Revisiting the structure of the Short Dark Tetrad: A comparison of nine models in a sample of 64,567 participants

The present study evaluates the factor structure of the Short Dark Tetrad (SD4), a measureassessing Machiavellianism, grandiose narcissism, psychopathy, and everyday sadism. Using alarge-scale, cross-sectional dataset (N = 64,567), we compared nine models to determine theoptimal factor representation of the SD4. We found a bifactor model provided the best fit, withseparate specific factors for Machiavellianism/psychopathy, grandiose narcissism, and everydaysadism in addition to a global latent factor. This finding suggests that the four subscales areunited by a common core. Moreover, it indicates the unique aspects of Machiavellianism andpsychopathy represent opposite ends of the same dimension and the sadism subscale isempirically distinct from the psychopathy subscale. However, the differentiation between thesadism and psychopathy subscales appears to primarily be a consequence of the sadism subscalebeing defined almost entirely by vicarious sadism. Taken together, these findings contribute toour understanding of antagonistic personality traits, while also pointing to the need for furtherrefinement in the measurement of everyday sadism within the SD4.