An obsession with the dark side of life is human nature – which is why so many of us binge-watch crime dramas. After all, we’re hardwired to scan the horizon for threats to our survival, a negativity bias that has successfully got us, as a race, alive and well to 2020.
However, in the modern world, threats to our safety are no longer sabre-toothed tigers but mostly other humans. This could in part explain why, particularly over the last few years, we have been inundated by psychological insights on how to spot people who display deeply negative characteristics which make up the dark triad: narcissism (typically associated with excessive selfishness and self-interest, a sense of entitlement and need for adulation), psychopathy (amoral and antisocial behaviour, egocentricity and an inability to love or have genuine relationships) and Machiavellianism (exploitation of others for our own ends, cunning, deceitfulness and dishonesty).
Danger, danger