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From the article: A recent study published in Psychology Research and Behavior Management attempts to determine the relationship between parental Dark Triad traits, emotional reactivity, and their children’s Dark Triad and emotional reactivity. The research team sought to discover if the Dark Triad and emotional reactivity of the parent’s generation can transmit these personality traits and behaviors to their offspring.

Their results indicate that Dark Triad traits and emotional reactivity are transmitted intergenerationally. In addition, the children had much higher levels of Dark Triad traits and reactive emotions. Finally, the more emotionally reactive the parents were, and the greater the Dark Triad in children, the more likely parental Dark Triad personality traits would have a negative effect on their children’s emotional reactivity.

The Dark Triad refers to three related personality traits: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. Machiavellianism as a personality trait includes an absence of a robust moral code and manipulation for personal gain. Behaviors that make up psychopathy include impulsivity as well as lacking remorse and empathy. Finally, seeking attention and selfishness are indicative of narcissism.

Like the Dark Triad, emotional reactivity comprises individual measurable elements. These include emotional sensitivity, emotional persistence, and emotional intensity. Those with high degrees of emotional sensitivity are likely to experience mood changes in response to minimal environmental changes. Those with high emotional persistence struggle to shake off bad emotions, and emotional intensity is the difference between feeling mildly inconvenienced and rage.

The fact that they got to study Dark Triads, in this depth, is a huge accomplishment on its own.

How does this land on the nature vs nurture aspect? And how does it control for the other?

There is a little bit of light triad and dark triad in each of us, ~30% of light more on average, according to Scott Barry Kaufman (Light: treating people as ends into themselves, valuing their dignity and worth , believing in the fundamental goodness of humans vs Dark: self-importance, strategic exploitation and deceit, callousness and cynicism). Another interesting question is whether this average balance score is changing in modern populations.

The nature vs nurture debate is rather outdated in general, we know that a lot of traits are genetic, but that upbringing also has significant effects.

It is outdated in the sense of it being 100% or the other, which is obviously false. The current nature vs nurture debate is not about whether it is one or the other but how much each factor contributes.

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Not at all, really - both of these would tend to be inherited in this manner.

this study is fascinating from a sociological perspective alone, i would love to see the assessments and analysis compared to western cultures.

What does Dark triad mean ?

It seems to be described in paragraph 3 that op posted.

So basically cluster B personality disorders produce more cluster B personality disorder. A finding that certainly lines up with clinical experience.

Is it passed down mostly from maternal or paternal ?

Organisms are highly sensitive to initial conditions. No surprise here.

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Sure, but unless the study can tell you how much of this is genetic, the statement is just "the asshole doesn't fall far from the tree," which is trivial.

That was my initial reaction as well. Unless genetic heritability is tested this is just a "scientists prove that every 60 seconds a minute passes" study.

>The Dark Triad refers to three related personality traits: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism.

Doesn't exactly contradict anecdotal evidence either

> Their results indicate that Dark Triad traits and emotional reactivity are transmitted intergenerationally.

I'm glad they did the research but this seems to have been self-evident for tens of thousand of years.

I suspect that genetic Dark Triad traits are passed on to children who are then raised to enhance rather than mitigate Dark Triad traits.

For a modern example, look at Fred Trump and his son Donald and then his children, etc.

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I ain’t got a clue what the title to this post means..

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I appreciate this explanation. I believe that I might be the light kind, because I love everyone, but I will eat your heart if you cross me.

Did you study my family? Dam.

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How would someone not pass this down. Would they need to put their kids in counseling early on?

A great many of the comments are happy to explain.

Is this an admission of inheriting dark triad traits

If anyone has insight on this… I’d love to hear research/discussion on “breaking environmental transmission cycle,” because I’m clawing my way out of that black hole, dragging my husband past the event horizon while our kids are still salvageable (aged 8, 6, 4.) absolutely willing to participate in any current study on this topic.

We both have CPDST, I’m farther in remission than he, thanks 15 years intensive and revealing of therapy, interspersed with couples/family/kids/his.

Also: I should start writing our extended families’ baggage into some sort of sale-able reality TV script after observing my kids’ post-COVID interactions with his fam (with kids the same age.)

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The title of this article is terrible and terms such as these should be disallowed in journals for actual descriptions of the condition.

That's not really a debate though, that's just science.

It was not yet clear how much (dark) behavioral patterns are passed on due to genetics vs due to upbringing, this article contributes to this insight.

Also, "this is trivial" is bad science, we need to always test our hypotheses before we can be sure™ (we can never be 100% sure, but we can make it probable borderlining certainty). I hate these "this was trivial anyway" statements every time I see them.

Debate is part of science. It is necessary to get to an agreement.

Of course this is known for 000 years, but such measurement gives a good starting point to genetics research. The culture/education layer on phenotype is very thin, and then it usually turns out that genome was a principal culprit. The united forces of Frankfurt and Christianity will defend the dogma of 'Tabula Rasa'. This is why, following Copernicus who published on his death bed, Robert Plomin published his "Blueprint". The MIT Press, 2018 a few days before retirement.

Your (you and your husband's) therapy should be enough to save your kids.

Trauma isn't genetic, and response to it is 100% learned behavior.

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> The united forces of Frankfurt and Christianity will defend the dogma of 'Tabula Rasa'.

Which has been proven to be outdated nonsense philosophical dogma centuries ago. We should've really stopped talking about this mental masturbation centuries ago. And certainly not in /r/science. :)

We now know for a fact (supported by evidence) that Nature and Nurture work together on people. And science has revealed how both work to a very large degree regarding virtually everything we know about what shapes and what modifies the human mind. For example, twin studies show that which side of the bread we butter is anchored in our DNA first. However, nurture can train us out of this.

Studies like this provide reinforcement and much needed nuance regarding these ratios between nature and nurture.

For example, if little Donnie Trump had been raised by better human beings, would he still be a criminal, pathological lying, textbook narcissist today? Or would he just be a bad used watch salesmen in Jersey?

I mean, sure. But if the study is only on assholes, then it won't tell you how many non-asshole parents have asshole lids. That's one side of the coin gone. And if this study doesn't control for nurture, then really all it can tell you is what percentage of the time the studied assholes have asshole kids, without even addressing why. Sounds like the sturdy has scoped itself out of being able to produce very profound results, why wouldn't its conclusion be trivial?

I'd rather call that discussion, a debate is more when you have a dichotomy.

You spelt Hillary Clinton wrong.

>You [spelled] Hillary Clinton wrong.

Thank you for proving my point.

You were saying?

https://thewordcounter.com/spelt-or-spelled/

Deeeerrrrrr

Are you British or ignorant and lying about it?

If the former, why are you repeating rightwing nonsense about an American election candidate?