Emotional intelligence and the dark triad personality traits: A latent profile analysis

In the current work, the relations between trait emotional intelligence (EI) and the three dark triad (DT) traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy were further examined. Previous meta-analytic work has revealed significant but small correlations between trait EI and each of the DT traits. Here, latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to go beyond correlation analyses by identifying subgroups of individuals with similar profiles across trait EI and the DT. A total of N = 1026 male (23%) and female (77%) undergraduates participated in the study. Five profiles were identified, the largest one of which manifested intermediate levels of both trait EI and all three DT traits. Of the two profiles with low DT trait levels, one was accompanied by very high EI with the individuals in the other reporting relatively much lower levels of EI. Of the two profiles with high DT trait levels, one was accompanied by very low EI with the individuals in the other reporting relatively much higher levels of EI. Importantly, this latter profile was also characterized by lower of levels of benevolency (i.e., prosociality and positive mood management) and higher levels of malevolency (i.e., antisociality and negative mood management) towards others. Such results highlight the presence of a potential dark side to EI.