A new study published in the journal Sexual and Relationship Therapy examined physical, emotional, and malevolent infidelity as they relate to gender and the Dark Tetrad of personality. Results revealed that while narcissism predicted emotional infidelity, high sadism and gender were predictive of malevolent infidelity.
“Our lead researcher Dr. Evita March has previously explored the impacts of Dark Tetrad variables (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism) on various interpersonal relationship variables including ‘phubbing’ (phone snubbing), intimate partner cyberstalking, and anti-social use of Tinder,” said Dr. Alex Poll, a lecturer at Federation University.
“When looking to expand this research to explore the role of the Dark Tetrad in relationship infidelity, it became clear that it was necessary to consider different types of infidelity. Some past research has distinguished physical/sexual infidelity from emotional infidelity, but we furthered this by also including malevolent infidelity which we define as infidelity motivated by revenge and the intent to cause a partner harm.”
A total of 240 Australian individuals aged 18 to 67 participated in this research. Participants provided demographic information. They then completed the short dark triad measure which assesses narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy (e.g., I like to get revenge on authorities); the short sadistic impulse scale which measures sadism (e.g., I would enjoy hurting someone physically, sexually or emotionally”); and measures of physical (e.g., sex), emotional (e.g., talking online), and malevolent infidelity (e.g., cheating for revenge).
The researchers found that participants who scored high in psychopathy were more likely to have committed physical and emotional infidelity. Further, both high psychopathy and sadism were predictive of malevolent infidelity. As well, high narcissism uniquely explained some of the variation in emotional infidelity. Machiavellianism offered no predictive power of physical or emotional infidelity beyond the other Dark Tetrad traits.
“Infidelity in relationships is relatively common, with past research finding it occurs in approximately 25% of married, heterosexual relationships. Our study has found that the motivations for engaging in infidelity differ depending on the type of infidelity,” Poll told PsyPost.
“For example, thrill-seeking and impulsivity (i.e., psychopathy) or enjoying hurting others (i.e., sadism) may lead to malevolent infidelity, whereas a sense of superiority (i.e., narcissism) may lead to emotional infidelity. As issues of infidelity are one of the leading reasons for couples to seek relationship counselling, counsellors having a better understanding of the different motivations for engaging in the various types of infidelity may be beneficial for the counselling process,” the researcher explained.
Interestingly, when controlling for the variance explained by the Dark Tetrad, the researchers found that women, more so than men, had a greater propensity to engage in malevolent infidelity (i.e., using cheating as a form of revenge, or cheating to cause pain for one’s partner).
As for study limitations, Poll said, “Although psychopathy was found to be one of the predictors of physical and emotional infidelity, the measure of psychopathy used in the study did not differentiate between the different dimensions of psychopathy. Previous research has found that psychopathy can be separated into primary and secondary forms which have differing characteristics. Future research could explore which of these different forms of psychopathy best explain the link between psychopathy and physical and emotional infidelity.”
The study, “High (in)fidelity: gender, the Dark Tetrad, and infidelity”, was authored by Evita March, Jessica Antunovic, Alex Poll, Jacob Dye, and George Van Doorn.