Dark Triad and the attitude toward military violence against civilians: The role of moral disengagement

European Journal of Social Psychology. 2024. Vol. 54. No. 6. P. 1127–1140.

Olga Gulevich, Evgeny Osin, Daniil Chernov

Scholars pay great attention to socio-psychological factors that predict attitudes toward military action, but they rarely address personality variables. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the Dark Triad traits, general moral disengagement, and military attitudes. We conducted three surveys between May and November 2022 in three samples of Russian residents (N=736, 795, and 752). The results showed that the Dark Triad was only marginally related to attitudes toward military action abroad, but emerged as a consistent positive predictor of support for violence against civilians with psychopathy showing the strongest effect. Moreover, this relationship was mediated by moral disengagement. At the same time, Big Five traits and socio-psychological variables predicted the attitudes toward military action, but were generally unrelated to the attitudes toward violence against civilians. The findings suggest the existence of distinct pathways underlying the support of general military action and unethical military action.

Keywords: национальная идентификация, Big Five, политическое доверие, political trust, national identification, Dark Triad, Темная триада, аттитюды к войне, Большая пятерка, intergroup threat, коллективный нарциссизм, оправдание системы, system justification, collective narcissism, moral disengagement, military attitudes, моральное отчуждение, межгрупповая угроза

Publication based on the results of: Political attitudes and behavior: Content, factors, and consequences (2024)