The Dark Triad in male and female athletes and non-athletes: Group differences and psychometric properties of the Short Dark Triad (SD3)

Objectives

The Short Dark Triad (SD3) is a popular, brief measure of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, which are known as the Dark Triad. The present study adopted this measure and had two aims. First, to assess the psychometric properties of the SD3 with a focus on measurement invariance across gender, athletic expertise, and sport type. Second, to examine mean differences in Dark Triad scores across these groups.

Design

Cross-sectional.

Method

In total, 1258 participants (625 women; mean age 23.47 years) with a range of athletic experience (non-athletes, N = 408; amateur, N = 557; elite, N = 293) from team (N = 577) and individual (N = 273) sports completed the SD3. Factorial validity was assessed using exploratory structural equation modelling.

Results

Analyses indicated that the three-factor model provided adequate fit, however, a bifactor model incorporating the three specific factors and a general factor, provided superior fit to the data. Moreover, invariance testing suggested some inconsistency in the observed factor structures across groups. In addition, findings indicated group differences with men scoring higher than women, athletes with greater expertise scoring higher than those with less expertise, and individual athletes scoring higher than team athletes across all factors.

Conclusions

We suggest that researchers continue to use the SD3 using both composite and subscale scores, but recommend caution when interpreting subscale scores among women and team athletes until further psychometric work has been conducted within these populations. Our findings also suggest that the Dark Triad may be worth examining in future studies in sport.