The Dark Triad and sexual harassment proclivity ☆ Virgil Zeigler-Hill a, ⁎, Avi Besser b, ⁎⁎, Judith Morag c , W. Keith Campbell d a Department of Psychology, Oakland University, United States b Center for Research in Personality, Life Transitions, and Stressful Life Events, Sapir Academic College, D.N. Hof Ashkelon, Israel c Department of Public Policy and Administration, Sapir Academic College, D.N. Hof Ashkelon, Israel d Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, United States abstract article info Article history: Received 18 July 2015 Received in revised form 28 September 2015 Accepted 29 September 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Dark Triad Narcissism Psychopathy Machiavellianism Sexual harassment Recent research concerning sexual harassment has highlighted important individual differences in the tendency to engage in these behaviors. The present studies extend these findings by examining the connections between the Dark Triad of personality traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and sexual harassment proclivity. Study 1 (N = 642 Israeli community members) revealed that the Dark Triad traits had unique positive associations with sexual harassment tendencies. Similar results emerged for Study 2 (N = 1909 Israeli commu- nity members) such that each of the Dark Triad traits had a unique positive association with the proclivity to en- gage in sexual harassment. In addition, Study 2 revealed differences in the connections that the Dark Triad traits had with perceived likelihood estimates concerning whether targets would be victims or perpetrators of sexual harassment. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding the links between Dark Triad personality traits and sexual harassment. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. It is unfortunately common for individuals to experience sexual ha- rassment (i.e., unwanted and inappropriate sexual behaviors that range from verbal comments to rape; see McDonald, 2012, for a review). Sex- ual harassment is prevalent in both employment contexts (e.g. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1999, United States Merit Sys- tems Protection Board, 1995) and educational settings (e.g., American Association of University Women, 2001). For example, 44% of female and 19% of male federal employees report that they have been sexually harassed at work (United States Merit Systems Protection Board, 1995). The negative consequences of sexual harassment have been clearly doc- umented and include issues such as poor psychological adjustment, physical health problems, low levels of job satisfaction, and low levels of organizational commitment (e.g., Fitzgerald, 1993). The conse- quences of sexual harassment are not confined to the individual targets of these acts because there are substantial organizational and societal costs as well. For example, it was estimated that sexual harassment cost the United States government more than $320 million between 1992 and 1994 (United States Merit Systems Protection Board, 1995). Researchers have attempted to expand our understanding of sexual harassment in recent years by examining the potential causes of this be- havior including beliefs (e.g. Key & Ridge, 2011, Pryor, 1987), cognitive mechanisms (e.g., Pryor & Stoller, 1994), and organizational practices (e.g., Fitzgerald, 1993) that may promote sexual harassment. One ap- proach to understanding sexual harassment is to examine personality features that are shared by those who have either engaged in these be- haviors in the past or demonstrate a willingness to consider engaging in these behaviors in the future (e.g., Lee, Gizzarone, & Ashton, 2003). For example, individuals who possess low levels of honesty-humility (according to both self-report and peer-report) tend to be more likely to engage in sexual harassment (Lee et al., 2003). This avenue of re- search is important because it may help identify risk factors that in- crease the likelihood that individuals will engage in these behaviors which may, in turn, lead to particular intervention strategies. Research concerning the links between personality features and sexual harass- ment may also have theoretical implications for our understanding of sexual harassment (i.e., what are the psychological processes that contribute to sexual harassment?) as well as shedding new light on the function of the personality features involved (e.g., Lee et al., 2003). Given the connection between sexual harassment and the willing- ness to exploit others (e.g., Lee et al., 2003), we focused our investiga- tion on the Dark Triad of personality (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism; Paulhus & Williams, 2002). This constellation of personality traits is characterized by a willingness to exploit and manipulate others, callousness, disagreeableness, deceitfulness, ego- centrism, lack of honesty-humility, empathy deficits, and a focus on agentic goals (e.g., Jones & Paulhus, 2011). The Dark Triad predicts a Personality and Individual Differences 89 (2016) 47–54 ☆ We would like to thank the research assistants of Sapir Academic College, Israel, for their invaluable assistance in gathering the data and the participants who participated so willingly. ⁎ Correspondence to: V. Zeigler-Hill, Department of Psychology, Oakland University, 212A Pryale Hall, Rochester, MI 48309, United States. ⁎⁎ Correspondence to: A. Besser, Center for Research in Personality, Life Transitions, and Stressful Life Events, Sapir Academic College, D. N. Hof Ashkelon 79165, Israel. E-mail addresses: zeiglerh@oakland.edu (V. Zeigler-Hill), besser@mail.sapir.ac.il (A. Besser). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.09.048 0191-8869/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid