Benefit perceptions of risk, dark triad personality traits, and gambling behavior

ABSTRACT

Individual differences in dark triad traits – Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy – have been robustly associated with increased risk-taking, including gambling. Drawing on reinforcement sensitivity theory, we propose that dark triad traits facilitate perceptions of benefits from risk-taking, which in turn motivate elevated gambling behaviors. Among 293 community members recruited from a crowdsourcing platform, we demonstrate that zero-sum associations between individual differences in dark triad traits and benefit perceptions of risk are large (rs = .34 to .48), and both dark triad traits and benefit perceptions of risk are associated with behavioral gambling decisions in a blackjack task (rs = .27 to .47). Further, we show that the association of dark triad traits and gambling behavior is mediated by benefit perceptions of risk-taking. Gender analyses showed stronger associations of dark triad traits and benefit perceptions of risk among men than women, and that benefit perceptions of risk mediate associations of dark triad traits and gambling among men, but not women. Taken together, results suggest that dark triad traits appear to be a risk factor for gambling behaviors, particularly among men, and attitudes regarding benefit perceptions of risk may be a potentially fruitful target of clinical intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Benefits
• black jack
• Canada
• gambling
• risk perception

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Raw, anonymized data used in this study are available here: https://osf.io/x4cpe/?view_only=279b5a548e754bf8aa5e4b86e9372a55.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Nabhan Refaie

Nabhan Refaie is a PhD Candidate in Managment at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics in the University of Guelph. Nabhan’s work revolves around competition, how people compare themselves within competitive spheres, and what are the outcomes of these comparisons. In particular, Nabhan is interested in how competitive incentives influence risky behavior, political attitudes, and workplace behaviors. Nabhan has received several prestigious awards for his research, including the Canada Graduate Scholarship for doctoral studies from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Amanda Wuth

Amanda Wuth is a Ph.D. Candidate in Management at the University of Guelph’s Lang School of Business. She also holds an MA in Experimental and Applied Psychology and an HBSc in Forensic Psychology. Amanda’s research interests are in judgment and perception, risk attitudes, individual differences, and social cognitions. Her research focus is currently on understanding how our developmental experiences affect our perception and behavior in the workplace.

Sandeep Mishra

Sandeep Mishra is an applied cognitive-social psychologist with broad academic expertise in judgment and decision-making. His interdisciplinary research program investigates three linked elements of managerial and entrepreneurial psychology: (1) decision-making under risk (motivations, propensity, gambling, antisociality), (2) competition (inequality, dis/advantage, comparison), and (3) well-being (adversity, resilience, mental health, problem gambling). He has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in numerous diverse outlets, and has received over $950,000 in research funding. Sandeep teaches classes in managerial decision-making, negotiation and conflict management, and quantitative methods and statistics at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive level.