What Is The Dark Factor?
The dark factor of personality, or D factor, is the common core shared by many dark traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism, spitefulness and more. Researchers define it as the tendency to maximise your own benefit while disregarding, accepting or causing harm to others, together with beliefs that justify this.
The Dark Triad test measures three separate traits. This test focuses on the shared core instead.
The Four Themes
| Theme | What it captures |
|---|---|
| Self-interest | Putting your own gain first |
| Entitlement | Believing you deserve more than others |
| Callousness | Not caring about harm to others |
| Self-justification | Beliefs that excuse selfish acts, such as “everyone is selfish” |
How It Is Scored
You rate 18 statements. Two are reversed: agreeing that you “feel bad when someone suffers” lowers your score. Your total and four themes are shown as percentages.
| Score | Result |
|---|---|
| 0% to 25% | Low |
| 26% to 45% | Below average |
| 46% to 65% | Above average |
| 66% to 100% | High |
All statements were written by PrismaTest and are not the official D70 or D16 questionnaires.
The Research
Psychologists Morten Moshagen, Benjamin Hilbig and Ingo Zettler introduced the D factor in a 2018 paper in Psychological Review. Analysing data from thousands of participants, they found that nine dark traits shared a common core, and that this core explained much of how the traits predicted behaviour such as cheating and aggression.
Their research also showed:
- D is closely linked to low honesty-humility, a trait in the HEXACO personality model.
- Most people score low; very high scores are rare.
- D predicts unethical behaviour across many situations better than any single dark trait.
The original research team publishes its own questionnaires for research use. We do not reproduce their items.
Lowering Your Dark Factor
Traits are fairly stable, but behaviour can change:
- Notice self-justifying thoughts, like “they deserved it”.
- Practise perspective-taking: how would this look from the other side?
- Give without expecting returns, in small ways.
- Value long-term trust over short-term wins.
The light side matters too. Read about the Light Triad traits of faith in humanity, humanism and Kantianism.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a normal D factor score?
Most people score in the low or below average ranges.
Is a high score dangerous?
It suggests a tendency toward self-serving behaviour, not a diagnosis. Context and choices matter.
How is D different from the Dark Triad?
The Dark Triad looks at three traits separately; D measures what they have in common.
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For self-reflection only. Not a diagnosis. See how we build our tests.