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Trends in research related to the Dark Triad: A bibliometric analysis

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate trends in research related to the Dark Triad using a bibliometric analysis. Four main clusters were recognized on author keywords: Dark Triad traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, along with terms such are life history theory, mating, and morality), measurement (short Dark Triad measures and terms related to psychometrics), personality models (Big Five, Five Factor Model, HEXACO, and terms related to sadism and aggression), and mainly gender differences cluster. The measurement and personality models clusters gathered the latest research, but specifically studies containing terms related to short Dark Triad measures and sadism. Analysis of the indexed keywords revealed a similar organization of the clusters, but with a great prominence of clinical studies and methodological terms. The map of bibliographic coupling showed several relatively separated groups of authors with different focus in cited references, with Jonason, P.K. in the central position. However, a map of co-citation of authors revealed closeness of these separated groups, with Jonason, P.K. and Paulhus, D.L. with nearly equal number of citations.

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Acknowledgements

This study was partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia [Grant ON179006].

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Correspondence to Bojana M. Dinić.

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Dinić, B.M., Jevremov, T. Trends in research related to the Dark Triad: A bibliometric analysis. Curr Psychol 40, 3206–3215 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00250-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00250-9

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