How Narcissists Score More Dates Than Everyone Else
A new study says that being self-absorbed can improve your dating life.
Society makes narcissists and psychopaths seem like evil, terrible people that you should seriously stay away from, but in reality, women can’t resist bad boys. Science says so.
According to a new study by researchers at the University of Graz in Austria, people who rank high in the Dark Triad of personality traits, which includes psychopathy and narcissism, land more dates than the average person, thanks to their suave, charismatic demeanor.
Looking at you, Patrick Bateman.
In the study, 90 people were recruited and sent out on a total of 691 speed dates, but participants first took an online survey to measure their sexual orientation, Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) and Dark Triad traits, which include Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism, and were asked to rate how hot their dates were by looking at their pictures.
After each three-minute speed date, each participant rated how much they wanted to become friends with their date, how much they’d like to have a short-term relationship with them (a.k.a. hit it and quit it), and if they’d like to see that person again.
The results of the study showed that those who scored high in the Dark Triad personality traits were deemed more dateable than those with low narcissistic qualities, mainly because narcissists love themselves and have remarkable self-confidence, and we all know that confidence is very sexy.
However, even though they landed more dates, the results were short lived, and women said narcissistic and psychopathic men were only good for short-term relationships, because it could be slightly inconvenient to start a committed relationship with someone who is manipulative and not too empathetic.
“Dark Triad traits are linked to the pursuit of short-term mating strategies, but they may have differential effects on actual mating success in naturalistic scenarios,” corresponding author Emanuel Jauk wrote in the report.
Sure, being cold and egocentric might not do you many favors if you’re trying to find a life mate, but it will help you score some hotties and go on a bunch of dates. But then again, Kanye is married, so there’s obviously someone out there for everyone.
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