How To Identify and Understand Evil People
How are evil personalities defined?
Evil people are often described as having, Anti anti-social behaviors according to Acland, the ones doing illegal things, and therefore most criminal acts are regarded as evil people.
I will in this article refer to darker personalities which are Psychopathic, Machiavellian, Narcissistic, and Sadistic people as evil according to Blötner and Nedeljkovic.
According to Pinheiro, Branchadell, Zaimova-Tsaneva, Nedeljkovic, and Marsh show through recent findings that women do not fit this model completely in that women differ from men in Dark Tetrad traits and behaviors.
Step 1: Dark Tetrad
According to Maheux-Caron, Ramos-Vera, Hart, Nedeljkovic and JenkinsDark Tetrad Personalities are a combination of:
Psychopathy
Machiavelli
Narcissism
Sadism
It is tested with the use of the Big 6 test or more favourably with the HEXACO test which is a free tool online to use on yourself and others according to Masul.
Yes, you can use it on someone else to find out if you should be worried or not. I highly recommend it.
If you have someone close that wants to do it on themselves. I can recommend you to first do it on that person and after the person has done their test on themselves.
Combine the results and see how spot-on you were.
You will not be far off since personalities are wide open to everyone watching even if some individuals like to hide them.
The personality traits of Honesty & Humility have shown between 31–51% probability that the person is the four above malicious personalities according to Masul and Nedeljcovic.
Step 2: Dark Triad
According to Ramos-Vera, Galán, Krispenz, Nazar, and Galán, this term is used to describe:
Psychopathy
Machiavelli
Narcissism
It is tested with the Dark Triad Personality Test and the Big 5 test according to Galán.
However, the value from a low agreeable trait gives some indications of an aggressive and antagonistic personality.
It is not conclusive in diagnosing. The HEXACO model is more accurate for that according to Masul and Nedeljkovic.
There is more research done using the HEXACO test that shows a higher correlation between Honesty & Humility and according to Howard:
Machiavellians — 53,8%
Narcissism — 42,9%
Psychopathy — 49,3%
The more Honest and Humble someone is.
The probability of them being either of the Dark Triad Pathologies mentioned above will be reduced with the percentage according to Howard.
So the more dishonest arrogant and callous a person is, the more likely the individual is a Psychopath, Machiavellian, or Narcissistic. Sadism is connected to all three of them.
One interesting thing is that if a person is more Honest and Humble.
Their level of negative emotions goes down.
That would imply that being honest instills trust which in turn is correlated to cardiovascular disease.
But only professionals can diagnose even though you can take action and stay away from these types of personalities to stay safe without a diagnosis.
Always keep in mind that it is a feedback tool for you to stay safe and not invite individuals into your life with undesirable outcomes.
Step 3: What do evil people dream about?
Do Dark Tetrad individuals dream like any other individuals or do they dream as the dark personalities they are?
Dreams are windows into our soul and in this instance, it is somewhat a window into understanding if the individual is evil or not.
Researchers from the University of Glasgow and Bath researched dreams.
As it turns out all Dark Tetrad traits show up in their dreams as fighting, sexual, and grandiosity.
They further describe psychopathy and gender showing up as fighting in dreams.
Sadism predicts sexual and grandiosity dreams according to Jenkins.
This goes to show that you dream of what you are.
Step 4: What do Personality disorders attract?
Attraction to the opposite gender
Turns out that those women with personality disorders are more attracted to male psychopaths.
Ashley Watts and her colleagues back in 2018 found that women with validated diagnostic criteria from DSM-5 for personality disorders and secondary psychopathic traits of anxiety and aggression.
They were more inclined to endorse a preference for psychopathic males according to Watts.
There is evidence that shows that men can identify Machiavellian women by their face fairly correctly and women can identify psychopathy, machiavellian, and narcissism in males correctly according to Demuthova.
This finding is also supported in later research that validates women's preference for Dark Triad male personalities and satisfaction in the relationship according to Brazil and Kardum.
Step 5: Psychopathy, gender, and number of partners
Many think that male psychopaths have many partners.
That is simply not true.
Instead, it is Machiavellian and Agreeable males who have many sexual partners.
Men with female personalities are high in agreeableness and anxiety according to Freyth.
For women, it is another story.
Psychopathic women have more sex partners in general and engage in more unprotected sex.
More one-night stands than men according to Freyth.
I guess this debunks what most people think about psychopathic men and instead sheds light on what men desire in the bedroom, which not always is healthy for them. I am referring to sexually transmitted diseases since women seldom show any symptoms of STDs.
It might seem like a sexually savvy woman, and it might be, that brings more trouble than anticipated.
Step 6: Who do evil people vote for?
Now there is evidence that the more populist the politician is, the larger the probability of the politician having an evil personality according to Danagher and Nai.
They use harsher rhetoric where they attack their opponents which we see from the Social Democrats and Environmental Party in Sweden in 2023 and 2024 according to Buckels.
Other populist strategies are fearmongering and incivility.
These politicians are usually disliked by the general public.
But their voters are individuals themselves scoring high on dark traits and are usually high in populist attitudes.
The scary thing is that darker politicians are more successful in getting elected and one positive thing with them as politicians, is that they make their country perform better financially according to Nai.
But on the flip side, they also shape polarisation and increase cynicism in their voting community.
The reason might also be that these dark personalities, particularly those with psychopathic traits appreciate and see these politicians as positive which is called the “fear enjoyment hypothesis” according to Hofman.
Step 7: Do Evil People Do Evil Things Online?
Trolling online is often linked to psychopathy and sadism.
We have seen an increase in online trolling over the past years.
Research now emerging regarding what type of personality is engaging in this behavior.
It seems that a combination of sadism and anonymity allows trolling online according to Masui and Wu.
The mediating role of toxic anonymity motivation is somewhat shown by the relationship between psychopathy and sadism according to Masui, Nitschinsk, and Wu.
Step 8: Are Evil People Honest about it?
Many believe that Evil people are deceptive about what they do and since they are deceitful and low in empathy you would have grounds for that conclusion according to Galán.
It sounds opposite to the claim that evil people are honest about their evil behavior.
Now research tested this back in 2023. They tested the Dark Triad.
Conclusion
The conclusion was that despite the three traits being deceptive and manipulative these Evil traits do not hide their behaviors that tend to be socially undesirable, which indicates somewhat honesty in their personality especially Machiavellian according to Galán.