The dark tetrad in personality describes the traits of people with highly aversive and dominating qualities, a potentially lethal combination of high levels of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism. Maybe you know people with these qualities. They ruthlessly lie, manipulate, and cheat, taking pleasure in watching their victims squirm. It could be a person at work, in your community life, or a public figure you watch from afar. In any case, they aren’t people you’d like to spend much time with if you had the choice.

Now think about what happens when not just one, but two, of these dark personalities are in the same place or situation. How likely are they to get along? Although they may have some grim respect for each other (think mob bosses in crime dramas), the chances are that the conflicts they will invariably get into quickly escalate into serious trouble. It can be a scary sight to behold.

Most of the research on the dark tetrad tends to focus on one individual’s qualities at a time, seeing how this combination of traits relates to other behaviors or personality qualities. Insight into how the scene may play out when two of them are involved in a test of will comes from a new study on conflict management styles.

The Dark Personality Gets Mad

According to the University of Tampa’s Rachel Rosequist and Stephen Kromka (2024), “It seems intuitive to infer that negative conflict behaviors would be positively correlated with the Dark Tetrad traits” (p. 122). Yet, maybe it’s not so simple. After all, the narcissistic qualities of the dark tetrad people would lead them to want to be liked. The manipulativeness, too, may show up as outright bullying, and as finding the middle ground to use as leverage.

The University of Tampa authors, in seeking ideas from previous research, suggest that there are many potential angles to figuring out what happens when dark tetrad personalities are put in a position of resolving conflict. Not only are they high on the traits within the tetrad itself, but they also show low agreeableness, poor emotional intelligence, and little desire to affiliate with others. All of these augur poorly for any positive approach to coming to a meeting of the minds.

Looking next at conflict resolution, Rosequist and Kromka summarize the previous literature showing these five styles: integrating, avoiding, dominating, obliging, and compromising. Previous studies suggest that personality would relate in more or less expected ways to these styles, with agreeable people likely to use obliging and less likely to use dominating. Extraversion seems related to dominating and obliging, reflecting the different facets of this trait (social dominance versus gregariousness, for example).

Taking apart the potential contribution of each dark tetrad trait to each conflict management style, the authors maintain that the strongest evidence would support dominating as the primary conflict management style. They note, “The dominating behaviors would be used to push oneself ahead while ignoring the goals or emotions of others” (p. 127).

Testing the Dark Tetrad’s Conflict Style

Having laid the groundwork for examining the dark tetrad combination of traits, the research team then tested the predicted relationships to conflict through an online survey of 1120 participants (age range 18-99; average age 30). Their measure of conflict management style consisted of 38 items along the following scales (rated from 1 to 7) in response to the prompt: “How likely would you be to exhibit these reactions or behaviors during conflict in general?”

Dominating: I would use my authority to make a decision in my favor

Integrating: I would work with the other members to reach a joint resolution to our conflict

Obliging: I would go along with the suggestions of the other members

Avoiding: I would avoid open discussion of my differences

Compromising: I would give some to get some to reach a compromise

Scores on these scales averaged from 4.55 to 4.87, suggesting that participants used the entire range of 1-7; the highest score of 4.87 was shown on the Integrating scale, also suggesting the good news that most people try to work together cooperatively.

Turning to the main research questions, several findings emerged from the analyses supporting the connection between dark tetrad traits and conflict management styles. The first, all dark tetrad traits were positively related to the dominating conflict style. Second, narcissism predicted the use of all four conflict management styles. Reflecting perhaps the “inconsistencies of self-perceptions within narcissists,” they were most likely to show “versatility of narcissistic behavior while managing conflict” (p. 131). Sometimes the narcissist may back down, in other words, but at times, they will come roaring back to use their authority.

The real problem for individuals whose narcissism combines with other dark tetrad traits is that their grandiosity leads them to think that they can successfully use any conflict resolution tactic “just because they think they would be capable of doing so” (p. 131). This can include using, inappropriately, the style of avoiding due to “the autistic fantasy of being timid and shy” (p. 135) when, in reality, they seek to win through domination. They can be all over the place, potentially putting their opponents off guard.

The Collision of Dark Tetrads

This study was based on self-reports and correlational data and requires further research in an experimental context. However, by paving the way for this future research, the Tampa authors have an intriguing and informative set of ideas about how to apply these concepts in real life.

Imagine once again the conflict between two dark personalities. The variability of styles they seem to have at their disposal is likely to lead to a poorly executed chess game. They won’t be very good at reading each other or themselves. Although they may think the show they’re putting on is working, they are likely either to escalate so quickly that no backing down is possible, or make other dangerous and flawed moves that cause one of them to achieve what becomes a symbolic victory, only to fall apart later.

Knowing that their games of tactics and counter-tactics are based on poor self-insight and a try-everything approach, you can strategically position yourself by being aware of which conflict style is being used on you in the moment. Are you being sweet-talked? Beware of the power move that can follow it. Is the person pretending to avoid you? Get ready for a surprise attack.

To sum up, people high in dark tetrad traits are generally best avoided or viewed from a distance. When the conflict they generate affects you, knowing what to look out for can offer at least a modicum of protection.