Personality and Individual Differences 122 (2018) 43–46

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Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Short Communication

On love and darkness: The Dark Triad and mate retention behaviors in a MARK
non-Western culture
Razieh Chegeni⁎, Roshanak Khodabakhsh Pirkalani, Gholamreza Dehshiri
Department of Psychology, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Researchers have been showing growing interest in the relationship between personality and mate retentions
Dark Triad behaviors. There is evidence that the Dark Triad of personality (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psy-
Personality chopathy) may be associated with mate retention behavior in romantic relationships. Yet, most of the mentioned
Mate retention studies have been conducted in Western samples. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between
Evolutionary psychology
the Dark Triad and mate retention behaviors in Iranian married individuals. Descriptive statistics and evaluation
Iran
of sex differences suggested that Iranian men scored significantly higher on domains of mate retention. Women
scored higher on narcissism. Correlational analyses indicated that Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psycho-
pathy are positively correlated with Benefit-Provisioning, Cost-Inflicting, and overall mate retention. Therefore,
individuals who score higher on the Dark Triad traits employ mate retention strategies to prevent dissolution of
their marital relationships. The findings are clearly consistent with previous findings in Western cultures.

1. Introduction
Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy are collectively
known as the Dark Triad (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Since introduc-
tion of these personality traits, a large body of work has been devel-
oped. A large number of studies have investigated the utility of these
traits in predicting human behavior in many contexts (Furnham,
Richards, & Paulhus, 2013). The Dark Triad traits have been found to be
associated with many personal and social behaviors. These personality
traits have been found to be linked to negative intrapersonal and in-
terpersonal outcomes and have been traditionally considered as socially
aversive (e.g., Jonason, Baughman, Carter, & Parker, 2015). The simi-
larities between Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy are
attributable to a common interpersonal callousness.
The persistence of these traits over time and across various cultures,
as well as links to several positive traits such as increased sexual success
in mating contexts (Jonason, Li, Webster, & Schmitt, 2009) suggest that
the Dark Triad can serve as potentially advantageous personality traits
for individuals. These benefits are more important in mating contexts
(Atari & Chegeni, 2017). In evolutionary psychological approach, traits
that aid an individual to survive and reproduce successfully possess
more benefits than costs. Both the benefits and the costs associated with
the Dark Triad traits have been researched (Jonason, Li, & Buss, 2010).
The links between the Dark Triad traits and mate retention strate-
gies—behaviors that individuals employ to retain their romantic
partner, and thwart infidelity or defection from a romantic sexual re-
lationship (Buss, 1988)—have also been examined (Jonason et al.,
2010). The common characteristics of this dark collection of traits are
associated with entitlement, manipulation, and exploitativeness. Pre-
vious work has shown that these traits are associated with specific mate
retention tactics, including jealousy inducement, emotional manipula-
tion, and verbal possession signals (Jonason et al., 2010). Additionally,
overall mate retention scores have been found to be positively asso-
ciated with Machiavellianism (r = 0.20), narcissism (r = 0.25), psy-
chopathy (r = 0.25), and the Dark Triad composite score (r = 0.32).
The findings of Jonason et al. (2010) suggest that personality features
are associated with the mate retention strategies that individuals em-
ploy to maintain their romantic relationships. The present research may
be considered a replication of Jonason et al. (2010). Accordingly, we
expected that Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and compo-
site Dark Triad be positively associated with mate retention behaviors.
Generally, mate retention behaviors can range from socially ac-
ceptable behaviors to socially aversive behaviors. In order to measure
humans' mate retention behaviors, Buss (1988) developed the Mate
Retention Inventory (MRI) documenting 19 tactics of mate retention.
Miner, Starratt, and Shackelford (2009) suggested a higher-order do-
main structure of mate retention behaviors: Benefit-Provisioning and
Cost-Inflicting. The former domain includes strategies that increase
relationship satisfaction. The latter, on the other hand, consists of
strategies that inflict costs on the partner. This two-factor domain

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: r.chegini@student.alzahra.ac.ir (R. Chegeni).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.10.007
Received 16 June 2017; Received in revised form 5 October 2017; Accepted 6 October 2017
0191-8869/ © 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
R. Chegeni et al. Personality and Individual Differences 122 (2018) 43–46

structure has been cross-culturally replicated in factor-analytic studies Table 1

(e.g., Lopes, Shackelford, Santos, Farias, & Segundo, 2016). Descriptive statistics and sex differences.
While the associations between the Dark Triad and mate retention
Men Women t-Test statistic Cohen's d
have been investigated in Western samples, no study has examined this
relationship in non-Western cultures. Research suggests that the per- M SD M SD
sonality correlates of mate retention in Western samples (e.g., Sela,
Machiavellianism 1.69 0.93 1.49 0.74 1.70 0.24
Shackelford, Pham, & Zeigler-Hill, 2015) may not necessarily be re-
Narcissism 3.95 1.49 4.50 1.58 − 2.54⁎ − 0.35
plicated in non-Western cultures (e.g., Atari, Barbaro, Sela, Psychopathy 2.34 1.14 2.22 0.92 0.90 0.12
Shackelford, & Chegeni, (2017)). Therefore, it is important to in- Dark Triad 2.67 0.84 2.74 0.80 − 0.64 − 0.09
vestigate the relationships between personality features and mate re- BP 1.73 0.47 1.52 0.50 3.13⁎⁎ 0.43
tention behaviors across cultures. The present study aimed to in- CI 0.57 0.36 0.45 0.34 2.59⁎⁎ 0.34
Overall MR 1.15 0.33 0.98 0.37 3.46⁎⁎ 0.47
vestigate the association between the Dark Triad traits (i.e.,
Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) and mate retention Note. BP = Benefit-Provisioning; CI = Cost-Inflicting; MR = Mate Retention.
domains in Iran. Broadly, Iran is a Middle Eastern country whose major ⁎
p < 0.05.
⁎⁎
population speak Persian and are Shiite Muslims. Iranian culture pro- p < 0.01.
vides a unique opportunity for researchers to examine personality and
individual differences in a non-WEIRD (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2.3. Procedure
2010) culture.
The relevant university's committee approved this study. All mea-
sures were presented in a questionnaire package in a randomized order.
2. Methods All packages started with demographic questions (age, sex, marital
status, and educational background). Potential participants were ap-
2.1. Participants proached and invited to take part in a psychological study about mar-
riage and personality. Participants completed paper-and-pencil versions
A community sample of 205 participants (54.1% women) was se- of the DD and MRI-SF along with demographic details and other mea-
lected from Tehran, Iran. Tehran may be considered the political and sures whose results are presented elsewhere. Participation was on a
economic center of Iran with residents from a variety of ethnicities and voluntary basis.
subcultures. Potential participants were approached by the corre-
sponding author in public places in Tehran and were invited to com-
3. Results
plete a set of questionnaires (see Procedure). All participants were
married. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 61 (M = 31.9,
We examined descriptive statistics of the study variables and sex
SD = 7.9). In terms of employment status, 134 participants (65.4%)
differences. Table 1 displays the descriptive statistics (i.e., M and SD) of
were employed. The marital relationship length ranged from 2 months
all study variables for men and women. Moreover, sex differences were
to 40 years (M = 77.8 months, SD = 78.2 months).
examined using independent samples t-test and effect size (Cohen's d).
As displayed in Table 1, women in the present sample scored higher on
2.2. Measures narcissism. Sex differences in Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and
composite Dark Triad score were non-significant (ps > 0.09). More-
2.2.1. Mate Retention Inventory-Short Form (MRI-SF) over, men performed Benefit-Provisioning and Cost-Inflicting mate re-
The Mate Retention Inventory-Short Form (MRI-SF; Buss, tention more frequently than women (ps < 0.01).
Shackelford, & McKibbin, 2008) consists of 38 items assessing 19 mate Table 2 contains correlations between the Dark Triad traits and
retention tactics. All participants reported on a 4-point Likert-type scale mate retention domains as well as overall mate retention. As presented
ranging from 0 (never) to 3 (often) how often they performed each be- in Table 2, Machiavellianism was positively associated with Benefit-
havior within the past year. Those participants whose marriage dura- Provisioning and Cost-Inflicting mate retention as well as the global
tion was less than a year were instructed to answer the items based on score of mate retention. Narcissism was positively associated with
their relationship length. Atari, Barbaro, Shackelford, and Chegeni Benefit-Provisioning and Cost-Inflicting mate retention as well as the
(2017) reported satisfactory psychometric properties of the Persian global score of mate retention. The correlation between psychopathy
translation of the MRI-SF in Iranian context. Composite scores of Ben- and Benefit-Provisioning was positive, yet did not reach statistical sig-
efit-Provisioning (Cronbach's α = 0.86) and Cost-Inflicting (Cronbach's nificance (p = 0.24). Psychopathy was positively associated with Cost-
α = 0.79) components were calculated by averaging the appropriate Inflicting mate retention and global mate retention. Finally, the Dark
items. Examples of Benefit-Provisioning and Cost-Inflicting items are Triad composite score was positively correlated with Benefit-Provi-
“Took me out to a nice restaurant” and “Slapped a woman [man] who sioning (r = 0.19, p < 0.01), Cost-Inflicting (r = 0.33, p < 0.01),
made a pass at me,” respectively. Overall mate retention scores were and overall mate retention (r = 0.30, p < 0.01). We also conducted
calculating by averaging all 38 items of the MRI-SF (Cronbach's two independent linear regression analyses, with Benefit-Provisioning
α = 0.89).
Table 2
Correlation coefficients between study variables.
2.2.2. Dirty Dozen
Variable Machiavellianism Narcissism Psychopathy Dark Triad
The Dirty Dozen (DD; Jonason & Webster, 2010) was used in this
study as a measure of the Dark Triad. All participants provided their BP ⁎
0.16 (0.20 ) ⁎⁎ ⁎
0.16 (0.09) 0.08 (0.09) 0.19⁎⁎ (0.17⁎)
answers on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) CI 0.37⁎⁎ (0.37⁎⁎) 0.18⁎⁎ (0.16⁎) 0.21⁎⁎ (0.22⁎⁎) 0.33⁎⁎ (0.32⁎⁎)
to 7 (strongly agree). The Farsi translation of the DD has shown adequate Global MR 0.29⁎⁎ (0.32⁎⁎) 0.20⁎⁎ (0.14) 0.16⁎ (0.17⁎) 0.30⁎⁎ (0.28⁎⁎)
validity and reliability in previous work (Atari & Chegeni, 2016). In the
Note. BP = Benefit-Provisioning; CI = Cost-Inflicting; MR = Mate Retention.
present study, alpha coefficients for Machiavellianism, psychopathy,
Figures in parentheses represent correlations statistically controlling for age and re-
and narcissism were 0.74, 0.55, and 0.87, respectively. We also com- lationship length.
puted a Dark Triad composite score by averaging all 12 items (Cron- ⁎
p < 0.05.
bach's α = 0.76). ⁎⁎
p < 0.01.

44
R. Chegeni et al.
Table 3
Regression analyses onto mate retention behaviors.
Variable Benefit-Provisioning (β) Cost-Inflicting (β)
Age −0.11 0.03
Relationship length −0.09 −0.03
Machiavellianism 0.18⁎ 0.33⁎⁎
Narcissism 0.05 0.15⁎
Psychopathy 0.04 0.05
Model R2 0.085 0.162
⁎
p < 0.05.
⁎⁎
p < 0.01.
and Cost-Inflicting mate retention behaviors as dependent variables
(see Table 3). As can be seen, Machiavellianism is the best predictor of
Benefit-Provisioning (β = 0.18, t = 2.28, p = 0.024) and Cost-In-
flicting (β = 0.33, t = 4.48, p < 0.001) mate retention behaviors.
4. Discussion
Several studies (e.g., Holden, Zeigler-Hill, Pham, & Shackelford,
2014; Jonason et al., 2010) have examined the relationship between
different models of personality and mate retention behaviors. Jonason
et al. (2010) investigated the relationship between the Dark Triad and
mate retention behaviors and reported positive correlations between
the Dark Triad and mate retention behaviors. The current study is the
first research to examine the associations between the Dark Triad traits
and mate retention behavior among married individuals in a non-
Western setting. In addition, our results extend previous findings by
using an all-married sample, rather than a combination of dating and
married couples.
Descriptive statistics and sex differences indicated that women
scored higher on narcissism in the present sample. This finding is not
consistent with a recent meta-analysis on gender differences in narcis-
sism (Grijalva et al., 2015); however, it is partly in line with results of
Atari and Chegeni (2016), reporting a slightly higher mean score of
narcissism for Iranian women compared to Iranian men. Moreover,
Chegeni and Atari (in press) reported higher scores of narcissism in
women. Yet, the magnitude of this sex difference was non-significant
and very small in magnitude. Sex difference in psychopathy was small
and its direction was in line with previous research in Iranian context
(Chegeni & Atari, 2016). Sex differences in mate retention behaviors
were fully in line with previous research (Atari, Barbaro, Shackelford,
et al., 2017). That is, the performance frequency of mate retention
behaviors is greater in men.
Our results mirrored those of Jonason et al. (2010). The Dark Triad
traits were positively associated with Benefit-Provisioning, Cost-In-
flicting, and overall mate retention. The correlations between the Dark
Triad and Cost-Inflicting domain were consistently stronger than those
between the Dark Triad and Benefit-Provisioning. Since Cost-Inflicting
mate retention tactics (e.g., negative inducements) are characterized by
aggression toward the partner and potential rivals and exploitative
strategies (Buss, 1988), it stands to reason that the Dark Triad is more
strongly correlated with Cost-Inflicting mate retention behavior. On the
other hand, Jonason et al. (2010) suggest that the positive association
between the Dark Triad and Benefit-Provisioning mate retention tactics
(e.g., appearance enhancement) may be attributable to narcissism (see
Vazire, Naumann, Rentfrow, & Gosling, 2008) and its shared variance
with Machiavellianism and psychopathy. However, regression analyses
in this study showed that Machiavellianism is the best predictor of mate
retention behaviors (see Brewer & Abell, 2015).
One possible explanation for the positive association between the
Dark Triad and Benefit-Provisioning mate retention behavior is that
individuals with higher scores on the Dark Triad are more susceptible to
lose their mates through mate poaching (Jonason et al., 2010). In fact,
losing a mate through mate poaching is a cost associated with the Dark
45
Personality and Individual Differences 122 (2018) 43–46
Triad. Broadly, mate retention behavior is a mechanism through which
the Dark Triad individuals prevent their mates from being poached or
seduced. Therefore, they may, in turn, provide their romantic partners
with benefits in order to prevent sexual infidelity and defection for the
relationship. They alternatively use Cost-Inflicting tactics to retain their
mates and prevent sexual infidelity, even by inflicting costs and de-
creasing relationship satisfaction.
Another possible explanation for our results in the current sample is
that the Dark Triad individuals are more likely to be assortatively
mated with someone who is also high on these traits. Therefore, in-
dividuals with high scores may perceive a high risk of infidelity and use
a variety of mate retention tactics in response. Therefore, we suggest
that future research could particularly investigate the mediating role of
perceived risk of infidelity in the relationship between the Dark Triad
and mate retention behavior.
Despite several points of strength and adding to the evolutionary
psychological literature in Iranian context (see Atari, 2017), the present
study has several limitations. First, we used cross-sectional data and
correlational analyses. Therefore, causality may not be assured. Second,
we used a short measure of the Dark Triad. Additionally, psychopathy
showed a low internal consistency in the present study. It is re-
commended for future research to overcome this limitation by using
gold standard measures of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psycho-
pathy. Third, we only included heterosexual married individuals. Fu-
ture research could extend the present findings to dating individuals in
Iran as well as homosexual and bisexual individuals.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Mohammad Atari for his suggestions re-
garding research design and data analysis.
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