Dark psychology is the science and art of manipulation and mind control. Psychology alone is the study of how the human mind and thoughts behave and make us interact with others. Dark psychology is when people use maneuvers, motivations, manipulations, persuasion, and compulsion to achieve their goals.
For example, a politician may use dark psychology to manipulate the media into presenting them favorably. A salesperson uses manipulation tactics to convince potential customers to purchase a product they do not need. A boss may use dark psychology to control their employees and keep them in line.
You can spot a person high on the dark triad scale if they have a hard time being warm and friendly (especially if there's nothing to be gained from acting nicely), are prone to risk-taking, use aggressive or dark humor, have difficulty describing or understanding emotions, and have a wobbly moral compass.
Although dark psychology is not an official and acknowledged branch of psychology, it is still effective. It is basically the employment of psychology or social science as a whole for damaging and abusive ends.
The term dark personalities refer to a set of socially aversive traits (such as spitefulness, greed, sadism, narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) in the subclinical range. First coined by Paulhus and Williams, it has attracted an exponential increase of empirical attention in recent years.
We all have a “dark side” — qualities that we often don't like to reveal to others. It's the traits we might be ashamed of or embarrassed about. The ones others may have rejected or that we believe deem us undeserving or unworthy of love. You may sometimes act judgmental, angry, selfish, or controlling.
Three "dark" personality traits are related to heightened attraction in several studies. Dark traits, such as narcissism, can sometimes be mistaken as attractive features, especially when you don't know someone well. People who fall in love fast, easily, and often tend to be more readily seduced by dark traits.
Reverse psychology is a form of manipulation. However, in many cases, the technique can produce a positive effect, especially when used with children who don't want to listen or comply or people who need help changing certain behaviors.
Egoism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, sadism, spitefulness, and others are among the traits that stand for the malevolent dark sides of human personality. As results from a recently published German-Danish research project show, these traits share a common 'dark core'.
They are afraid of vulnerability. Manipulators seldom express their needs, desires, or true feelings. They seek out the vulnerabilities in others in order to take advantage of them for their own benefits and deflect their true motives. They have no ability to love, empathy, guilt, remorse, or conscience.
Manipulation is generally considered a dishonest form of social influence as it is used at the expense of others. Manipulative tendencies may derive from personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, or antisocial personality disorder.
Often, reverse psychology is used by adults on children in situations where the adult may not want the child to know that they want them to do something. For example, instead of ordering a child to eat their vegetables, a parent could instead say: “Don't eat those vegetables”.
People with “dark personality traits”, such as psychopathy or narcissism, are more likely to be callous, disagreeable and antagonistic in their nature. Such traits exist on a continuum – we all have more or less of them, and this does not necessarily equate to being clinically diagnosed with a personality disorder.
Dark personality traits include psychopathy, machiavellianism and narcissism, collectively called the "dark triad".
A dark empath is a term that describes someone who exploits their ability to understand how other people think and feel. They can recognize another person's perspective while also showing signs of psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism.
Manipulators are experts in exaggeration and generalization. They may say things like, “No one has ever loved me.” They use vague accusations to make it harder to see the holes in their arguments. This tactic used by manipulators is meant to poke at your weaknesses and make you feel insecure.