Chilling 'D test' lets you determine how strong the 'dark aspects' of your personality really are

A theoretical framework has revealed there's a 'common core' when it comes to dark traits of personality, and you can even take a test to figure out how strong yours is.

We've all seen films such as American Psycho, Nightcrawler or Gone Girl and some of us may've experienced a flitter of a thought cross our mind briefly while watching - 'how do I know I don't have a hidden away part of myself which harbors a similar darkness?' No, just me?

Thankfully, frequent quizzing of my therapist as to whether I could be a narcissist has resulted in him reassuring me that if I was one, I certainly wouldn't be questioning it.

But for those of us who don't have a therapist to quell that little voice which may occasionally creep into our head, there's a psychological test which dives deeper into darker traits within people's personality.

A 2018 study titled 'The dark core of personality' - published in APA PsycNet - explains 'many negatively connoted personality traits (often termed “dark traits”) have been introduced to account for ethically, morally, and socially questionable behavior'.

These traits include spitefulness, egosim, narcissism, sadism, Machiavellianism, sadism and psychopathy.

You may think some of those sound worse than others, but they're all actually far more closely linked than you might think.

Nine of the most commonly studied dark personality traits may all have more in common than we realise (Lionsgate Films)

The study reveals there's a theoretical framework which can identify 'the common core of dark traits', dubbed 'Dark Factor of Personality' - or simply, D.

Drawing on a construct put forward by English psychologist Charles Spearman, which was that individuals who do well on one kind of cognitive test typically do well on other types of intelligence tests, the study's team believe the same works for darker aspects of human personality, with the traits sharing a common 'dark core'.

Essentially, if you have one of those traits, you probably have another too. For example if you lie, you're also more likely to enjoy humiliating others.

What questions are in the D test?

There are two version of the D test available, one which uses 16 statement to determine a 'rough estimate' of the D score, and another which features 70 statements to provide a 'good estimate'

Running on a scale of 'Strongly Agree' to 'Strongly Disagree', some of the statements include: "People who mess with me always regret it," "Most people deserve respect," "Payback needs to be quick and nasty," and "My own pleasure is all that matters."

What exactly is the 'D-factor'?

After identifying the previously mentioned negative personality traits, the study decided to try and find out the common denominator of all these dark traits - a.k.a. the D-factor.

So, the team conducted a series of four studies involving around 2,500 participants.

The likelihood is if you show signs of one of the traits, you probably hold another within your personality too(Amazon Prime)

The study mapped out nine distinct dark traits: egoism, machiavellianism, moral disengagement, narcissism, psychological entitlement, psychopathy, sadism, self-interest and spitefulness.

Participants were then asked whether they agreed or disagreed with statements similar to those in the D test, such as: "It is hard to get ahead without cutting corners here and there" and "I know that I am special because everyone keeps telling me so" and "It is sometimes worth a little suffering on my part to see others receive the punishment they deserve,' as quoted by Social Sciences.

No matter whether participants came out with more psychopathic tendencies versus sadistic qualities or egoism, the study revealed they could all be traced back to the same core problem - the urge to put themselves first, even if it hurt others.

D is subsequently defined as: "The general tendency to maximize one's individual utility — disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others —, accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications."

Dark Factor's site adds: "D is a basic, general dispositional tendency, which means that D is responsible for and can be evident in any specific aversive trait (such as, for example, Psychopathy) and any malevolent behavior (for example, abusing, bullying, cheating, intimidating, insulting, exploiting, harassing, humiliating, hurting, lying, manipulation, molesting, stealing, taunting, threatening, tormenting, torturing, trolling, etc.)."

The nine traits share a common dark core (Paramount Pictures)

Essentially, the nine dark traits often focused on by scientists all link back to the same 'dark core' of placing oneself above others, even if that goes so far to hurt others too, without experiencing feelings of regret or remorse that many of us would typically feel should we wrong someone.

Ingo Zettler, Professor of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, explained, as quoted by Medical Xpress: "For example, in a given person, the D-factor can mostly manifest itself as narcissism, psychopathy or one of the other dark traits, or a combination of these.

"But with our mapping of the common denominator of the various dark personality traits, one can simply ascertain that the person has a high D-factor. This is because the D-factor indicates how likely a person is to engage in behaviour associated with one or more of these dark traits."

This realization of the traits sharing a common core is helpful for understanding the rest of someone's mental wellbeing alongside the likelihood of them engaging 'in more harmful behavior' or 'reoffending,' Zettler adds.

If you want to take the D test yourself to see how you score, you can do so here.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 to reach a 24-hour crisis center or you can webchat at 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.