Scientists Have Discovered The Source Of The Darkest Impulses

According to new research, a deep, common core of human evil resides beneath this rogues gallery of all our darkest instincts on the surface.

Psychologists from Germany and Denmark traced and named this driving factor behind all of our darkest impulses in a 2018 study. Meet D, the newly discovered Dark Personality Factor.

The D factor's theoretical framework is based on the g factor, a construct proposed by English psychologist Charles Spearman over a century ago when he saw that people who did well on one type of cognitive exam were more likely to do well on other types of intelligence tests as well. To put it another way, a generic intelligence factor may be assessed. But it turns out that scientists can't detect everything.

Psychologist Ingo Zettler of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark in September 2018 said that in the same manner, the dark parts of human personality share a common denominator.

Zettler and colleagues surveyed over 2,500 people in four separate studies, asking them questions to assess their levels of nine distinct dark personality traits: egoism, Machiavellianism, moral disengagement, narcissism, psychological entitlement, psychopathy, sadism, self-interest, and spitefulness.

While the D factor can present itself in a given person as narcissism, psychopathy, or one of the other dark traits, or a mix of these.

Participants were asked to disagree with a variety of variable 'dark' statements, including that he knew he is exceptional because everyone keeps telling him so.

Researchers did a statistical analysis on all of the responses, finding that while these dark features are all distinct, they do overlap to some extent, owing to the basic core darkness component, D, which manifests itself in different ways in different people.

However, using our mapping of the common denominator of the many dark personality traits, we can quickly determine whether or not the individual has a high D factor. This is because the D factor reflects how probable a person is to exhibit one or more of these dark features.

It's all very intriguing, but individuals don't have to take the researchers' word for it as people can take the D test for yourself. The team created an online portal where you can use a questionnaire to determine your own D score.

Apart from personal curiosity about how dark you are, the researchers claimed their findings could lead to new discoveries in psychology and treatment in the future, enhancing our understanding of how we interpret people's evil behaviours.

Zettler added for example that they witness it in cases of excessive violence, rule-breaking, lying, and dishonesty in the corporate and public sectors, for example. Knowledge of a person's D-factor could be beneficial in assessing the chance that the person will re-offend or engage in more damaging behaviour in this case.