The Dark Triad Test
Learn more about the Dark Triad Test, and how to assess the three psychological traits that affect personality.
Fact Checked by Ericka Pingol.
What is the Dark Triad Personality Questionnaire?
The Dark Triad Test, sometimes called the Dark Triad Personality Test or Dark Triad Personality Questionnaire, is a psychological assessment tool created to assess people for three personality traits dubbed the Dark Triad Personality Traits.
Here are the three Dark Triad Traits in question: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Let’s briefly discuss each one.
This personality assessment has two forms. The original version has 41 items divided into three sections, each representing a dark personality. The Machiavellianism section has 13 items, with the section for narcissism having the same number of questions and the section for psychopathy having 15 items.
There is also a short-form variant of the original test called the Short Dark Triad Personality Test (sometimes SD3 for short). This test consists of 24 items. Like the original version, there are three sections, each representing a dark personality. This time, the section for Machiavellianism and narcissism has nine items each, while the section for psychopathy only has six items.
For this guide, we will be focusing on the Short Dark Triad version.
Machiavellianism
- It’s not wise to tell your secrets.
- I like to use clever manipulation to get my way.
- Whatever it takes, you must get the important people on your side.
- Avoid direct conflict with others because they may be useful in the future.
- It’s wise to keep track of information that you can use against people later.
- You should wait for the right time to get back at people.
- There are things you should hide from other people to preserve your reputation.
- Make sure your plans benefit yourself, not others.
- Most people can be manipulated.
Narcissism
- People see me as a natural leader.
- I hate being the center of attention. (R)
- Many group activities tend to be dull without me.
- I know that I am special because everyone keeps telling me so.
- I like to get acquainted with important people.
- I feel embarrassed if someone compliments me. (R)
- I have been compared to famous people.
- I am an average person. (R)
- I insist on getting the respect I deserve.
Psychopathy
- I like to get revenge on authorities.
- I avoid dangerous situations. (R)
- Payback needs to be quick and nasty.
- People often say I’m out of control.
- It’s true that I can be mean to others.
- People who mess with me always regret it.
Please note that when you administer this test, you need to remove the subscales so the person answering is not influenced by the fact that they’re being assessed for dark personalities. Just make sure they’re in the same order.
Printable Dark Triad Test PDF
Assess personality traits with our free Dark Triad Test
What are the characteristics of the Dark Triad personalities?
Now that you know what each section of the Short Dark Triad Test is about, let's briefly discuss those three personality traits.
Machiavellian personality
Let's begin with Machiavellianism, named after Niccolò Machiavelli, a political philosopher famous for The Prince, a political treatise published posthumously in 1532. Generally speaking, however mild, those with this personality trait have the disposition of a leader, albeit a manipulative one that focuses on personal gain.
Those with this personality trait work hard at being likable. They can be cunning and deceitful and work hard to seem favorable to others to make it easier for themselves to exploit what others can do for their benefit.
Narcissist personality
Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by having an inflated sense of self-importance and grandiosity. Those with narcissism tend to be preoccupied with unrealistic thoughts about beauty, power, and success. They might even pontificate about these thoughts from time to time.
They will also likely have a warped view of ideal love and an unhealthy need for acceptance, acknowledgment, and admiration. Despite needing these things, they ironically have little to no empathy for others.
Psychopathic personality
Among the Dark Triad personality traits, psychopathy has the potential to be the most dangerous. A lack of empathy, remorse, and guilt characterizes this dark personality. It is also characterized by impulsivity. These characteristics are dangerous because psychopaths tend to have destructive thoughts. Depending on the person, they might even enact these thoughts and start exhibiting destructive behaviors and actions.
Psychopaths also tend to have antisocial behavior, though, despite this, they can appear sociable, likable, and charming, which they may take advantage of to manipulate and deceive others for their benefit and enjoyment.
How do you score this Dark Triad Test?
To answer the Dark Triad Test, a person simply needs to answer each item with any one of the five answer options:
- Disagree strongly = 1 point
- Disagree = 2 points
- Neither agree nor disagree = 3 points
- Agree = 4 points
- Agree strongly = 5 points
You simply need to add up the scores for each dark triad personality. Please note that items are labeled with (R), which means the scoring is reversed. Disagree strongly for these items is scored 5, and Agree strongly will be scored 1.
High scores indicate a higher likelihood of having a dark triad personality. Do note that this doesn’t count as a formal diagnosis for any of these personalities or any personality disorder.
To correctly confirm and diagnose a personality disorder, a person must undergo a comprehensive examination, and mental healthcare professionals handling them must cross-check all the necessary information with the latest edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
What is a good score for the Dark Triad Test?
The best score to get is 24. It’s the lowest possible score one can get. This should indicate that a person is not likely to be Machiavellian, a narcissist, and a psychopath. If they have a high score for the whole test, that’s concerning, but that doesn’t mean they are confirmed to have those personality traits.
It would be best for such people, that is, if they are even cognizant about their personalities and behaviors and are willing to do something about their problematic aspects, to see mental healthcare professionals to get examined and diagnosed with the appropriate mental health issue or personality disorder, and take the appropriate treatment to manage their issues or disorder.
The Dark Triad Test example:
Now that you know what to expect from this test, we will show you our template. You can find online versions of these tests with a simple Google search, but we created a PDF file in case you want to use this as part of a comprehensive person assessment, research, psychology, or psychometric purposes.
Our template has two parts. The first part is for the person answering. All they will see are 24 items that need to be answered. They’re arranged in the order we showed you in one of the earlier sections, but they’re not divided into three categories on the sheet.
The second part is for the person who hands out the test. It shows all items and indicates which items belong to what Dark Triad personality. It also has fields where you can indicate the total and subscale scores.
Here it is:
Download the Dark Triad Test template here:
If you like what you see and believe this is an excellent way to gather information about people, whether for fun (some people search and take this test for fun), research, or as a way to gauge a patient about to undergo a diagnostic examination for a personality disorder, feel free to download our free Dark Triad Test PDF template.
What are the benefits of knowing your personality traits?
Knowing your personality traits helps you become self-aware.
There are many personality tests online, and most people answer them for their leisure and entertainment. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t have anything to offer beyond one’s entertainment. These tests can make people more aware of their personality traits. By becoming aware of one’s personality traits, one will better understand one's tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses. They might even discover something about themselves that they never knew was there because they never had the opportunity to think about it.
Knowing your personality traits is essential for personal development.
By understanding your personality traits, you can zoom in on the traits that you believe have been detrimental to your interpersonal relationships, mental health, and success. Identifying these traits is the first step to personal development. The following steps should be towards self-betterment to grow out of those personality traits and become a better person who can communicate effectively, have empathy, and have the clarity to make informed and beneficial decisions.
In the context of the Dark Triad personality traits, they can help people realize they might need help.
The Dark Triad personality traits deserve to be called dark personality traits because they are negative and can become dangerous and detrimental to the person who has them and others. If a person takes the Dark Triad Test and their scores reflect a high tendency to be narcissistic, Machiavellian, and psychopathic, they have the chance to take a step back and wonder if this is how they want to be moving forward.
If they care enough to say to themselves: “that’s not how I want to be”, they can take active steps to correct their tendencies. They can also see a specialist for help to find better ways to manage such tendencies.
What’s the difference between the Dark Triad and Big 5 Personality Tests?
The Big 5 Personality Test is another personality test that you can try! We have a guide and template for it, too. What this personality test tries to assess are the following:
- A person’s openness to experiences,
- If they are conscientious or not,
- If they are extroverted or introverted,
- If they are agreeable or not,
- And if they are neurotic.
The Dark Triad Test, on the other hand, assesses a person in terms of having three dark personality traits: being narcissistic, Machiavellian, or psychopathic.
How can Carepatron help with personality questionnaires?
Thanks for reading this guide! We hope this was an excellent introduction or refresher to the Dark Triad Personality Test. We also hope our template helps you gather information about the dark triad personalities for work.
While we still have you, we’d like to ask you for your time to check more of the Carepatron platform if you haven’t. We have a wide variety of nifty features that will help you streamline your work, and we’re confident they’re cool enough to convince you to consider us your number-one clinical documentation and psychology practice management software! We won’t discuss these features here, but we’d like to highlight one that’s tied to this guide you just read: our resource library.
Our resource library is filled with clinical resources covering numerous healthcare fields, topics, and practices, especially psychology and mental health. Earlier, we mentioned other personality tests like the Personality Questionnaire, the Big 5, and the Draw Personality Test. Not only do we have guides for those, but we also have templates!
The collection goes beyond personality questionnaires, too. We have various assessments that examine symptoms of mental health problems like depression, anxiety, and so much more.
What’s great about our resources is that they’re all free, so you can read as many guides as you want and download as many templates as you need! We hope they help you gather nuanced information for psychometric purposes or help you kickstart mental health assessments of patients for therapy or counseling!
Commonly asked questions
It can be accomplished within 10 to 20 minutes.
Absolutely not. Just because they scored high, it doesn’t mean they are truly Machiavellian, narcissistic, or psychopathic. Personality tests are sometimes answered for fun. While Machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic tendencies are potential causes for concern, this should never be used as a diagnostic tool. Results can be used as a starting point for professionals to recommend taking a comprehensive examination that can confirm these traits.
Yes. These can change due to experiences and personal growth. Remember, these are tendencies being discussed, not specific disorders. Suppose a person is diagnosed with a disorder tied to these dark personalities. In that case, they need to undergo therapy to hopefully change or, at the very least, manage these personalities and associated behaviors.
