Shedding Light on Dark Romance: Light Personalities' Reduced Rejection of Machiavellian and Sadistic Partners

ABSTRACT Drawing on the complementarity perspective of romantic attraction, we examined dyadic initial attraction in a speed‐dating context among individuals characterized by light and dark personality traits. As hypothesized, analyses of dating success, involving over 1.400 heterosexual dates with 128 participants, showed that Machiavellianism was negatively related to dating success, and this relationship significantly interacted with the light triad personality traits exhibited by their dating partners. Although individuals with light personalities were not especially attracted to partners scoring high on Machiavellianism, they did not dislike them as strongly as others did. The same data pattern was found for sadism. In contrast, narcissism and psychopathy were not related to dating success, and light triad personality traits did not moderate these relationships. This pattern suggests that individuals with light personalities are less likely to reject those who are generally rejected by others. These results illuminate the dynamics of the early stages of dating, raising the question of whether individuals with light personalities deliberately give partners who are generally rejected a chance, or whether they simply fail to recognize their partners' Machiavellian and sadistic traits.