Page 36 - How To Analyze People: 13 Laws About the Manipulation of the Human Mind, 7 Strategies to Quickly Figure Out Body Language, Dive into Dark Psychology and Persuasion for Making People Do What You Want

characterized by the degree of self-centeredness, exploitation,

disagreeableness, and manipulation that takes place. Jonason, Webster and

their team of researchers were trying to determine if sadism could, in fact, be

captured within the laboratory. They were also trying to discover if these
sadistic personality measures could be used to predict behaviors beyond the

already established measures that the Dark Triad consisted of.

In a second and related study that was conducted, the results interestingly

revealed how individuals who displayed a high tendency of sadism,
narcissism and (or) psychopathy were willing to act aggressively against an

innocent party when aggression proved to be the easier choice. It was only a

sadist who showed a tendency towards higher levels of aggression when it

became apparent that their “victim” could not fight back, and that unlike

other “darker personalities”, it was the sadists who were willing to spend the
additional energy and time needed if it meant that extra effort was going to

give them a chance to hurt someone else. This was a huge revelation,

considering that in past, other research studies revealed that while

psychopaths had no problems inflicting hurt on others, they were much more

likely to do so only if it served a specific purpose. Narcissists, on the other
hand, were far less likely to engage in aggression unless they felt that their

ego was being threatened, while Machiavellians resorted to aggression only

if they felt the benefits were sufficient to warrant such action, and only if it

involved acceptably low risks to themselves.

Jonason and Webster’s study measures the responses that people gave when

they were asked to rate themselves against the following statements:

I have a tendency to lack remorse