Effect of the Dark Tetrad on Emotional Intelligence

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between Dark Tetrad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy and sadism) and ability emotional intelligence dimensions – self-emotion appraisal, others’ emotion appraisal, use of emotion and regulation of emotion. The Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, Short Dark Triad and Assessment of Sadistic Personality were applied to a sample of 322 participants from the general population (63% women) of Croatia. Results showed that both psychopathy and sadism had negative relations with emotional intelligence. Sadism showed significant effects on self-emotion appraisal, others’ emotion appraisal, and use of emotion dimensions, while psychopathy showed significant effect on regulation of emotion. Machiavellianism negatively correlated to a weaker degree with self-emotion appraisal and others’ emotion appraisal, but it showed no significant effects on emotional intelligence dimensions in regression analysis. Narcissism showed positive effects on EI as a whole, use of emotion and self-emotion appraisal. The results highlighted the importance of the dark traits in the explanation of emotional intelligence and showed that the dark traits are differently associated with emotional intelligence dimensions.