People with 'dark' personality traits more likely to aspire to leadership - study

It's not about diagnoses, it's about aptitudes.

Details

Researchers studied the "dark triad" - three groups of personality traits:

• narcissism (need for recognition)
• machiavellianism
• psychopathic traits (coldness, impulsiveness)

More than 600 students participated in the study. They were first assessed for personality traits and then for interest in different professions.

It turned out that many of these traits are related to the attraction to spheres where there is influence and power - for example, business, politics, management.

At the same time, different traits manifested themselves in different ways:
confidence and stress tolerance - more often associated with leadership
manipulativeness - with the desire to influence others
impulsiveness - with creative and non-standard spheres

The overall conclusion is that many of these traits gravitate towards roles where you need to persuade and manage.

Why it matters

These results help to better understand the behaviour of people in professions.

This can be useful:

• for companies to spot toxic leadership
• for career counsellors
• for individuals to understand their strengths and weaknesses

Having said that, having these traits does not mean that a person will necessarily be a bad leader.

Background

"The Dark Triad" is a term in psychology that describes traits associated with self-centredness, manipulation and reduced empathy.

They have previously been linked to work and leadership behaviours.

Source

The study is published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (2026). Researchers analysed the relationship between personality traits and career interests in students.