Abstract
Objective
We investigated how Dark Triad traits influence the development and maintenance of social relations.
Method
Participants completed the Short Dark Triad questionnaire and a measure of social relations at three time points: at the beginning of their first year in high school, 3 months later, and at the end of their first year. We investigated whether the Dark Triad traits are stable over time using Multilevel Modeling (N = 265; 59.6% girls), and how Dark Triad traits predict incoming and outgoing agentic and communal relations using Temporal Exponential Random Graph Models (N = 192; 60.4% girls).
Results
Overall, the Dark Triad traits were stable over a one‐year period. Narcissism did not predict an increase in communal and agentic relations in the short‐term, but predicted slightly less incoming communal and more agentic relations in the long‐term. In the short‐term, Machiavellianism predicted a small increase while psychopathy predicted a small decrease in the incoming agentic and communal relations. In the long‐term, however, neither Machiavellianism nor psychopathy was a significant predictor of any incoming relations.
Conclusions
Our results shed new light on the dynamics of making and maintaining social relations through the prism of the Dark Triad traits.