If you’ve noticed that you’re prone to monthly, weekly, or even nightly bad dreams, you may have a personality that is warped by the “dark triad.” Before you start demanding your Illuminati membership card, the dark triad is not some sort of gothic, mysterious club. It’s actually a phrase used by scientists to refer to three key personality traits that may or may not correlate with your regularly occurring nightmares.
According to Psychology Today, the dark triad is made up of three traits that exhibit themselves via manipulative behaviors: narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Those who display behaviors of the dark triad often demand special treatment, lack empathy, and use others for personal gain. They can also be aggressive, wildly impulsive, and can be sexual opportunists.
As Bustle first reported, a September 30th study published in the journal of Imagination, Cognition and Personality titled, “Dark Dreams Are Made of This: Aggressive and Sexual Dream Content and the Dark Triad of Personality” found a link between the dark triad and certain types of dreams.
Researchers had 265 participants take an online survey to study the correlation between dark triad traits and dream content. They first assessed the participants to see where they fell on the dark triad scale and then proceeded to ask how often they dream about violence and sex.
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There was a clear link between aggressive dreams and the Machiavellianism and psychopathy traits. And those who scored higher on the psychopathy and narcissism spectrum had more frequent sex dreams than their cohorts.
In their study, the researchers clarified that just because you have violent or sexual dreams does not mean you necessarily score on the dark triad scale. Everyone is prone to nightmares now and again.
Their study proves, rather, that those who do score on the scale are more likely to have darker dreams than others.
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Much more research is needed to fully understand dream science and how our dream content relates to our personalities. But if you’ve had your fair share of nightmarish dreams and want to know if you rank on the dark triad scale, you can test yourself over on Psychology Today.
