Examining the dark personality traits of youth in the context of tourist visits to memorial sites in the challenging post-conflict Balkan setting

This positivist study elucidates the impact of the 1990s conflict and subclinical negative personality traits on the visits of young Serbians to memorial sites in the challenging post-conflict Balkans. Integrating collective memory, dark tourism, and dark personality traits, the study encompasses a homogeneous sample of 281 respondents within a multinational region, including Kosovo and Bosnia–Herzegovina as global hotspots. The often-neglected non-Western perspective is revealed by employing cross-tabulation with Fisher’s Exact Test and univariate and multivariate general linear modelling. The post-conflict generation, quite possibly experiencing ‘secondary traumatisation’, exhibits heightened vulnerability to narcissism and moderate interest in visiting memorial sites. Regardless of family exposure to conflict, the predominant reasons for visiting include learning, commemorating, and empathising, with no psychopathological links found. The study thus suggests that dark personality traits do not reliably predict visits to regional memorial sites, while the country of residence and the ability to understand one’s family do.