Pierides, Melissa (2017) The Relationship Between Dark Triad Personality Traits and False Memory Creation. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
The present study investigated the relationship between Dark Triad traits (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) and false memory. The Dark Triad group of malevolent personality traits has been linked with a range of adverse social, forensic, and workplace outcomes. Individuals with ‘dark’ traits are motivated by self-enhancement that may result in cognitive biases conforming to their self-interest; this may lead to errors in source monitoring where internally generated information is not distinguished from external information, hence forming false memory. A convenience sample of 111 volunteers agreed to participate in the study. To study false memory effects, data was collected via an online modified version of the Deese, Roediger and McDermott paradigm, and Dark Triad traits were assessed using an online survey comprising the Short Dark 3 (SD-3) embedded within the Myers Briggs Type Indicator personality survey. It was expected that narcissism would be positively correlated with false memory, and that Machiavellianism would be negatively correlated with false memory. No direction was specified for the relationship between psychopathy and false memory due to the inconsistencies in the literature. Pearson correlation analyses revealed a significant positive relationship between the psychopathy subscale of the SD-3 and the recall of critical lures in the modified DRM memory test. No significant relationships were found between narcissism and false memory, or Machiavellianism and false memory. The finding that psychopathy is related to memory distortion has implications for medico-legal and forensic settings, and contributes to the limited amount of research on ‘dark’ traits and false memory. The study also illustrated the need for future research into which paradigms (DRM or in-vivo experiments) might be most likely to produce false memory effects when studying dimensional personality traits.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Liam Hendry |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Aug 2025 01:53 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Aug 2025 01:53 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Dark Triad, dark traits, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, false memory, memory errors, DRM paradigm, in-vivo. |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52666 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
