What do sadists value? Is honesty-humility an intermediary? Replicating and extending findings on the link between values and “dark” personalities

This study examined the relationship of the Dark Tetrad with core values, and the role of honesty-humility as a moderator of the “dark” personality-core values link. A sample of 183 participants (57 male, 126 female; M_age = 18.39 years, SD = 1.12) completed an online survey assessing the Dark Tetrad, the 10 values from the Schwartz Value Typology, and honesty-humility from the HEXACO. Several Dark Triad-core value correlations were replicated. Furthermore, some of the predicted links between sadism and values were also corroborated using both novel and established sadism measures. The moderating role of honesty-humility on the link between each Dark Tetrad member and aggregated core values was explored. Honesty-humility moderated only the following relationships: psychopathy and Self-Enhancement Plus Openness to Change values, and narcissism and Self-Enhancement Plus Openness to Change values. These findings contribute to understanding how personality traits and values describe people's behaviour in interpersonal contexts.