Dark personality traits explain individual differences in organizational preferences

Abstract: Research in personality psychology has shown that individuals choose careers led by their personality. More specifically, dark personality traits seem to drive people towards specific environments—with detrimental effects in the workplace. This study investigated whether individuals who selectively choose a job in particular organizations possess dispositions associated with behaving abusively and socially aversive. A mixed online/paper-pencil study prompted 83 Swedish participants engaged in human rights organizations and 99 Swedish military soldiers to assess scales measuring the dark triad traits, the dominance facet of social dominance orientation, and military ethics. To compare the presented groups, t-tests were conducted. As hypothesized and indicated by previous research, military soldiers scored significantly higher on all study variables. As an exception, scores on narcissism might have been influenced by gender as no significant differences were found in a solely male dataset. The study confirmed that dark personality traits are more prevalent in the military than in human rights organizations. A self-selection theory versus socialization processes as possible reasons for the obtained results are discussed, and implications for organizational handling are provided.