Spiritual well-being and “dark” personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism

Introduction The study of human well-being and its contributing factors remains a central concern in psychological science. One under-researched area involves the relationship between spiritual well-being—an integrative indicator of health and life satisfaction—and “Dark Personality” traits: Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism. No prior studies have explored this relationship within the Russian population, largely due to the absence of a validated instrument for assessing spiritual well-being. The present study attempts to address this empirical void. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between spiritual well-being and Dark Tetrad traits in a Russian-speaking sample. Materials and methods The empirical sample consisted of 959 Russian-speaking participants (761 women and 198 men; M age = 38.6, SD = 14). Spiritual well-being was assessed using the Spiritual Well-Being Scale . The Dark Tetrad traits were measured with the Short Dark Tetrad Questionnaire . Data analysis was conducted using R version 4.5.1 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing). Descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient ( ρ ), as well as univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were applied. Results The correlational analysis supported the hypothesis of a negative association between spiritual well-being and Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism. However, univariate and multivariate regression analyses revealed more complex interactions. For the RWB subscale measured by the SWBS, analysis indicated a significant shift in the association with psychopathy: from negative ( β = −0.44 [95% CI: −0.61; −0.28]) to positive ( β = 0.38 [95% CI: 0.21; 0.55], p < 0.001) after controlling for sadism. Narcissism was demonstrated to be a strong positive predictor of existential well-being and overall spiritual well-being ( β = 0.32 [95% CI: 0.22; 0.42], p < 0.001 and β = 0.26 [95% CI: 0.07; 0.46], p = 0.009, respectively). Conclusion The spiritual well-being is systematically and negatively associated with the common core of dark personality (D-core). Sadism emerges as the most potent negative predictor, underscoring a fundamental incompatibility between pleasure in cruelty and spiritual health. While Psychopathy and Machiavellianism also reflect this harmful core, Narcissism presents a nuanced picture: its negative association is attributable to its shared variance with the D-core, whereas its residual, agentic components can positively support existential and spiritual well-being. These findings highlight that spiritual well-being is particularly sensitive to the underlying motivational core of dark traits, being eroded by configurations centered on callous self-interest but capable of integrating more adaptive, self-assured qualities.