TY - JOUR

T1 - Personality Correlates of Out-Group Harm

AU - Columbus, Simon

AU - Thielmann, Isabel

AU - Böhm, Robert

AU - Zettler, Ingo

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - dark factor of personality

KW - HEXACO

KW - IPD-MD game

KW - out-group harm

KW - parochial altruism

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85194573441&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/19485506241254157

DO - 10.1177/19485506241254157

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85194573441

JO - Social Psychological and Personality Science

JF - Social Psychological and Personality Science

SN - 1948-5506

ER -