These states are most attractive to "dark" personalities, study suggests
A new study has found a direct link between adverse societal conditions and the dark personalities who live among them.
People with a "dark factor of personality" are associated with behaviors like aggression, cheating, narcissism, exploitation and more.
Those "dark" traits come with "high social costs," researchers say.
Researchers trying to understand "dark" personality traits like narcissism, psychopathy and sadism have found a direct link between those characteristics and places with high corruption, poverty and violence.
The study, conducted by three researchers from the University of Copenhagen and published in the scientific journal PNAS, used data from 1.8 million people in 183 countries, including 144,000 people in the United States.
What they found is a moderate correlation between adverse social conditions and the dark personalities of people who live among them. Although the proven link between society and personality is considered moderate, the impact can be profound, researchers concluded.
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Big picture view
According to the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the dark factor of personality is defined as "the tendency to maximize one's individual utility while disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others," and "hold beliefs that, in their minds, justify their anti-social behavior."
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What they're saying
"Aversive personality traits are associated with behaviours such as aggression, cheating, and exploitation – and thus with high social costs," Ingo Zettler, one of the study's authors, said in a news release.
"In societies where rules are broken without consequences and where the conditions for many citizens are bad, individuals perceive and learn that one should actually think of oneself first," he continued. "Our findings substantiate that personality is not just something we are born with, but also shaped by the society we grew up and live in."
Local perspective
Charts from the study show the following states have the most adverse societal conditions:
Louisiana
Mississippi
New Mexico
Alabama
Texas
New York
New Hampshire
Utah
Minnesota
Vermont
Wisconsin
Iowa
Nevada
New York
Texas
South Dakota
Alabama
Georgia
Vermont
Utah
Maine
Oregon
Alaska
New Hampshire
What you can do
Researchers said governments that reduce corruption and inequality could "not only create better living conditions just now – they may also contribute to mitigating aversive personality levels among citizens in the future."
The Source
This report includes information from the PNAS scientific journal and the University of Copenhagen.
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