Dark Triad of Psychology

What  Is Dark Psychology?

Psychology is the study of human behavior that is concerned with our thoughts, actions and interactions.  Dark psychology is the power of mind control and manipulation where people learn the strategy of motivation, persuasion, manipulation and coercion to get what they want.

The Dark Triad

There are three traits concerned with dark psychology:

·         Machiavellianism: manipulation to deceive and exploit people with no sense of morality.

·         Narcissism: egotism, grandiosity and a lack of empathy.

·         Psychopathy: despite being charming and friendly, these people exhibit impulsivity, selfishness, a lack of empathy and remorselessness.

While no one wants to fall victim to such tactics, it happens a lot in this day.  Such dark psychology tactics are found in commercials, internet ads, supervisor’s behaviors, and as sad it may be to think, our children’s behaviors as they grow and experiment with behaviors to get what they want .  These behaviors can be used from people we know and love can be seen below:

·         Love flooding: compliments, affection or flattering someone to request an action.

·         Lying: exaggerations, partial untruths, untruths, untrue stories.

·         Love denial: withholding love and attention.

·         Withdrawal: avoiding the person or using the silent treatment.

·         Choice restriction: giving choice substitutions to distract someone to give you the choice you want.

·         Reverse psychology: telling someone to do the opposite with the intention to get them to do what you want.

·         Semantic manipulation: words used to connote similar meaning or mutual definition, but the manipulator has reveals a different understanding or meaning of the conversation.  Words can be powerful tools.

People use these tactics with the intention of getting what they want.  They learn it from their parents, during their teenage years or adulthood.  And there are some who don’t intentionally use these tactics, but used it once to get what they wanted and it worked—they continue to use them.

Some people are trained to use such dark psychology tactics, such as training programs where sales and marketing use dark psychology and unethical behavior to manipulate others to buy their products.  The following people use dark psychology tactics to manipulate others into getting what they want:

·         Narcissists: these people, with proper medical diagnosis, have an inflated sense of self-worth.  They need people to their belief of superiority.  They believe they deserve to be adored or even worshipped.  And they use these tactics to manipulate others into getting this.

·         Sociopaths: these people, again with proper medical diagnosis, are charming and intelligent but often impulsive.  They show a lack of emotionality and remorse as they manipulate to get what they want.

·         Attorneys: some attorneys become focused on winning their case they use dark psychology tactics to make sure they win.

·         Politicians: most politicians use dark psychology to manipulate voters they are right to win votes.

·         Leaders: leaders and supervisors use dark psychology to gain compliance, great effort, and higher motivation from subordinates.

·         Sales people: sales people use dark psychologies to achieve the sale by motivating customers buy their product.

·         Public speakers: dark psychology is used among public speakers to heighten the emotional state of their audience knowing it leads to more sales.

·         Selfish people: selfish people, those with a “self before others” agenda, use dark psychology to exploit others to meet their needs first, even if are at the expense of others.