Behavioral attraction predicts morbidly curious women's mating interest in men with dark personalities

TY - JOUR

T1 - Behavioral attraction predicts morbidly curious women's mating interest in men with dark personalities

AU - Khosbayar, Anujin

AU - Brown, Mitch

AU - Scrivner, Coltan

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2024/10

Y1 - 2024/10

N2 - Morbid curiosity indexes interests in learning about dangerous phenomena. Individuals with high levels of dark triad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) can be dangerous, implicating them as relatively desirable to those reporting heightened morbid curiosity. Despite the potential costs of high-dark triad men, it could benefit morbidly curious women to upregulate their preference for such men to satisfy short-term mating goals. This study tasked women to men exhibiting high and low levels of dark personality traits and complete a measure of trait morbid curiosity. Men described as exhibiting high levels of dark personality traits were more desirable as short-term mates than as long-term mates, although men described as reporting low levels of dark traits were more desirable overall. Morbidly curious women reported greater behavioral attraction toward dark-personality men but did not affective attraction. Findings suggest a function to morbidly curious women's interest in dark personalities.

AB - Morbid curiosity indexes interests in learning about dangerous phenomena. Individuals with high levels of dark triad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) can be dangerous, implicating them as relatively desirable to those reporting heightened morbid curiosity. Despite the potential costs of high-dark triad men, it could benefit morbidly curious women to upregulate their preference for such men to satisfy short-term mating goals. This study tasked women to men exhibiting high and low levels of dark personality traits and complete a measure of trait morbid curiosity. Men described as exhibiting high levels of dark personality traits were more desirable as short-term mates than as long-term mates, although men described as reporting low levels of dark traits were more desirable overall. Morbidly curious women reported greater behavioral attraction toward dark-personality men but did not affective attraction. Findings suggest a function to morbidly curious women's interest in dark personalities.

KW - Attraction

KW - Dark triad

KW - Mate preferences

KW - Morbid curiosity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85194378215&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.paid.2024.112738

DO - 10.1016/j.paid.2024.112738

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85194378215

SN - 0191-8869

VL - 228

JO - Personality and Individual Differences

JF - Personality and Individual Differences

M1 - 112738

ER -