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Dark triad

The dark triad is a combination of three personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Put another way, the "Dirty Dozen" dark triad traits include a desire for attention, admiration, favors, and prestige; the manipulation, exploitation, deceit and flattery of others; a lack of remorse, morality concerns and sensitivity, and cynicism. The Dirty Dozen is a condensed version of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Mach-IV, and Psychopathy Scale-III.

In practice these traits essentially allude to the following principles which make an alpha male stand out from his beta brethren:

Narcissism - Respecting oneself and putting one's own needs before others' wants. Many beta males do not respect their own needs and go out of their way to try to please others or "be liked".

Machiavellianism - Having street wisdom or good social intuition and being able to make good judgment calls; many betas are naive and take what people say at face value; such as betas who don't read between the lines when girls say they want a "nice guy".

Psychopathy - Not caring about what "society" thinks of you but what you think of yourself, similar to the above, many betas let society or parents decide their own values out of fear of disapproval.

Several mainstream academic, peer-reviewed studies have confirmed that women are sexually attracted to men who exhibit dark triad traits, likely because of women's hypergamous nature.[Sources]

Vinita Mehta notes:[Source]

What might explain this result? Carter and his colleagues offer two possible explanations. First, sexual selection might be at work. This would mean that women are responding to signals of “male quality” when it comes to reproduction. And with respect to short-term mating, women may be drawn to ‘bad boys’, who demonstrate confidence, stubbornness, and risk-taking tendencies. Second, sexual conflict may be at play. The investigators state that “Women may be responding to DT men’s ability to ‘sell themselves’; a useful tactic in a co-evolutionary ‘arms race’ in which men convince women to pursue the former’s preferred sexual strategy.” They note that like a “used-car dealer,” Dark Triad men may be effective charmers and manipulators, furthering their success at short-term mating. The authors are also careful to note that though women rated the DT character as comparatively more attractive, it does not necessarily mean that they would have sex with them.

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