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The current work investigates the perceived “darkness” of the Dark Triad traits narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. We argue that a trait’s “darkness” may be evaluated by lay persons with three criteria (desirability, consequences for the self, consequences for others) from two perspectives (others vs. self). A sample of n = 213 participants evaluated Dark Triad behaviors (Dirty Dozen: (Jonason, P. K., & Webster, G. D. (2010). The Dirty Dozen: A concise measure of the Dark Triad. Psychological Assessment, 22, 420–432)) on these evaluation dimensions. Findings yielded that narcissism was evaluated as “brighter” than Machiavellianism and psychopathy in lay people’s perceptions, whereas the latter were rated quite similarly. Findings are discussed regarding the distinction of the Dark Triad traits in people’s perceptions.► Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy = The DARK Triad. ► Presents six evaluation dimensions for assessing a trait’s “darkness”. ► Lay people’s (N = 213) ratings as a function of trait × criterion × perspective. ► Narcissism is judged “brighter” than Machiavellianism and psychopathy.

How “dark” are narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy? The current work presents different criteria for evaluating the “darkness” of this Dark Triad (Paulhus & Williams, 2002) and tests whether lay people discriminate them in any of these. We thus study evaluative perceptions of the Dark Triad and address the following questions: How darkly are the Dark Triad traits perceived by lay people? Do they differ in their perceived darkness?

Lastly, we do not claim that our evaluation criteria are the only ones to judge a trait. Rather, we noticed that criteria (and perspectives) outlined in the Introduction are often implied in extant literature (but, unfortunately, not spelled out or in any way empirically investigated and quantified) and may also provide a more differentiated picture about a trait. The term “dark” is often blurry, misplaced, or used differently and inconsistently in scientific literature and it is understudied how people perceive the Dark Triad traits per se. In any case, our suggestions might be refined and even more stringent criteria found for labeling a trait as “dark.” Researchers could take up our suggestion for evaluation dimensions of “darkness vs. brightness” to evaluate the Dark Triad traits (and maybe also “bright” traits such as socio-emotional skills) more thoroughly. Indeed, we could see a meta-analysis or extensive review of the literature on desirability, consequences for the self, and consequences for others regarding the Dark Triad emerging. Moreover, as a complement to this study, also experts might be used as a sample from which to obtain evaluation ratings. It would be of interest whether ratings converge with lay person ratings.