This is yet another reason why it may be important to take your time in forming judgments when you get to know someone. The initial appeal of the narcissist or psychopath may be hard to resist. Physical attractiveness is often automatically associated with a host of other positive traits – a phenomenon known as “the halo effect.” When we perceive someone as physically attractive, we automatically assume they are also kinder, smarter, and more confident. Therefore, creating a physically attractive veneer is a highly effective way of creating an advantageous first impression. Combining physical attractiveness with confidence and humor is even more effective, and it appears that people with exploitive personalities are more successful at this as well.
The more humble among us can take heart in knowing that despite these initial advantages, narcissists’ popularity tends to decline over time. The process may take several weeks, perhaps because people with dark personality traits are skilled at keeping their unsavory side hidden. However, since the hallmark of these personality traits is interpersonal exploitation, it is only a matter of time before those closest to them get wise to their ways and start to avoid them. When it comes to long-term relationships, either in fiction or reality, most people shy away from those with dark personality traits. Maybe that’s why in order to sustain our interest over multiple books or movies, that alluring vampire or villain needs to have a heart of gold.
Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.
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22 Comments
Add CommentDoes anyone know how these traits fit into borderline personality disorder?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhere did these people get their definition of "dark"? A narcissistic, Machiavellian psychopath sounds more like the type to seek out the spotlight, like a CEO or a politician.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"People perceived the narcissists... had flashier appearances". Again, flashy is the antithesis of dark.
"When we perceive someone as physically attractive, we automatically assume they are also kinder, smarter, and more confident". Since when? In my experience, physically attractive people are generally perceived as vain, superficial, selfish, getting by on looks instead of brains and having a rockstar/diva attitude.
This looks like a Vogue, or Cosmo article - whare's the Test at the end?... Geez.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPhisically attractive people tend to be more nacisistic, not the other way around. They also tend to be more Machiavellian because they are used to manipulate people by charming others. Meh, no patience to keep going, too flimsy to make anything with this 'study'. A narrow-sighted attempt with iffy conclusions. Too dang common in Psycho-pseudo-logy.
Definitely Cosmo material. Uh huh...
Acoyauh2! Stop being sad and whiney.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHahaha seriously though, it's like there's some factory somewhere churning out glum, feckless (admitted you didn't even read the whole article) sarcastically whining people like you to comment on articles posted online; do you have a serial number?
This article gave useful and interesting info about the fates of people with different personality traits and speaks to something we're all concerned with: why the sun seems too much to shine just as brightly on evil people as good people, to use the old proverb. And how in your own life you can make people like you more by using the advantages that people high in the 'dark triad' traits seem to use. I guess I should ask my gay friend to give me more fashion advice then and take a public speaking class or two for body language tips?
I think you misunderstood the contents of the article too. It says that people high in psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism ARE NOT AS PHYSCIALLY ATTRACTIVE. It's just that they put more effort into their appearance, ie fashion, make-up, etc, and the end result is that they SEEM more attractive. Attractiveness in turn makes people like and trust them more. But only in the short-run. That is useful, interesting, and enjoyable information that's good for spurring debate and further questions.
Correction: the above should read "people high in psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism ARE NOT MORE PHYSCIALLY ATTRACTIVE."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting article. I've read many similar studies. I can always see what's underneath superficial charm. May be because I am a psych major. On that note, here's an interesting little graph of colors of the clothes we choose to wear and the characteristics associated with them. http://bit.ly/Tpl8KJ
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou say that the attractive are likely to be more narcisstic, yet these researchers data support the opposite argument. They have data, and you have an informal opinion. To play the science game you should systematically now gather data to see if your data supports your or their conclusion. Remember, the purpose though is not to prove oneself right, it is to discover whatever the truth is. At this point, given that they have systematic data, the data gives more weight to their argument.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy wouldn't narcissists manipulate themselves into more physically attractive packages? They care more about themselves and their image. They spend their time looking in the mirror, primping, preening and finding their "better profile" and "bedroom eyes" when others are out doing something worthwhile. Remember the witchy queen and her obsession with "Mirror, mirror, on the wall. . ."? Not all narcissists are drawn into sociopathy or psychopathy. It's a stage young people tend to go through, and most mature successfully. I think a re-reading of some of those popular sociology books of the 50s and early 60s, rediscovering the differences between "other-directed" and "inner-directed" persons, might be useful for these researchers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFurther thoughts: I wish this study had checked out persons of more mature years and had included the male sex. The high school years are probably the most self-centered. I didn't date very often in high school. Looking back I think it was because since teens naturally seem to go through a period of "experimental" narcissism, maybe hard-wired into human evolution. I tried it until it got boring and time-consuming, but it seemed to me that boys could be more narcissist than girls, and the phase lasted longer. We know that males are usually the ones who become the con artists of Wall Street and the multinationals.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are regional differences, too. After we moved to the deep South from the upper Midwest in the early 50s I no longer had numerous girl friends who wore clothes made by our mothers and no makeup except a little lipstick, and boys with or without crooked teeth who were interested in real issues and therefore interesting to know. Many more of the Southern high school kids, boys and girls, seemed narcissist to the point of being dumbbells, even obnoxious, especially the jock boys and the gorgeous males and females with their d.a. pompadours and bleached hair, and the only ones I really liked (and who liked me) were my A student nerdy classmates. I suppose many college boys were narcissist, too, since I attended a Southern university and people mature at different rates, but luckily, even as a freshman and sophomore I ran with a crowd of tech majors, constant readers (especially sci-fi) and religious "seekers" who were more mature and thoughtful. Why waste time on the boringly self-adulatory when interesting guys are available? After college I entered the Navy as a career officer and found that military service, just like the South, seems to encourage narcissism. Women are heavily outnumbered and I dated a lot, but never seriously considered marriage until ten days after resigning from the Navy to protest the Vietnam War I met a physicist, and married him a few months later.
Film-makers have played on this stereotype for a long, long time. I'm sure I am not the only shallow male who inevitably falls for the exotically stunning baddie chicks. The merely pretty goodie-girl-next-door types seem so insipid! Perhaps Daisy should try a 'darker' nom de plume like Violet or Foxglove to spice up her writing! I agree with most of the commentators on this article ; these stereotypes belong in Cosmo not Scientific American.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisnarcissistic people are typically more attractive, in my professional point of view, because we live in a society obsessed with pretty-and our beautiful faces, when we have them, are often the only body part we're really encouraged to look upon during social interactions. just like little Charlie Bucket was all excited with his golden ticket, many beautiful faces or beautiful bodies are seen as godlike. good to have, yes? therefore, narcissism can seed itself in the face that when you gamble with a good hand, you feel powerful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thison the other side of that, people are drawn to narcissists-because they're attractive physically, and also because they have a stronger self awareness. like how confident you feel in your favourite pair of jeans-that confidence signals you have control, or you're prepared to give it. we like that, it's yummy.
core value-everyone likes/loves confidence, arrogance is soon to follow, and there's narcissism. :D
More than fifty years ago my Mother warned me to "be aware and mistrustful of charming people. They always bring trouble." Now just add "too attractive". Nothing new here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"you say that the attractive are likely to be more narcisstic"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo, I said that attractive people are more likely to be viewed as narcissitic by others. Not the same thing. If there wasn't a genuine cultural bias AGAINST attractive people (as opposed to the bias towards them that the authors claim), we'd have never invented terms like "pretty-boy" or "metrosexual".
The connection between being cute or a beauty and narcissism, psychopathy and machiavelianism may be a bidirectional one. Cute persons get support, one of the most basical needs of material boys and girls, at zero cost, thus stablishing a positive rewarding conditioned loop that makes narcissism keep on growing as a reward; also these persons are forced to pshychopathy, as they're said day after day that rewards don't require any ethics or any build-up of a mature Ego to be satisfied, you just need "Walking into the yard", and this is also a pressure towards a machiavellianism in relationships, you must find ways to say "no" to the demands of many desiring you, there are few persons being more dangerous tan a jilted one, and in the other side, saying "yeah" to everybody wanting you can put the person in a self-destructive way as the one of Norma Jean. Being desired stimulates creativity on the ways to handle the others' desire, builds an strong Ego, and gives you the tools to use the skills developed for self-protection to other tasks in everyday life, being desired is a satisfaction, and this improves your overall functioning and your achievement of goals, as it's easier finding help or support, many times obtained in an automatic way, even when the supporter doesn't realize it. The old advise in the Bible "Never to praise the beauty of a man", be the praiser a man or a woman, protects society from the trend to obtain things for nothing, for men to become "gigolos" and to asume values traditionally linked to female gender, that can destroy the social pressure for actually giving a service or producing something for a person to obtain revenues, and can open the homosexual way of libido discharge, that for non homosexual men may damage some of the self-assertion mechanisms, and also the "Turf protection" attitudes that, as using some brain circuits that have other functions added, may result in unwanted impairments in unsuspected areas of mind functioning. Beauty was a way of social success for women, sometimes woman's talks about other women may sound to men as butchers speaking of pieces of flesh, or cowboys speaking about cattle's features. As sex is stronger tan self-preservation instinct, and the feeling of being rejected as a mating candidate is very painful, it's not rare in the other side seeing persons that are "ugly" or have minor handicaps, engaging in a highly promiscuous behavior, just to reassure themselves they can have a mate and eliminating fears of rejection, this has even lead some into becoming abusers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLooking back at life experiences I can see multiple correlations to the author's findings.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt still does not help explain the comment about the picture above: "What is it about her"?
Most likely a model, but then, not just any type of model ...
Self love is the best form of love. There is nothing wrong with a person loving his personality, look at the mirror and focus on his looks. Sometimes such an attitude enhances his confidence and makes him feel comfortable doing his job or carrying out his profession with aplomb. It is not his fault whether people fall for him, for his look and darker personality. Trying to create a link between narcissisim, psychopathy and Machiavellianism and calling darker personalities are more attractive looks too far-fetched. Beauty lies in the beholder's eyes and reflects Adlai Stevenson statement - people donot like painted pictures. Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this- Kahlil Gibran -
I totally agree there is a direct interlink between appearance and negatve personality, not-so-cute person can be mean and psychopathy too, if not more than cute ones. So the same to the other way around, being physical attractive doesn't necessarily mean someone is bossy or self-centered.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBased on my experiences working in developed countries, it is true that black boys are more attractive for girls than white boys. The present article is very interesting.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisS. N. Tiwary
DIRECTOR
Most people commenting on this article are looking at it wrong. This is all very natural. There are 2 kinds of predators; stalking predators and ambush predators. Both kinds of predator will fail if they give themselves away. Thus predatory people try to blend in as much as possible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe stalker predator tends to use sudden bursts of activity to rush out from hiding. In humans this tends to be, but is not by any means limited to, muggers, robbers, professional athletes and law enforcement. The last 2 of the previous sentence do not constitute majorities, although it is legitimately estimated that around 40% of law enforcement are prone to violent crimes.
The ambush predator lets the victims come to them. This requires either being unnoticed or being attractive. Unnoticed ambushers includes forgers, embezzlers and apparently, bankers. The noticed and attractive ambushers include con artists, hustlers, prostitutes, actors, politicians and other celebrities as well as pedophiles and estate planners. Pedophiles are particularly disturbing because they find greatest hunting success by blending in with authoritative, trustworthy workers with children such as priests/ministers, scout leaders, teachers and daycare workers. Again I'm pretty confident that the predators are a minority among actors and celebrities as well as the careers that draw pedophiles.
Looked at from the view of predatory success, this makes perfect sense. Predators have to be in the minority or they would be obvious and thus fail.
I guess not only that you're right, but that you love the others only from you, and you love the others as they're similar to you, when loving others, you love yourself, and if you don't love yourself, either because you've never given enough love, and in this we will never have enough from creatures, or because you're in self-hating way, hating the others is a way to hate yourself and commit suicide by provocations to others, some types of psychotherapy do introduce an authority or parental image in your mind that is against your previous beliefs or affiliations, and as you can't attack or say no to a parental figure, you induce your own death in an state of terror, and end as some kind of a very high performance computer or tool in the hands of abusers. Even in the Bible the idea is clearly stated: God sent his son Jesus incarnated to be able to love us, as He loved in Him our nature: being made of flesh and susceptible of dying, but others say that mankind are the only creatures that God loved because of themselves.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find the tendency toward 'tribal' self-enhancement to be more widely represented in those with greater right hemispheric strength (the tribal hemisphere). This may be consistent with some of the research on social ranking in primates.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisS.N.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDo you mean this racially or otherwise?