“The Dark Side of Environmental Activism”, Hannes Zacher2023-12-02 (politics, narcissism, psychopathy)⁠:

In times of growing concerns about climate change, environmental activism is increasing. Whereas several studies have examined associations between environmental activism and the Big 5 personality characteristics, the potential “dark side” of environmental activists’ personality has been neglected.

Accordingly, this study examined associations between environmental activism, the dark triad traits (ie. Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism) and left-wing authoritarianism (ie. anti-hierarchical aggression, anti-conventionalism, top-down censorship). Data came from 839 employed individuals in Germany.

Results: showed positive associations between environmental activism and Machiavellianism, narcissism, anti-hierarchical aggression, and anti-conventionalism. Most of these associations remained statistically-significant after controlling for Big Five characteristics, demographic characteristics, political orientation, and right-wing authoritarianism.

These findings suggest that environmental activism, in addition to its potential positive outcomes, may also have a dark side in terms of activists’ personality.

[Keywords: Dark triad traits, environmental activism, Left-Wing Authoritarianism]

See Also:

• Understanding left-wing authoritarianism: Relations to the dark personality traits, altruism, and social justice commitment

• Clarifying the Structure and Nature of Left-Wing Authoritarianism (LWA)

• Signaling virtuous victimhood as indicators of Dark Triad personalities

• The degree of heterogeneity of news consumption in Germany—Descriptive statistics and relations with individual differences in personality, ideological attitudes, and voting intentions