Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) in the Brazilian Context

The Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) is a personality scale developed to assess the Dark Tetrad traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism. No studies have explored its psychometric properties in Latin American samples, and few have examined gender biases. Thus, this study aimed to adapt the SD4 for Brazil, examine the four-factor model, and explore gender biases. The study included 753 adults aged 18–75 years ( M = 27.12; SD = 10.91). We found an adequate model fit for the four-factor solution, similar to the original measure. Furthermore, in Brazil, the SD4 presented measurement invariance for gender for the configural, metric, and scalar levels. And, when the means of men and women were compared, men showed higher levels for all four Dark Tetrad traits. The implications of these findings are discussed.