
found to correlate negatively with Agreeableness; Callous Affect
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doi:10.1016/j.paid.2011.10.010⇑Corresponding author.
E-mail address: vernon@uwo.ca (P.A. Vernon).Personality and Individual Differences 52 (2012) 178–182
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was negatively associated with Extraversion; Criminal Tendencies
showed negative relations with Conscientiousness; and Erratic
Lifestyle correlated positively with Extraversion and Openness
and negatively with Conscientiousness. Interpersonal Manipula-
tion was the only factor with significant ties to Neuroticism
(negative), and was also positively correlated with Openness
(Williams et al., 2007 ). With regard to psychological well-being,
psychopathy, not surprisingly, is primarily associated with exter-
nalizing behaviors such as hostility and aggression ( Seibert, Miller,
Few, Zeichner, & Lynam, 2011 ). For example, three of the four fac-
tors (with the exception of Criminal Tendencies) are positively cor-
related with bullying ( Williams et al., 2007 ). In addition, the
Callous Affect and Interpersonal Manipulation subscales have been
found to be negatively correlated with empathy ( Mahmut, Home-
wood, & Stevenson, 2008 ).
Narcissism, as measured by the Narcissistic Personality Inventory
(NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979 ) can also be divided into distinct sub-
scales. To date, the most comprehensive factor structure, derived
from a sub-clinical population, comes from Emmons (1984) , who
reported four factors: Exploitativeness/Entitlement, as exhibited
by interpersonal manipulation and a tendency toward envy; Leader-
ship/Authority, as characterized by an enjoyment of being in
positions of power; Superiority/Arrogance, as defined by an exagger-
ated sense of one’s own abilities and talents; and Self-Absorption/
Self-Admiration, as exemplified by exhibitionist tendencies. Corry,
Merritt, Mrug, and Pamp, (2008) recently replicated this four-factor
structure, and further examined the relations between these NPI fac-
tors and the Big Five dimensions of personality. All four factors of
narcissism correlated significantly and positively with Extraversion
and negatively with Agreeableness. Furthermore, the Leadership/
Authority factor and the Superiority/Arrogance factor (renamed
‘‘Power’’) both exhibited negative correlations with Neuroticism
and positive correlations with Conscientiousness.
Associations between narcissism and well-being are quite com-
plex (for an overview, see Morf and Rhodewalt (2011) ). Although
narcissism is generally positively associated with self-esteem, opti-
mism, and emotional well-being ( Sedikides, Rudich, Gregg, Kumas-
hiro, & Rusbult, 2004 ), the self-esteem of highly narcissistic
individuals tends to be quite unstable, and is particularly depen-
dent on maintaining social approval and positive interactions with
others ( Zuckerman & O’Loughlin, 2009 ). With regard to relation-
ship-related variables, narcissism tends to be negatively associated
with empathy, agreeableness, and need for intimacy, and positively
correlated with hostility ( Bushman & Baumeister, 1998 ).Morf and
Rhodewalt (2011) presented a dynamic self-regulatory model of
narcissism in which a grandiose yet vulnerable self-concept is
thought to underlie a chronic need to obtain self-affirmation from
others. Although less research has examined associations betweenthe individual sub-scales and well-being, findings generally
indicate that, of the four subscales, Exploitativeness/Entitlement
is most strongly linked with maladjustment, particularly in the
form of aggressive and hostile behaviors ( Reidy, Zeichner, Foster,
&Martinez, 2008 ).
Lastly, Machiavellianism, as measured by the MACH-IV ( Christie
& Geis, 1970 ), is also a multidimensional construct, comprising
three factors: Interpersonal Tactics, as defined by interpersonal
manipulation; Cynical View of Human Nature, as characterized
by a mistrust of others and the view that all humans are self-inter-
ested; and Disregard for Conventional Morality, as exhibited by a
lack of adherence to society’s morals ( Christie & Geis, 1970 ).
Although many researchers agree that an examination of the fac-
tors of Machiavellianism is important, few studies have actually
investigated their relations to other traits, and none have assessed
the scales in conjunction with the Big Five factors. One reason for
this may be that previous factor analyses of the MACH-IV have
yielded incongruent findings as to the number and types of factorsthat can be extracted (e.g., Fehr, Samsom, & Paulhus, 1992;
Williams et al., 2007 ). With regard to psychological adjustment,
Machiavellianism is generally unrelated to internalizing problems
(e.g., anxiety and depression), but is more consistently correlated
with externalizing behaviors such as dishonesty, cheating, andunethical actions. It is also moderately correlated with hostility
and aggression, and high-Machiavellianism individuals tend to be
perceived by others as unfavorable friends, confidants, or business
partners ( Jones & Paulhus, 2009 ).
1.2. Well-being and personality correlates of the Humor Styles
A considerable amount of research has examined relations be-
tween Martin et al.’s (2003) humor styles and various personality
and well-being related traits. In relation to the Big Five, positivecorrelations have been noted between the two positive humor
styles and both Extraversion and Openness, while the two negative
humor styles have exhibited negative relations with Agreeableness
and Conscientiousness, and positive associations with Neuroticism
(Martin et al., 2003 ).
With regard to psychological well-being, research has demon-
strated quite different patterns of correlations for each of the four
humor styles (for a review, see Martin (2007) ). In particular, affilia-
tive humor correlates positively with indicators of healthy rela-
tionships (e.g., intimacy, relationship satisfaction, and social
support) and inversely with negative relationship variables (e.g.,
loneliness). Self-enhancing humor is positively associated with
emotional well-being (e.g., self-esteem, optimism, and positive af-
fect) and negatively with emotional distress (e.g., depression and
anxiety). Aggressive humor correlates negatively with relationship
satisfaction and interpersonal competence, and positively with
hostility. Finally, self-defeating humor is positively associated with
emotional distress and hostility, and negatively correlated with
self-esteem and optimism. As such, greater use of self-enhancing
humor and lower levels of self-defeating humor appear to be par-
ticularly relevant to emotional well-being, whereas higher levels of
affiliative humor and lower aggressive humor are especially pre-
dictive of more satisfactory interpersonal relationships. Further-
more, of the two negative styles of humor, self-defeating humor
tends to be more associated with internalizing types of problems
(e.g., depression and anxiety), whereas aggressive humor is partic-
ularly associated with externalizing problems (e.g., anger, hostility,
and bullying) ( Dozois, Martin, & Faulkner, in press ). In sum, the
humor styles may be viewed as different adaptive and maladaptive
strategies for coping with various emotional and interpersonal sit-
uations which in turn may have beneficial or detrimental impacts
on emotional well-being and social relationships.
1.3. Present study
The aim of this study was to replicate and build upon the find-
ings of Veselka et al. (2010) . In replicating their findings, we hoped
to strengthen the evidence regarding associations between the
Dark Triad variables and humor styles. Moreover, by extending
these findings to sub-factors, in addition to global levels, we hoped
to gain a deeper understanding of relations between them.
Consistent with the findings of Veselka et al. (2010) ,w e
expected to find significant positive correlations between the neg-
ative humor styles and the Dark Triad traits of Machiavellianism
and psychopathy, and a positive association between affiliative
humor and narcissism. These predictions were based not only on
previous findings, but also on the observation that both psychopa-
thy and Machiavellianism share personality and well-being corre-
lates with aggressive and self-defeating humor (particularly high
disagreeableness, hostility, and externalizing behaviors); and that
narcissism shares correlates with affiliative humor ( Jakobwitz &R.A. Martin et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 52 (2012) 178–182 179

Egan, 2006; Vernon, Villani, Vickers, & Harris, 2008; Vernon et al.,
2009 ). Given the weak and inconsistent association between self-
enhancing humor and narcissism found in the earlier study, and
also the instability and vulnerability of narcissistic self-esteem,
we expected no significant association between self-enhancing hu-
mor and narcissism in this study.
In extending Veselka et al.’s (2010) study, we examined the sub-
factors comprising each of the Dark Triad traits and their correla-
tions with the four humor styles. Based on the personality and
well-being correlates common to the psychopathy factors and hu-
mor styles, we hypothesized that individuals with high scores on
all four of the SRP-III-R12 factors would show a preference for neg-
ative humor styles, especially for aggressive humor. We also ex-
pected that individuals scoring high on the Erratic Lifestyle
factor, due to a common association with extraversion, would tendto use higher levels of affiliative humor.
Furthermore, based on common personality and well-being cor-
relates of the narcissism factors and humor styles, and particularly
because of the narcissistic need for positive interactions with others
to maintain self-esteem, we predicted that all NPI factors would
show positive associations with affiliative humor In addition, be-
cause the Exploitativeness/Entitlement factor tends to be associated
with maladjustment and hostility, we expected this factor to be neg-
atively correlated with self-enhancing and positively correlated
with aggressive humor.
With regard to Machiavellianism, we predicted that partici-
pants with high scores on all three of the MACH-IV subscales
would exhibit a greater tendency to use aggressive humor, based
on the reasoning that interpersonal manipulation, a cynical view
of human nature, and disregard for conventional morality all seem
to be consistent with this type of hostile, manipulative, and
socially inappropriate humor. In addition, we expected that the
Cynical View of Human Nature subscale would be positively
associated with self-defeating humor, because this style of humor
tends to be associated with a pessimistic outlook on self and
others.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
Two hundred undergraduate university students (108 females,
92 males) in an introductory Psychology course took part in the
present study in exchange for partial course credit for research par-
ticipation. Their ages ranged from 18–27 years ( M= 20.7, SD= 2.6).
2.2. Measures
2.2.1. Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ)
The HSQ ( Martin et al., 2003 ) is a 32-item self-report
questionnaire measuring affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive,
and self-defeating styles of humor. Participants respond on a 7-point
Likert-type Scale (1 = totally disagree ;7= totally agree ). Reliabilities
of the scales range from .77 to .81 ( Martin et al., 2003 ).
2.2.2. Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI)
The NPI ( Raskin & Hall, 1979 ) is a 40 forced-choice item
questionnaire measuring sub-clinical narcissism. Each item con-
sists of two polar statements and participants select the statement
that they believe best describes them. The NPI has good psycho-
metric properties ( Jakobwitz & Egan, 2006 ) and yields a total score
as well as scores on four sub-scales: Exploitativeness/Entitlement,
Leadership/Authority, Superiority/Arrogance, and Self-Absorption/
Self-admiration.2.2.3. Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP-III-R12)
The SRP-III-R12 is a 62-item self-report questionnaire tapping
propensity towards sub-clinical psychopathy. Participants respond
to each item on a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 = disagree strongly ;
5=agree strongly ). The SRP-III-R12 has been reported to have good
psychometric properties ( Paulhus & Williams, 2002 ). It yields a to-
tal score as well as scores on four subscales: Callous Affect, Criminal
Tendencies, Erratic Lifestyle, and Interpersonal Manipulation.
2.2.4. MACH-IV
The MACH-IV ( Christie & Geis, 1970 ) is a 20-item self-report
questionnaire of Machiavellianism. Participants respond to each
item on a 5-point Likert Scale (where 1 = disagree strongly ;
5=agree strongly ). The MACH-IV has been reported to possess good
psychometric properties (e.g., Wrightsman, 1991 ). It yields a total
score as well as scores on three sub-scales: Interpersonal Tactics,
Cynical View of Human Nature, and Disregard for Conventional
Morality.
2.3. Procedure
Participants were tested in small groups in a classroom setting.
Prior to participation, they were briefed about the nature of the
study by the experimenter as well as through a letter of information.
Those willing to take part in the study were asked to sign and return
a consent form. After signed consent was obtained, participants
were asked to complete the HSQ, the NPI, the SRP-III-R12, and the
MACH-IV. Participants completed each questionnaire on their
own, in a paper-and-pencil format. All participants completed the
study in less than 1 h. Upon completion of the questionnaires, par-
ticipants were informed about the study and its hypotheses via a
debriefing form and were issued course credit for their participation.
3. Results
Correlations between the four humor styles and the three Dark
Triad trait global and subscale scores are presented in Table 1 .A t
the global level, as predicted, psychopathy and Machiavellianism
exhibited significant positive correlations with both negative
humor styles, and no significant relationships with positive humor
styles. Also as predicted, narcissism was significantly correlated
with affiliative humor and unrelated to self-enhancing humor.
Narcissism also showed an unexpected positive correlation with
aggressive humor.
Three of the four psychopathy subscales (with the exception of
Criminal Tendencies) showed the predicted positive correlations
with aggressive humor, although only Erratic Lifestyle and Inter-personal Manipulation were significantly positively correlated
with self-defeating humor. Erratic lifestyle also showed the
expected positive correlation with affiliative humor.
With regard to narcissism, three of the four subscales (with the
exception of Exploitativeness/Entitlement) showed the predicted
positive correlations with affiliative humor, and none of the scales
were positively correlated with self-enhancing humor. Further-
more, as predicted, Exploitativeness/Entitlement was significantly
negatively correlated with self-enhancing and positively correlated
with aggressive humor. Superiority/Arrogance also showed an
unexpected positive correlation with aggressive humor.
With respect to Machiavellianism, as predicted, all three of the
subscales were significantly positively correlated with aggressive
humor and, also as predicted, the Cynical View of Human Nature
subscale was positively correlated with self-defeating humor.
Additionally and unexpectedly, two of the Machiavellianism
sub-factors (Interpersonal Tactics and Cynical View of Human
Nature) were negatively correlated with self-enhancing humor.180 R.A. Martin et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 52 (2012) 178–182

4. Discussion
This study investigated relations between the Dark Triad traits
and four humor styles. At the global trait level, most of our results
replicated those of Veselka et al. (2010) : Machiavellianism and
psychopathy correlated positively with both negative humor styles
and had no associations with positive humor styles. Furthermore,
narcissism correlated significantly with affiliative humor and not
with self-enhancing humor, as was the case in one of the samples
assessed by Veselka et al. Contrary to our prediction, narcissism
also correlated significantly and positively with aggressive humor.
The absence of a relation between narcissism and self-enhanc-
ing humor is consistent with past evidence that, although narcis-
sism tends to be correlated with self-esteem, optimism, and
emotional well-being, the self-concept of narcissistic individuals
is quite unstable over time ( Sedikides et al., 2004; Zuckerman &
O’Loughlin, 2009 ). In particular, the positive outlook of narcissistic
individuals has been shown to disappear under conditions of ego
threat ( Stucke & Sporer, 2002 ). This instability and vulnerability
of self-concept in the face of threat is inconsistent with self-
enhancing humor, which involves the ability to distance oneself
from stress by maintaining a humorous perspective, and likely ex-
plains the lack of correlation between these two variables.
With regard to the unexpected correlation between narcissism
and the aggressive humor style, this finding is consistent with pastresearch showing negative associations of narcissism with empa-
thy, agreeableness, and need for intimacy, and positive correlations
with hostility ( Bushman & Baumeister, 1998 ), a pattern of correla-
tions that closely parallels those found with aggressive humor. One
of the ways that narcissistic individuals create or boost their exag-
gerated self-concept may be through sarcasm or aggressive forms
of teasing that allow them to enhance the self at the expense of
others. This form of ego-maintenance through aggression has been
noted in previous research (e.g. Reidy et al., 2008; Stucke & Sporer,
2002 ). Using a different measure of narcissism, Zeigler-Hill and
Besser (2011) found that adaptive and maladaptive humor styles
mediated the relationship between pathological narcissism and
self-esteem, suggesting that these uses of humor may play a role
in self-esteem regulation in these individuals. The present study
suggests a similar role of humor in less pathological forms of nar-
cissism as well.
In addition to replicating many of the findings reported by
Veselka et al. (2010) , the present study also expanded on theirearlier work by examining relations between humor styles and the
factors comprising each of the Dark Triad traits. With respect to
the facets of psychopathy, three of the four subscales showed the
predicted positive correlations with aggressive humor. These associ-
ations were expected because of the common links of both psychop-
athy and aggressive humor with externalizing behavior, hostility,
bullying, and low agreeableness and empathy ( Seibert et al., 2011;
Williams et al., 2007 ). Each facet may be related to aggressive humor
for somewhat different reasons. Individuals who are high in Callous
Affect likely engage in aggressive humor because of a general lack of
empathy and concern for others; those high in Interpersonal Manip-
ulation may use negative teasing and put-down humor more strate-
gically as a method of manipulating others; and aggressive uses of
humor by individuals who are high in Erratic Lifestyle may be due
to impulsiveness and a failure to think ahead to the negative effects
of this form of humor on personal relationships.
Also as predicted, Erratic Lifestyle showed a significant positive
(albeit weak) correlation with affiliative humor, likely due to the
association with extraversion that these variables have in common.
Thus, the irresponsibility and impulsiveness of individuals with
high scores on this psychopathy factor tend to be manifested in
an outgoing, carefree attitude which includes a tendency to laugh
and joke frequently with others in an affiliative manner. In
addition, both the Erratic Lifestyle and Interpersonal Manipulation
subscales showed the expected positive correlations with self-
defeating humor. Individuals who are high in these two facets of
psychopathy may engage in this type of excessively self-disparag-
ing humor as a means of ingratiating themselves with others,
whereas this self-directed negative type of humor is not associatedwith Callous Affect, which would seem to be characterized more by
hostility directed at others rather than the self. Finally, it is impor-
tant to note that Criminal Tendencies is the only psychopathy
factor that was not correlated with any of the four humor styles.
This factor involves the tendency to engage in a variety of illegal
activities. Because these behaviors could potentially result from a
variety of different motivations and personality tendencies, they
may not be consistently associated with particular coping styles
or levels of emotional and interpersonal adjustment, which in turn
might explain the lack of correlations with the humor styles.
With regard to narcissism, the predicted positive association
with affiliative humor was found for three of the four subscales,
the sole exception being Exploitativeness/Entitlement. These
findings were expected due to the higher order personality corre-Table 1
Correlations between humor styles and the Dark Triad Traits and their sub-factors.
Dark Triad Traits Humor Styles
Affiliative Self-Enhancing Aggressive Self-Defeating
Psychopathy /C0.028 /C0.029 .402**.247**
Machiavellianism /C0.083 /C0.038 .243**.182**
Narcissism .363**.042 .219**/C0.045
Subfactors of PsychopathyCallous Affect /C0.063 .001 .409
**.133
Criminal Tendencies /C0.089 .050 .127 .084
Erratic Lifestyle .156*.120 .381**.246**
Interpersonal Manipulation .052 /C0.114 .468**.177*
Subfactors of Narcissism
Exploitativeness/Entitlement /C0.039 /C0.246**.172*/C0.043
Leadership/Authority .221**.076 .086 /C0.020
Superiority/Arrogance .352**.098 .223**.035
Self/C0Absorption/Self-admiration .291**/C0.029 .061 /C0.086
Subfactors of Machiavellianism
Interpersonal Tactics /C0.121 /C0.243**.371**.114
Cynical View of Human Nature /C0.122 /C0.213**.352**.232**
Disregard for Conventional Morality .014 /C0.110 .233**.033
*p< .05 (2 /C0tailed).
**p< .01 (2-tailed).R.A. Martin et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 52 (2012) 178–182 181

lates that all three sub-factors share with this positive style of hu-
mor: high Extraversion and high Openness (e.g. Vernon et al., 2008,
2009 ). According to Morf and Rhodewalt (2011) , narcissistic indi-
viduals tend to seek positive interactions with others as a way of
gaining social approval and self-affirmation in order to bolster a
grandiose yet fragile level of self-esteem. Affiliative humor, which
involves laughing with others and telling jokes to enhance social
bonds, may be one way narcissistic individuals promote positive
social interactions for these purposes. Furthermore, those high in
Leadership/Authority may enjoy telling jokes and making others
laugh as a way of gaining influence over others, whereas those high
in Self-absorption/Self-admiration may do it to gain prestige and
admiration, and those high in Superiority/Arrogance may use
joke-telling as a method of gaining dominance in social settings
and thereby enhancing their sense of superiority. The finding thatnone of the four subfactors of the NPI associated with self-defeat-
ing humor was also as expected, reflecting narcissists’ fundamental
characteristics of self-love and admiration. In addition, the pre-
dicted negative association of Exploitativeness/Entitlement with
self-enhancing humor and positive association with aggressive hu-
mor were found. This pattern of humor styles is consistent with
past research showing that this facet of narcissism is most strongly
linked with maladjustment, particularly in the form of aggression
and hostility ( Reidy et al., 2008 ). Finally, a positive correlation
was found between the Superiority/Arrogance subscale and
aggressive humor, suggesting that individuals with high scores
on this facet of narcissism may engage in disparagement humor
as a way of enhancing their feelings of self-worth and superiority
(cf.Stucke & Sporer, 2002 ).
With regard to Machiavellianism, as predicted, all three of the
sub-factors were significantly correlated with aggressive humor.
Individuals who are high in Interpersonal Tactics likely use this form
of humor as a means of manipulating others, those high in Cynical
View of Human Nature may enjoy jokes that play on negative stereo-
types because of a generally negative perspective on other people,
and those high on Disregard for Conventional Morality may enjoy
this type of humor because it often involves less socially acceptable
forms of sexist and racist jokes. In addition, we found the predicted
positive association between Cynical View of Human Nature and
self-defeating humor, which has previously been found to be corre-
lated with a pessimistic outlook ( Martin et al., 2003 ). Besides using
humor to disparage others, individuals with this sort of cynical out-
look appear also to direct disparaging humor toward themselves,
perhaps as an expression of a negative view of people in general. Fi-
nally, unexpected negative correlations were found between self-
enhancing humor and both the Interpersonal Tactics and Cynical
View of Human Nature factors of Machiavellianism. Individuals with
high scores on these dimensions, which are characterized by inter-personal manipulation and a general mistrust of others, may tend
to have a fairly serious, instrumental approach to social interactions,
resulting in a lack of playfulness and low ability to maintain a
humorous perspective during times of stress.
In conclusion, the results of this study not only strengthen prior
evidence regarding the relationship between the Dark Triad and
humor styles, but also demonstrate the importance of examining
the factors comprising the Dark Triad traits in relation to con-
structs such as humor style. Specifically, this study has shown that
the factors that underlie each of the Dark Triad traits do not all
exhibit the same relationships with humor styles. These differen-
tial associations, however, are important in clarifying the relation-
ships observed at the global level between the Dark Triad traits and
humor. Overall, these results offer additional insight into ways
individuals with these aversive personality characteristics employ
various styles of humor, perhaps in the service of their unique
psychological needs and interpersonal goals, which in turn may
further contribute to psychological and interpersonal difficulties.References
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