Dark triad traits, health beliefs, and covid-19 behaviors (preprint)

ABSTRACT

The Dark Triad (DT) is comprised of a set of personality traits—Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism—related to low agreeableness and antisocial behavior. While emerging evidence links these traits to COVID-19 related behaviors, limited research has sought to identify the beliefs and attitudes that translate the former into the latter. To address this gap in the literature, Nowak et al. (2020) recently surveyed a polish Western sample (n = 755), finding initial evidence that health beliefs help explain the connection between Dark Triad traits and COVID-19 related preventive and hoarding behaviors. Our objective in the present study was to examine whether the findings reported by Nowak et al. could be replicated using better-validated measures of DT traits and data from a non-WEIRD population. Using structural equation modeling and data from a Brazilian sample (n = 406), we replicated most of Nowak et al.’s (2020) findings. The results suggests that Dark Triad traits increase hoarding behavior and decrease preventive behavior regarding COVID, both directly and indirectly via Health Beliefs.