Meta-Analysis of the Dark Triad and Counterproductive Work Behavior: The Role of Cultural and Measure Boundary Conditions

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Previous meta-analyses have provided valuable insights into the relationships between Dark Triad (DT) personality traits and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). However, the effect of key moderators of these relationships remains less explored. The current meta-analysis addresses this gap by examining the moderating effects of country-level individualism-collectivism and measure type in studies examining the DT-CWB relationships. For measure type, we compared two widely used composite measures of DT (Short Dark Triad, Dirty Dozen) with standalone measures of DT traits. A systematic review identified 499 correlations (ks) based on a total sample of 45,087 individuals from 135 sources obtained from 25 countries. These correlations were synthesized using a mixed meta-analysis that corrected for small sample bias and unreliability in the criterion measure scores. Results showed that narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy positively predicted CWB at both the composite (ρ = .20, .33, and .43, respectively) and specific (CWB-I and CWB-O) levels. Country-level collectivism showed minimal moderating effects, whereas DT traits measured with the Short Dark Triad or Dirty Dozen showed stronger correlations with CWB than standalone measures. These findings indicate that measure choice may meaningfully affect estimated DT-CWB relationships, whereas broad country-level cultural differences may play a limited role.