Lobbestael, J., Wolf, F., Gollwitzer, M.,
& Baumeister, R. F. (2024).
Journal of Behavior Therapy and
Experimental Psychiatry, 85, 101963.
Abstract
Background and objectives
Sadistic pleasure – gratuitous enjoyment from inflicting pain on others – has devastating interpersonal and societal consequences. The current knowledge on non-sexual, everyday sadism – a trait that resides within the general population – is scarce. The present study therefore focussed on personality correlates of sadistic pleasure. It investigated the relationship between the Dark Triad traits, and both dispositional and state-level sadistic pleasure.
Methods
N = 120 participants filled out questionnaires to assess their level of Dark Triad traits, psychopathy subfactors, and dispositional sadism. Then, participants engaged in an animal-directed task in which they were led to believe that they were killing bugs; and in a human-directed task where they could ostensibly noise blasts another participant. The two behavioral tasks were administered within-subjects, in randomized order. Sadistic pleasure was captured by increases in reported pleasure from pre-to post-task.
Results
All Dark Triad traits related to increased dispositional sadism, with psychopathy showing the strongest link. The coldheartedness psychopathy subscale showed a unique combination with both self-reported sadism and increased pleasure following bug grinding.
Limitations
Predominantly female and student sample, limiting generalizability of findings.
Conclusions
Out of all Dark Triad components, psychopathy showed the strongest link with gaining pleasure from hurting others. The results underscore the differential predictive value of psychopathy’s subcomponents for sadistic pleasure. Coldheartedness can be considered especially disturbing because of its unique relationship to deriving joy from irreversible harm-infliction (i.e. killing bugs). Our findings further establish psychopathy – and especially its coldheartedness component – as the most adverse Dark Triad trait.
Here are some thoughts:
The research suggests that psychopathy, particularly its coldheartedness component, is the strongest predictor of sadistic pleasure. This has implications for the assessment and treatment of individuals with sadistic tendencies. Psychologists may find it useful to specifically evaluate psychopathy and its subcomponents when assessing such patients, and therapeutic interventions may need to specifically target psychopathic traits, especially coldheartedness. The study also found that psychopathy, but not narcissism or Machiavellianism, was associated with sadistic pleasure, suggesting that individuals high in psychopathy may derive pleasure from acts of violence. This has implications for assessing the risk of violent behavior in clinical and forensic settings. Future research could explore how other personality traits outside the Dark Triad relate to sadistic pleasure, and examine the impact of contextual factors on the personality-sadism link.
