“Dark” personality traits in evaluations of positive and negative film characters

Abstract

The study tested the hypothesis that subclinical psychopathy, unlike Machiavellianism and subclinical narcissism, is intrinsic to the image of a positive character, and thus that respondents evaluating characters based on Dark Triad traits would attribute a lower level of Machiavellianism and narcissism but a higher level of psychopathy to the characters than to themselves. The participants of the study (n = 72, 63% women, aged 16–69, M = 27,8, SD = 9,11) filled out questionnaires for Dark Triad traits (SD3), the Big Five (Short Measure of the Big Five Personality Domains), and tolerance for ambiguity (brief measure). The respondents first completed the questionnaires for themselves and then filled out the same forms for four characters from two films ("The Rifleman of the Voroshilov Regiment" and "Leviathan"). The film characters were selected based on a moral assessment ("positive" or "negative") and whether they were able to achieve their goals ("successful" or "unsuccessful"). The instructions emphasized that respondents should answer questions not to reflect their perceptions of a given film character, but as the character himself would answer if he were being completely honest. As expected, the resulting correlation of Dark Triad scores in self-evaluations and evaluations of film characters showed that negative characters were ascribed higher Dark Triad levels. Positive characters had lower narcissism and Machiavellianism scores than negative characters and respondents’ self-evaluations on corresponding traits. However, the correlation of psychopathy scores in self-evaluations and in evaluations of film characters was different. The lowest psychopathy scores were found in respondents’ self-evaluations. Study participants attributed higher psychopathy scores to positive characters than to themselves; the scores of negative characters were higher still. Thus, the study hypothesis was confirmed: the image of a positive character presumes a relatively high level of psychopathy. A comparison of Big Five and tolerance for ambiguity scores demonstrated that positive characters were ascribed higher levels of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and lower levels of tolerance for ambiguity, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience.