Donald Trump’s Dark Triad personality disorder explains his many-sided malevolence
A simple way to understand and communicate why Donald Trump is so dangerous to our world presents itself in the psychological literature of over 600 articles on the Dark Triad personality disorder — narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism — and about 40 articles on Dark Leadership (how organizations are affected by leaders with those traits). Trump has thoroughly self-documented that he has those personality defects, which researchers have recognized since 2002 as measures of malevolence. Furthermore, obviating the need for diagnosing Trump as a psychopath, ethicist Darcia Narvaez has identified three neurological axes for human behavior based on neuroanatomical structures that, when conditioned antisocially, produce ethical and personality defects that correspond, respectively, to each of those maladaptive traits. Under such pathological conditions, (1) the reptilian brain’s ethics of security, driven by instinct that ideally seeks oneness, produces a psychopath’s fragmented worldview that nobody else matters but him/her; (2) the mammalian brain’s ethics of engagement, guided by intuition that ideally offers self-sacrifice, manifests as a narcissist’s total self-absorption to the exclusion of any willingness to sacrifice; and (3) the cerebral cortex’s ethics of imagination, shaped by deliberation and narrative that ideally offers nurturance and understanding, maps to a Machiavellian’s malicious compulsion to bully, misinform, manipulate, and dominate everyone around him/her. Leaders given great power can exploit all three axes of human interactions at every opportunity, successively depleting infrastructures with each decision.
1. Paulhus, D. L. and K. M. Williams (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality 36(6): 556-563.
2. Jones, Daniel N., and Delroy L. Paulhus. The Role of Impulsivity in the Dark Triad of Personality. Personality and individual differences 51, no. 5 (2011): 679-82.
3. Michels, M., et al. (2020). The ability to lie and its relations to the dark triad and general intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences 166: 110195.
4. Azizli, N., B. E. Atkinson, H. M. Baughman, K. Chin, P. A. Vernon, E. Harris, and L. Veselka. Lies and Crimes: Dark Triad, Misconduct, and High-Stakes Deception. Personality and Individual Differences 89 (Jan 2016): 34-39.
5. Pan, W., Q. P. Zhang, T. S. H. Teo, V. K. G. Lim (2018). The dark triad and knowledge hiding. International Journal of Information Management 42: 36-48.
6. Maasberg, M., J. Warren, and N. L. Beebe. The Dark Side of the Insider: Detecting the Insider Threat through Examination of Dark Triad Personality Traits. In 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, edited by T. X. Bui and R. H. Sprague. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 3518-26, 2015.
7. Fischbacher-Smith, D. The Enemy Has Passed through the Gate. Insider Threats, the Dark Triad, and the Challenges around Security. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness-People and Performance 2, no. 2 (2015): 134-56.
8. Landay, Karen, P. D. Harms, and Marcus Credé. Shall We Serve the Dark Lords? A Meta-Analytic Review of Psychopathy and Leadership. Journal of applied psychology 104, no. 1 (2019): 183-96.
9. Kausel, Edgar E., Satoris S. Culbertson, Pedro I. Leiva, Jerel E. Slaughter, and Alexander T. Jackson. Too Arrogant for Their Own Good? Why and When Narcissists Dismiss Advice. Organizational behavior and human decision processes 131 (2015): 33-50.
10. Nagler, U. K. J., Reiter, K. J., Furtner, M. R., and Rauthmann, J. F. (2014). Is there a ‘dark intelligence’? Emotional intelligence is used by dark personalities to emotionally manipulate others. Personality and Individual Differences 65: 47-52.
11. Palmer, J. C., R. M. Holmes, and P. L. Perrewe (2020). The Cascading Effects of CEO Dark Triad Personality on Subordinate Behavior and Firm Performance: A Multilevel Theoretical Model. Group & Organization Management 45(2): 143-180.
12. Furtner, Marco R., Thomas Maran, and John F. Rauthmann. Dark Leadership: The Role of Leaders’ Dark Triad Personality Traits. In Leader Development Deconstructed, edited by M. G. Clark and C. W. Gruber: Springer, 2017.
I do not disagree, as far as you went, but I would expand it to groups on the left (such as antifa) and opponents, who just are not as effective (from their perspective). Polarization, by definition, has two poles and in my view there are many out there that need to take a deep breath. His supporters believe they are not being heard, perhaps that could be addressed.... or we could continue the food fights (and worse).
Thank you for this terrific overview and insight into the Trump phenomenon. I hope you were right that his game may be up now with four indictments. I have my doubts. He’s like a cancer that has metastasized. His followers are more than willing to take up the cause. Just think, there are more guns in the United States than citizens. Trump represents everything that is dark not just in America, but in human nature. Why are we not regarding him as certifiably insane?
"The First Amendment broadly protected all his words, unless he specifically incited violence with them." But he DID incite violence with them. Multiple times. In all of the cases you listed. As did his cronies.
He won’t stop until someone lowers the boom on him. He has been like this for 77 years and totally believes he can and will get away with whatever he wants.... because he always has. We can no longer give him even an inch- He will destroy us!!!
Thank you for calling this out. Cheetolini seems to have emboldened a shocking number of bullies, racists, misogynists, and general nasty miscreants to normalize evil and generally bad behavior.
I REALLY hope that at least one of the judges applies graduated enforcement so he finally experiences at least a small dose of accountability. Start with forfeiting his bail, then next infraction, a night in jail, then if the bloviating dufus still hasn't learned, two nights in jail, etc. . .
Without consequences, the bail conditions mean NOTHING. . . .
If he was my parents' son, he'd get whipped for using that kind of language against people. I guess that's the difference between the wealthy and middle class families.
That's an air-tight case. Let's face it though; he made it easy. I do have an idea about this that would leave free speech untouched. Right now, 'incitement' only works one way. If the inciting actor deliberately incites a specific individual to commit a crime, that's actionable. But at the moment it doesn't work the other way nearly as well. Someone who commits a crime who only 'heard things' not said to them directly from an inciter is presumed to be acting alone. That's what needs to change.
I think we already have the tools to burst the damn, but no one is trying to use them due to how large the 1st looms.
"So when ‘Free Speech’ costs someone their life, just like shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater could, the speaker must be held accountable. What is happening now is the national equivalent of people yelling "FIRE!" when there is none.
For the time being, civil suits are a possible venue. Right now, EVERY person who has lost a loved one because of something that loved one heard on Fox or from Rush Limbaugh (Rot in Purgatory), or because they were killed by someone who listened to Trump or Tucker Carlson or anyone who spread a dangerous lie, should be suing the bloody blue blazes out of them. In fact, if you’ve read this article and know anyone who has suffered at all due to the mendacity of any media personality or politician, tell them to call an attorney. Not every case will fly, but it is time to raise national attention to the poison that is being spread among us and harming people as a result.
The real solution, of course, is to push for legislation that will levy criminal charges on anyone who can be shown to have influenced others to commit harmful or deadly acts. There is exactly ZERO shadow of a doubt, even among Trump’s allies, that Trump was responsible for the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. He is therefore responsible for every death and injury that happened. Just as CMP is markedly responsible for Robert Dear murdering 5 people, anyone who can be directly implicated in committing ‘Stochastic Terrorism’ (incitement to violence by proxy) must be held accountable for the damage they do, the suffering they spawn and the death they cause.
If we do this, free speech will be untouched. No one will be ‘prevented’ from stating a belief or making an argument. The only difference is that people will have to think twice about whether what they say might incite someone to engage in deeply misguided violence."
A great list, Jay. While your title is "The Big Picture" we know the devil is in the details. It was Elie Wiesel who said to a small group of us one evening, "If you want to know what evil is, put a face on it." That gives us a clear picture forward. Thanks again for your continuing good work.
Donald Trump’s Dark Triad personality disorder explains his many-sided malevolence
A simple way to understand and communicate why Donald Trump is so dangerous to our world presents itself in the psychological literature of over 600 articles on the Dark Triad personality disorder — narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism — and about 40 articles on Dark Leadership (how organizations are affected by leaders with those traits). Trump has thoroughly self-documented that he has those personality defects, which researchers have recognized since 2002 as measures of malevolence. Furthermore, obviating the need for diagnosing Trump as a psychopath, ethicist Darcia Narvaez has identified three neurological axes for human behavior based on neuroanatomical structures that, when conditioned antisocially, produce ethical and personality defects that correspond, respectively, to each of those maladaptive traits. Under such pathological conditions, (1) the reptilian brain’s ethics of security, driven by instinct that ideally seeks oneness, produces a psychopath’s fragmented worldview that nobody else matters but him/her; (2) the mammalian brain’s ethics of engagement, guided by intuition that ideally offers self-sacrifice, manifests as a narcissist’s total self-absorption to the exclusion of any willingness to sacrifice; and (3) the cerebral cortex’s ethics of imagination, shaped by deliberation and narrative that ideally offers nurturance and understanding, maps to a Machiavellian’s malicious compulsion to bully, misinform, manipulate, and dominate everyone around him/her. Leaders given great power can exploit all three axes of human interactions at every opportunity, successively depleting infrastructures with each decision.
1. Paulhus, D. L. and K. M. Williams (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality 36(6): 556-563.
2. Jones, Daniel N., and Delroy L. Paulhus. The Role of Impulsivity in the Dark Triad of Personality. Personality and individual differences 51, no. 5 (2011): 679-82.
3. Michels, M., et al. (2020). The ability to lie and its relations to the dark triad and general intelligence. Personality and Individual Differences 166: 110195.
4. Azizli, N., B. E. Atkinson, H. M. Baughman, K. Chin, P. A. Vernon, E. Harris, and L. Veselka. Lies and Crimes: Dark Triad, Misconduct, and High-Stakes Deception. Personality and Individual Differences 89 (Jan 2016): 34-39.
5. Pan, W., Q. P. Zhang, T. S. H. Teo, V. K. G. Lim (2018). The dark triad and knowledge hiding. International Journal of Information Management 42: 36-48.
6. Maasberg, M., J. Warren, and N. L. Beebe. The Dark Side of the Insider: Detecting the Insider Threat through Examination of Dark Triad Personality Traits. In 2015 48th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, edited by T. X. Bui and R. H. Sprague. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 3518-26, 2015.
7. Fischbacher-Smith, D. The Enemy Has Passed through the Gate. Insider Threats, the Dark Triad, and the Challenges around Security. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness-People and Performance 2, no. 2 (2015): 134-56.
8. Landay, Karen, P. D. Harms, and Marcus Credé. Shall We Serve the Dark Lords? A Meta-Analytic Review of Psychopathy and Leadership. Journal of applied psychology 104, no. 1 (2019): 183-96.
9. Kausel, Edgar E., Satoris S. Culbertson, Pedro I. Leiva, Jerel E. Slaughter, and Alexander T. Jackson. Too Arrogant for Their Own Good? Why and When Narcissists Dismiss Advice. Organizational behavior and human decision processes 131 (2015): 33-50.
10. Nagler, U. K. J., Reiter, K. J., Furtner, M. R., and Rauthmann, J. F. (2014). Is there a ‘dark intelligence’? Emotional intelligence is used by dark personalities to emotionally manipulate others. Personality and Individual Differences 65: 47-52.
11. Palmer, J. C., R. M. Holmes, and P. L. Perrewe (2020). The Cascading Effects of CEO Dark Triad Personality on Subordinate Behavior and Firm Performance: A Multilevel Theoretical Model. Group & Organization Management 45(2): 143-180.
12. Furtner, Marco R., Thomas Maran, and John F. Rauthmann. Dark Leadership: The Role of Leaders’ Dark Triad Personality Traits. In Leader Development Deconstructed, edited by M. G. Clark and C. W. Gruber: Springer, 2017.
- Raymond E. Gangarosa, MD, MPH, MSEE
Let's Make America Great Again
I do not disagree, as far as you went, but I would expand it to groups on the left (such as antifa) and opponents, who just are not as effective (from their perspective). Polarization, by definition, has two poles and in my view there are many out there that need to take a deep breath. His supporters believe they are not being heard, perhaps that could be addressed.... or we could continue the food fights (and worse).
Thx. Very informative.
Perhaps we could begin referring to him as Defendant2313827?
Related, I believe: https://www.axios.com/2023/08/24/bullying-school-increase-students?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20Daily%20Health%20Policy%20Report&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=271727396&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8Gj6EJtqmr-wQquqVGkN6vZdW6y0YZmndwvgvuSeW1KP0LRx8RY2qGWonDHvlq4t_fSp2CUFIFqUDEmpwn_T0DvEkA0A&utm_content=271727396&utm_source=hs_email
Thank you for this terrific overview and insight into the Trump phenomenon. I hope you were right that his game may be up now with four indictments. I have my doubts. He’s like a cancer that has metastasized. His followers are more than willing to take up the cause. Just think, there are more guns in the United States than citizens. Trump represents everything that is dark not just in America, but in human nature. Why are we not regarding him as certifiably insane?
"The First Amendment broadly protected all his words, unless he specifically incited violence with them." But he DID incite violence with them. Multiple times. In all of the cases you listed. As did his cronies.
He won’t stop until someone lowers the boom on him. He has been like this for 77 years and totally believes he can and will get away with whatever he wants.... because he always has. We can no longer give him even an inch- He will destroy us!!!
Let’s hope the Judicial System does rein this stochastic terrorist in🙏🏼
Thank you for calling this out. Cheetolini seems to have emboldened a shocking number of bullies, racists, misogynists, and general nasty miscreants to normalize evil and generally bad behavior.
I REALLY hope that at least one of the judges applies graduated enforcement so he finally experiences at least a small dose of accountability. Start with forfeiting his bail, then next infraction, a night in jail, then if the bloviating dufus still hasn't learned, two nights in jail, etc. . .
Without consequences, the bail conditions mean NOTHING. . . .
If he was my parents' son, he'd get whipped for using that kind of language against people. I guess that's the difference between the wealthy and middle class families.
WOW!!!!!!!!
Powerful!!!!!!
You are the man.
Thank you! It is like you were in an airplane looking down.
Amazing!
Is "ranged" the opposite of "deranged"?
That's an air-tight case. Let's face it though; he made it easy. I do have an idea about this that would leave free speech untouched. Right now, 'incitement' only works one way. If the inciting actor deliberately incites a specific individual to commit a crime, that's actionable. But at the moment it doesn't work the other way nearly as well. Someone who commits a crime who only 'heard things' not said to them directly from an inciter is presumed to be acting alone. That's what needs to change.
I think we already have the tools to burst the damn, but no one is trying to use them due to how large the 1st looms.
https://gscroft.substack.com/p/lethal-lies-when-free-speech-kills
"So when ‘Free Speech’ costs someone their life, just like shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded theater could, the speaker must be held accountable. What is happening now is the national equivalent of people yelling "FIRE!" when there is none.
For the time being, civil suits are a possible venue. Right now, EVERY person who has lost a loved one because of something that loved one heard on Fox or from Rush Limbaugh (Rot in Purgatory), or because they were killed by someone who listened to Trump or Tucker Carlson or anyone who spread a dangerous lie, should be suing the bloody blue blazes out of them. In fact, if you’ve read this article and know anyone who has suffered at all due to the mendacity of any media personality or politician, tell them to call an attorney. Not every case will fly, but it is time to raise national attention to the poison that is being spread among us and harming people as a result.
The real solution, of course, is to push for legislation that will levy criminal charges on anyone who can be shown to have influenced others to commit harmful or deadly acts. There is exactly ZERO shadow of a doubt, even among Trump’s allies, that Trump was responsible for the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. He is therefore responsible for every death and injury that happened. Just as CMP is markedly responsible for Robert Dear murdering 5 people, anyone who can be directly implicated in committing ‘Stochastic Terrorism’ (incitement to violence by proxy) must be held accountable for the damage they do, the suffering they spawn and the death they cause.
If we do this, free speech will be untouched. No one will be ‘prevented’ from stating a belief or making an argument. The only difference is that people will have to think twice about whether what they say might incite someone to engage in deeply misguided violence."
A great list, Jay. While your title is "The Big Picture" we know the devil is in the details. It was Elie Wiesel who said to a small group of us one evening, "If you want to know what evil is, put a face on it." That gives us a clear picture forward. Thanks again for your continuing good work.