Asian Scientist (Aug. 6, 2013) – People who stay up late at night are more likely to display anti-social personality traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathic tendencies, according to a new study.
Dr Peter Jonason, from the University of Western Sydney, assessed over 250 people’s tendency to be a morning- or evening-type person to discover whether this was linked to the ‘Dark Triad’ of personality traits.
The study, published in Personality and Individual Differences, found that students who were awake in the twilight hours displayed greater anti-social tendencies than those who went to bed earlier.
“Those who scored highly on the Dark Triad traits are, like many other predators such as lions and scorpions, creatures of the night,” said Jonason.
“For people pursuing a fast life strategy like that embodied by the Dark Triad traits, it’s better to occupy and exploit a lowlight environment where others are sleeping and have diminished cognitive functioning.”
According to Jonason, there may be an evolutionary basis for the link between anti-social behavior and a preference to being awake late at night.
He adds that far more work is needed, but these results represent an important advance in behavioral ecological and evolutionary psychological models of the Dark Triad, as well as ‘darker’ aspects of human nature and personality.
The article can be found at: Jonason et al. (2013) Creatures Of The Night: Chronotypes And The Dark Triad Traits.
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Source: University of Western Sydney; Photo: pabloezekiel/Flickr/CC.
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