Beyond the Big Personality Dimensions: Consistency and Specificity of Associations Between the Dark Triad Traits and Creativity

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

Abstract

Creativity is commonly conceived as a socially desirable characteristic. Yet, some research also points to the role of socially aversive personality traits for different aspects of creativity. In 2 studies of Georgian (N = 130) and Austrian (N = 234) samples, we investigated the relations between the Dark Triad personality traits — narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy — and different creativity constructs (everyday creative activities, creative achievement, creative potential). We put special emphasis on testing both the consistency (across samples and measures) and the specificity (with respect to broad Big Six personality traits, i.e. Big Five plus honesty-humility) of the findings. We observed low to moderate associations of grandiose narcissism and creative activities across various domains in both studies, but the only domain-specific association that was consistent across both studies was in the domain of literature. This association was specific to narcissism. Grandiose narcissism was related to creative achievement in a self-report measure, but not when creative achievement was evaluated by independent raters. Interestingly, an unexpected relation between vulnerable narcissism (neuroticintroverted narcissism) and other-rated creative achievement as well as creative potential (divergent thinking) emerged, which might be a fruitful starting point for future research. Psychopathy, particularly psychopathic boldness, was related to creative activities in the sports domain, and displayed some associations with creative achievement. Taken together, these results support associations of narcissistic and to some extent also psychopathic personality traits with different aspects of creativity, but variability in sampling and operationalization must be considered when investigating these relationships.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)30-43
Seitenumfang14
FachzeitschriftPsychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts
Jahrgang16
Ausgabenummer1
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 2022
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Schlagworte

Schlagwörter

  • Creative achievement, Creative activities, Creative potential, Narcissism, Psychopathy