The dark triad and social relationships: What can personality traits tell us about human relationship formation patterns?

The dark triad (DT) is a psychological construct that describes a set of personality traits, including narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. These traits influence individual behaviors associated with establishing and sustaining interpersonal connections. Previous research on associations between DT and social contacts often focuses on specific types of relationships, such as friendships or romantic partnerships. This study examines links between DT and social relationship formation patterns among students from Moscow universities (n = 240) in the context of sociodemographic characteristics. The results indicate that higher levels of psychopathy are associated with alienating behaviors, whereas higher levels of narcissism are related to both alienating and active behaviors. However, no significant correlations were observed between Machiavellianism and involvement in social relationships. Regarding associations between sociodemographic characteristics and DT, age was related to the expression of DT traits, whereas area of study and gender were not. Overall, these findings provide insight into the nature of interpersonal relationships in relation to the expression of DT traits and may be used in future research as well as in practice to develop more effective ways to support university students.