Dark Triad Test
A free dark triad test that scores you on Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy, with an optional light triad check. Instant results, no email, and nothing leaves your browser.
This is self-reflection, not a diagnosis. The dark triad describes personality traits everyone has to some degree. A high score here does not mean you are a psychopath, a narcissist or anything else a clinician would diagnose. Only a qualified professional can assess a personality disorder, and they do it by interview, not by quiz.
I keep useful information to myself until it is worth something.
Answer for how you usually are, not how you would like to be seen. Keys 1–5 work too. Takes about three minutes.
Nothing leaves your browser. There is no account, no email, no tracking of your answers and no server call. The scoring happens in JavaScript on your own device, and closing the tab erases it.
The three dark triad traits, in everyday terms
In 2002 Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams published a paper arguing that three traits psychologists had been studying separately kept turning up together in ordinary people: Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. They called the cluster the dark triad. All three share a willingness to put yourself first at someone else's cost. They differ in how that shows up.
Machiavellianism
Calculated manipulation, a cynical read on human nature, patience.
The colleague who is warm to you for six months, then uses what you told them over coffee to get the promotion you both wanted.
Narcissism
Grandiosity, entitlement, a need to be admired.
The friend who turns your engagement news into a story about their own wedding plans, and expects the best seat at yours.
Psychopathy
Callousness, impulsivity, low fear, thrill-seeking.
The person who borrows money on a whim, loses it on a bet, and is honestly puzzled that you are upset about it.
A quick way to tell the three apart: the Machiavellian plans, the narcissist performs, the psychopath acts. Machiavellianism and psychopathy overlap most in research samples, because both involve treating people as means. Narcissism is the most socially visible of the three and the least hostile on average.
What your dark triad test results mean
Low. You mostly disagreed with statements about that trait. Either it plays a small part in how you deal with people, or you rate yourself generously. Both are common.
Moderate. This is where most people land on at least one trait. Some strategy, some self-promotion, some impatience with rules is ordinary adult behavior.
Elevated. You agreed with most statements about that trait. It is not a diagnosis, but it is a trait that probably shows up in how other people experience you.
The profile name depends on which traits reach 55%. None gives you Balanced. One gives you Strategist (Machiavellianism), Spotlight (narcissism) or Thrill-seeker (psychopathy). Two gives Power player, Cold operator or Wildcard. All three is Full triad. These names are shorthand for this page, not categories from the research, which treats every trait as a continuous scale.
The dark triad at work and in dating
At work
A 2012 meta-analysis by Ernest O'Boyle and colleagues looked at the dark triad and job behavior across more than 200 samples. All three traits were linked to more counterproductive work behavior, things like theft, sabotage and bullying, though the effects were modest. Links to actual job performance were small.
Narcissism in particular can help someone get hired or promoted, because confidence reads as competence in a short interview. The costs tend to show up later and land on the team rather than the person. If you scored high on Machiavellianism, notice how often you treat colleagues as pieces on a board, because they usually notice eventually.
In dating
Research by Peter Jonason and others has linked dark triad traits, psychopathy especially, to a preference for short-term relationships and more willingness to poach someone else's partner. Narcissism helps first impressions: people high in it tend to be rated as more attractive and likeable at first meeting, and less so a few weeks in.
That is the pattern people describe when a relationship starts with intense charm and turns cold. A quiz will not tell you whether a partner has these traits. Watching how they treat you once the charm is no longer doing any work will.
About this dark triad test
How this dark triad personality test works
Twenty-seven first-person statements, nine for each trait, shuffled so the three traits alternate. You rate each from strongly disagree to strongly agree, worth 0 to 4 points. Each trait's score is its points divided by the 36 available, shown as a percentage. The six optional light statements are scored the same way into a separate light percentage.
There are no trick questions and no reverse-scored items, so the test is easy to game if you want to. Nobody sees the result, which removes most of the reasons to.
Short Dark Triad, the Dirty Dozen, and this test
Researchers mostly use two short questionnaires. The Dirty Dozen, from Peter Jonason and Gregory Webster in 2010, has 12 items, four per trait. The Short Dark Triad, or SD3, from Daniel Jones and Delroy Paulhus in 2014, has 27 items, nine per trait. Both exist because the full instruments for each trait run to dozens of items apiece, which is too long for a survey that also asks about everything else.
Short scales trade accuracy for speed. With four items per trait, one odd answer moves your score a lot, and there is too little room to cover a trait properly. Studies of the Dirty Dozen found its psychopathy items in particular miss much of what longer measures pick up. The SD3 holds up better, which is why this test copies its nine-per-trait structure.
It copies nothing else. Every statement here was written from scratch around the same trait themes, and this is neither the SD3 nor the Dirty Dozen. If you want a research-grade score, take the SD3 in a study or from a source that credits its authors.
Is the dark triad test accurate?
For groups, the published scales are reasonably reliable. For one person, any dark triad test has three weak spots. It is self-report, so it measures how you describe yourself. The traits it measures include dishonesty, so the highest scorers have the most reason to shade. And Machiavellianism and psychopathy correlate so strongly on short scales that some researchers question whether they are separate traits at all.
Mood matters too. After a betrayal, cynical statements feel truer; after a promotion, grandiose ones do. If your result surprises you, retake it in a few weeks, or ask someone who knows you well to read the statements and say which ones fit.
Light triad vs dark triad
In 2019 Scott Barry Kaufman, David Yaden, Elizabeth Hyde and Eli Tsukayama proposed the Light Triad as a counterweight: Kantianism (treating people as ends, not means), humanism (valuing everyone's dignity) and faith in humanity (believing people are basically good). Their 12-item Light Triad Scale was only moderately negatively correlated with the dark triad, so light and dark are not simple opposites. You can score middling on both.
In their samples, most people leaned more light than dark. The six light statements on this page are inspired by that idea and written independently. They are not Kaufman's scale, and they produce one light score instead of three.
Related tests
Each dark trait has its own page with more questions and more detail. The narcissist test splits grandiose and covert narcissism. The psychopath test goes further into callousness and impulsivity, and the sociopath test looks at the antisocial pattern and how it differs from psychopathy. None of them diagnose anything either.
When to talk to a professional
If your answers match your life and it is costing you, relationships that end the same way, trouble at work you keep explaining away, people who stop trusting you, talk to a therapist. You do not need a score to book the appointment. "I keep treating people in ways I am not proud of" is a complete reason, and dark traits do shift with effort and with age.
Six ways people misread a dark triad result
Reading a high psychopathy score as "I am a psychopath"
Psychopathy on a dark triad test is a trait scale for ordinary people. Clinical psychopathy is assessed with long interviews and records, and a quiz cannot get you there.
Treating the profile name as an identity
Strategist or Wildcard is a label for the shape of your answers today. The research treats all three traits as sliding scales, and your position on them moves with age and circumstances.
Wearing it as a badge
Some corners of the internet treat a high dark triad score as an achievement. The research links these traits to worse relationships and more workplace trouble, not to winning.
Taking it straight after a betrayal
Cynicism spikes when someone has just burned you. That can push your Machiavellianism score up for reasons that have nothing to do with your usual self.
Answering for someone else
Most statements are about motives nobody can see from outside. A score filled in for a partner or boss measures your read of them, usually made while angry.
Ignoring the light score
A moderate dark score next to a high light score is a very different person from the same dark score next to a low one. Read the balance bar, not just the triangle.
Frequently asked questions
Is this dark triad test free, and do I need an email?
It is free, with no sign-up, no email and no paywall on the results. You answer 27 dark triad statements, plus 6 optional light triad ones, and the scores appear on the same page as soon as you finish.
What is the dark triad?
The dark triad is a name for three overlapping personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams introduced the term in a 2002 paper after noticing the three kept correlating with each other in ordinary, non-clinical samples. Everyone has some of each. The traits are measured on a scale, not diagnosed as present or absent.
How many questions are on this dark triad personality test?
Twenty-seven dark triad statements, nine per trait, rated from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The six light triad statements are switched on by default and you can turn them off before you start. It takes about three minutes, and keys 1 to 5 work as answers.
Is this the Short Dark Triad (SD3)?
No. The Short Dark Triad is a 27-item research questionnaire published by Daniel Jones and Delroy Paulhus in 2014, with nine items per trait. This test borrows that structure, nine statements for each trait, but every statement here was written independently. If you want the actual SD3, look for a version that credits Jones and Paulhus and reports the three subscales separately.
What is the Dirty Dozen dark triad test?
The Dirty Dozen is a 12-item scale published by Peter Jonason and Gregory Webster in 2010, with four items per trait. It became popular because it takes about a minute. The trade-off is accuracy: with only four items per trait, later studies found its psychopathy and narcissism scores miss a lot of what longer scales capture. It is fine for large surveys and weak for telling you much about one person.
Is the dark triad test accurate?
Accurate enough to sort people roughly, not accurate enough to label anyone. Every dark triad test online, including this one, relies on self-report, and the people highest on these traits have the most reason to shade their answers. Short scales also blur the traits together, especially Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Treat your result as a prompt for reflection, not a measurement.
What do my dark triad test results mean?
Each trait is scored from 0 to 100%. Under 30% is low, 30 to 54% is moderate, and 55% or above is elevated. Most people land in the moderate band on at least one trait. The profile name comes from which traits cross 55%, and the triangle shows the shape: a lopsided triangle says more than three medium numbers.
What does Machiavellianism mean on a dark triad test?
Machiavellianism is the strategic trait: manipulating people through planning rather than impulse, a cynical view that everyone is out for themselves, and a willingness to flatter or deceive when it pays. The name comes from Niccolò Machiavelli, and the first scale for it, the Mach-IV, was published by Richard Christie and Florence Geis in 1970. On this test it gets nine statements of its own.
What is a light triad test?
The Light Triad is a counterpart to the dark triad proposed by Scott Barry Kaufman and colleagues in 2019. It covers Kantianism (treating people as ends in themselves), humanism (valuing the dignity of each person) and faith in humanity (believing people are basically good). The six light statements here are inspired by that idea but are not Kaufman’s Light Triad Scale, and they produce a single light score, not three.
Can I take the dark triad test for my partner or someone else?
Not reliably. Most statements ask about motives and inner reactions nobody can see from the outside, so you would be scoring your guesses about them. If someone’s behavior worries you, describe what they actually do, with dates. That is more useful to a therapist, a friend or an HR department than any quiz score.
Does the test store my answers?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Your answers are never sent to a server, never saved to your device, and vanish when you close the tab or hit retake.