# Night owls tend to possess the 'dark triad' of personality traits **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 4, 2013, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309 "2013-08-04T08:49:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/1 "2013-08-04T08:49:51Z")
Ooooo. The ‘dark triad.’ Sounds like bullshit to me but I figured since there are a lot of you night owls here (I’m typing this a 4:44AM), it would at least stir up some righteous indignation and/or pride. The dark triad is psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism. > [@](#): > > The surveys asked participants how much they agreed with statements like, “I have a natural talent for influencing people” (a sign of narcissism), “I enjoy driving at high speeds” or “I think I could beat a lie detector test” (a sign of psychopathy); and “it is hard to get ahead without cutting corners here and there” (a sign of Machiavellianism). But to be fair, they used college students to set their baseline and we all know what they’re like in terms of sleep habits. > [@](#): > > But psychologists say some people are walking around with a volatile cocktail of all three troubling traits. That’s because the Dark Triad may be an evolutionary adaptation; possessing these traits gives some individuals a survival and reproductive advantage, studies have suggested. > A new theory from [Peter Jonason of the University of Western Sydney](http://peterjonason.com/) adds another layer: People possessing the Dark Triad may have evolved to become night owls because night time is a great time to be a psychopath. > . > . > . > The researchers believe there is an evolutionary arms race between “cheaters” — those who engage in casual sex, crime, and other risky behaviors — and those who are likely to punish them. As a result, people with the Dark Triad might have also evolved to prefer the hours of the day when the light is low and\*\* fewer people are awake to catch them cheating or stealing.\*\* > > So, essentially,\*\* early risers are cops and night owls are robbers.\*\* ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/2 "2013-08-04T09:07:22Z")
**[Voice of Jerry Hubbard]:** Makes perfect sense to me… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/3 "2013-08-04T09:34:23Z")
> [@](#): > > …“I think I could beat a lie detector test” (a sign of psychopathy)… That’s not a sign of psychopathy, that’s a sign that they actually know how lie detectors work - or to be more accurate, don’t work. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/4 "2013-08-04T12:15:37Z")
I am your ultimate night owl, and I don’t remotely agree with any of those statements. (Well, maybe I _believe_ the last one a bit, but I don’t live by it.) I do know that, as **Grumman** says, lie detectors don’t work. However, I am far from confident that that would work in my favor on an actual test. I tend to think it would call me a liar even if I was telling the truth. This study is more of the old “evolutionary psychology” bullcrap, I think. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/5 "2013-08-04T15:25:33Z")
Well, that pegs me precisely, except for the influence and lie detector parts. But I am a night owl and I like to drive at high speeds. Based on the Monty Hall problem, that means I have a two thirds chance of winning the big prize if I choose to switch to a different personality trait. Clearly this psychological theory has a strong scientific basis. Really, who would just make up something like that? ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/6 "2013-08-04T16:13:54Z")
It’s worth noting that you can’t tell if someone is anti-social, narcissistic, etc. just based on a single question like the lie detector thing. I imagine that they used an instrument such as the MMPI which has a ton of questions like these (and it’s also designed to tell if someone is answering in a consistent/truthful way or trying to BS their way through the test). On the MMPI, a lot of the questions are things where you wonder “What does that have to do with anything?” but they have done a lot of research to try to find which questions are correlated with psychopathology. I have taken the real MMPI for a class, and even though I am a night owl, I know I didn’t register as anti-social. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/7 "2013-08-04T16:17:29Z")
So, how does that explain healthcare workers who thrive on in the dark hours? We are care givers, very unlikely given to psychopathy, narcissism or Machiavellianism. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/8 "2013-08-04T16:52:12Z")
I thought this was going to be about literal owls. I never did trust those winged bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/9 "2013-08-04T17:00:48Z")
And here, I thought it was Rorshach that was the sociopath. Night Owl seemed to be the most well-adjusted of any of them. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/10 "2013-08-04T18:19:34Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I thought this was going to be about literal owls. I never did trust those winged bastards. ya, me too. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/11 "2013-08-04T18:34:07Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > So, how does that explain healthcare workers who thrive on in the dark hours? We are care givers, very unlikely given to psychopathy, narcissism or Machiavellianism. Some healthcare workers seem to like killing their patients. :o ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/12 "2013-08-04T18:40:40Z")
You’ll never take me alive, coppers, unless you drink tons of coffee. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/13 "2013-08-04T19:26:26Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > So, how does that explain healthcare workers who thrive on in the dark hours? We are care givers, very unlikely given to psychopathy, narcissism or Machiavellianism. It’s obvious. You have chosen a working life to disguise your dark side. 😃 Another night owl, barely resisting the urge to wreak havoc. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/14 "2013-08-04T19:54:14Z")
It could make sense. Some night owls (me) just like peace and quiet or something. Others (psycho ex) are night owls because they are unstable lunatics who constantly have to be getting into some weird shit, and don’t feel that any of society’s norms apply to them. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/15 "2013-08-04T20:53:24Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Some healthcare workers seem to like killing their patients. :o Those are almost always day shifters. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/16 "2013-08-04T21:06:41Z")
I’ve been formally diagnosed with two of those traits and I’m a morning person. So pft, I say. Pft! ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/17 "2013-08-04T21:26:09Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > …“I think I could beat a lie detector test” (a sign of psychopathy)… > > That’s not a sign of psychopathy, that’s a sign that they actually know how lie detectors work - or to be more accurate, don’t work. That was my immediate thought as well. They don’t _work._ ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/18 "2013-08-06T04:08:04Z")
I would just like to point out that 9/11 and the OKC bombing were done in the morning by early risers. Clearly early risers are terrorists and baby killers. I’ve proved it scientifically. I’d like my Nobel prize now. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/night-owls-tend-to-possess-the-dark-triad-of-personality-traits/665309/19 "2013-08-06T14:29:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And here, I thought it was Rorshach that was the sociopath. Night Owl seemed to be the most well-adjusted of any of them. Well done, sir!