Article,
Personality Correlates of Out-Group Harm
Contributors
Columbus, Simon
0000-0003-1546-955X
[1]
[2]
Thielmann, Isabel
0000-0002-9071-5709
[3]
Böhm, Robert
0000-0001-6806-0374
[2]
[4]
Zettler, Ingo
0000-0001-6140-7160
[2]
Affiliations
- [1] Massachusetts Institute of Technology [NORA names: United States; America, North; OECD];
- [2] University of Copenhagen [NORA names: KU University of Copenhagen; University; Denmark; Europe, EU; Nordic; OECD];
- [3] Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law [NORA names: Germany; Europe, EU; OECD];
- [4] University of Vienna [NORA names: Austria; Europe, EU; OECD]
Abstract
Motivated by theoretical accounts positing that participation in intergroup conflict is driven by a desire to promote the in-group, past studies have explored the link between prosocial personality dimensions and out-group harm. However, while dimensions such as Honesty-Humility predict in-group cooperation, they do not explain out-group harm. Across two incentivized experimental studies (one preregistered; overall N = 1,584), we show that out-group harm is uniquely associated with higher levels of the Dark Factor of Personality (D), a personality dimension capturing the core of all aversive personality characteristics. Conversely, high levels of D, alongside low levels of Honesty-Humility, are associated with less in-group cooperation. Our results show that in-group cooperation and out-group harm are associated with distinct personality dimensions.
