Narcissism Rises While Psychopathy and Sadism Decline When Applicants “Fake Good”

Researchers Bojana M. Dinic (University of Novi Sad) and Irena Boskovic (Erasmus University Rotterdam) examined how individuals scoring high on the Dark Tetrad modify self-report responses when instructed to present themselves in the best possible light. Published in *Collabra: Psychology*, the experiment used a simulated job-selection test in Serbia.

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The Dark Tetrad comprises Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism—traits linked to manipulative and callous interpersonal behavior. In personality assessment, “faking good” refers to deliberate distortion of self-descriptions to appear more competent or moral. Agentic management exaggerates status and ability; communal management inflates cooperativeness. Supernormality involves denying ordinary health complaints to seem perfectly healthy.

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A community sample of 104 Serbian adults (87 women, 17 men; mean age ? 27) completed three questionnaires twice—honestly and under “fake-good” instructions—in randomized order. Instruments included the 28-item Short Dark Tetrad questionnaire, the Bidimensional Impression Management Index, and the Supernormality Scale. Hidden attention checks ensured engagement.

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When participants attempted a favorable impression, psychopathy and sadism scores decreased, indicating concealment of undesirable traits, while narcissism scores increased, suggesting participants highlighted grandiose qualities seen as advantageous. Machiavellianism scores remained unchanged. Higher honest Machiavellianism predicted a smaller rise in communal management under fake-good conditions, implying awareness of the difficulty of feigning warmth.

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The pattern shows applicants may suppress socially repugnant traits while amplifying those aligned with perceived leadership qualities. This asymmetry challenges the validity of self-report personality tests in high-stakes contexts such as recruitment or forensic evaluation, especially when impression-management motives are present.

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The authors explain that the increase in narcissism likely reflects participants’ perception that grandiosity aligns with adaptive leadership qualities, prompting emphasis. They attribute Machiavellianism’s stability to the scale’s focus on strategic planning rather than overt aggression. They also suggest a slightly higher cutoff for the Serbian Supernormality Scale could improve detection of health-related deception.

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The study relied on a simulated job scenario, which may not capture behavior under genuine employment stakes. The sample was confined to Serbia, predominantly female, and limited to young adults, restricting generalizability. One subscale of the social-desirability measure showed lower reliability, warranting cautious interpretation.

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Researchers propose expanding investigations to larger, culturally diverse cohorts and to populations with higher prevalence of dark traits, such as violent offenders. Testing the instruments in authentic high-stakes environments and refining the Supernormality Scale cutoff are priorities for subsequent work.

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