Original Article Basic Values and the Dark Triad Traits Peter K. Jonason, 1 Joshua D. Foster, 2 Phillip S. Kavanagh, 3 Valdiney V. Gouveia, 4 and Béla Birkás 5 1 School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University, Penrith NSW, Australia 2 Department of Psychology, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA 3 Institute for Social Neuroscience, Melbourne, Australia 4 Departamento de Psicologia, Universidade Federal da Paraiba, João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil 5 Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Pécs, Hungary Abstract: In samples from America, Brazil, and Hungary (N = 937), we examined the associations between the Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) and individual differences in excitement (i.e., valuing personal enjoyment), promotion (i.e., valuing achievements), existence (i.e., valuing physical survival), suprapersonal (i.e., valuing abstract ideas), interactive (i.e., valuing social relationships), and normative (i.e., valuing cultural norms) values. The traits were associated with the values of excitement and promotion, psychopathy was associated with a diminished emphasis on existence, psychopathy and Machiavellianism were associated with limited interactive or normative values, whereas narcissism was associated with a greater emphasis on suprapersonal, interactive, and normative values. We also found that sex differences in psychopathy were mediated by individual differences in the existence and normative values. Results are discussed from a life history framework. Keywords: values, sex differences, psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, Dark Triad There has been a recent surge of interest in the Dark Triad traits (Muris, Merckelbach, Otgaar, & Meijer, 2017). The Dark Triad traits are characterized by grandiosity and self- centeredness (i.e., narcissism), manipulation and cynicism (i.e., Machiavellianism), and callous social attitudes and impulsivity (i.e., psychopathy). The traits have been linked to all manner of socially undesirable behaviors from the interpersonal (Jones & Olderbak, 2014) to the organizational (Spain, Harms, & LeBreton, 2014) contexts. One way to understand the causes and consequences of the Dark Triad traits (or any personality trait) is to understand the value sys- tems they are correlated with because values are motiva- tional in nature (Maslow, 1954; Rohan, 2000) and may, therefore, give insights into what drives those characterized by each trait. Existing work suggests the traits are associated with competitive, antisocial, and hedonistic values (Birkás & Csathó, 2016; Jonason, Li, & Teicher, 2010) and “compro- mised” morality (Jonason, Strosser, Kroll, Duineveld, & Bar- uffi, 2015). However, this work is limited in that it tends to be confined to Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD; Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010) samples and focused on Schwartz’s(2011) social val- ues model (Jonason et al., 2015; Kajonius, Persson, & Jona- son, 2015). In the current study, we improve on what is known about the values associated with the Dark Triad traits by assessing them in relation to basic values (Gouveia, 2016; Gouveia, Milfont, Fischer, & Santos, 2008; Gouveia, Mil- font, & Guerra, 2014; Gouveia, Milfont, Vione, & Santos, 2015; Gouveia, Vione, Milfont, & Fischer, 2015) in samples of college students drawn from America, Brazil, and Hun- gary for cross-cultural heterogeneity. In the basic values model, there are six basic values. (1) Excitement is a value system built around dynamism and personal enjoyment. (2) Promotion is a value system built around personal, material achievements, and prag- matic ideas. (3) Existence is a value system built around per- sonal, physical survival. (4) Suprapersonal is a value system built around abstract ideas. (5) Interactive is a value system built around regulating, establishing, and maintaining social relationships. (6) Normative is a value system built around maintaining tradition and cultural norms. The model includes both social values (e.g., normative) and functional, adaptive values (e.g., existence) making it broader than tra- ditional social values taxonomies (Schwartz, 2011). In con- trast to other values taxonomies, this model was designed around adaptive challenges related to social connection and survival, two fundamental motives for an ultrasocial species like humans. Therefore, an examination of these values in relation to the Dark Triad traits might reveal more about the underlying motivational systems attached to each Journal of Individual Differences (2018), 39(4), 220–228 Ó 2018 Hogrefe Publishing https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000267 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.