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Short Dark Triad

SD3
psychologysocial sciencesFree for research use

Permission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no license fee. Cite the original publication.

A 27-item measure of the three dark personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Nine items per trait. Designed as a brief alternative to full-length Mach-IV, NPI-40, and SRP scales.

Items
27
Response format
5-point Likert scale
Version
1.0
Subscales
3

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Dark personality traits were assessed with the 27-item Short Dark Triad (SD3; Jones & Paulhus, 2014), yielding Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy subscale scores (nine items each, five items reverse-scored) on a 5-point Likert scale.

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Reliability & validation

Validation population
Adults recruited through MTurk from Canada and the United States (four studies, total N = 1,063) reported in Jones & Paulhus (2014)
Cronbach's α
0.68–0.8

Subscales

MachiavellianismNarcissismPsychopathy

Response anchors

Disagree strongly · Disagree · Neither agree nor disagree · Agree · Agree strongly

Known limitations

The three subscales are intercorrelated (r = .18 to .50 in the validation studies), so interpret each trait as distinct but not orthogonal. Consider controlling for socially desirable responding when administering in high-stakes settings.

Original citation

Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A brief measure of dark personality traits. Assessment, 21(1), 28-41.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191113514105

Questions researchers ask

What does the SD3 measure?

A 27-item measure of the three dark personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy. Nine items per trait. Designed as a brief alternative to full-length Mach-IV, NPI-40, and SRP scales.

How many items does the SD3 have?

The Short Dark Triad (SD3) has 27 items across 3 subscales: Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Psychopathy.

Is the SD3 free to use?

The SD3 is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the SD3 reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.68–0.8. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the SD3, and how do I cite it?

Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A brief measure of dark personality traits. Assessment, 21(1), 28-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191113514105

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DTDDDark Triad Dirty DozenBFI-44Big Five InventoryBFNEBrief Fear of Negative Evaluation ScaleHEXACO-60HEXACO-60NFC-SFNeed for Cognition Scale (Short Form)NGSENew General Self-Efficacy Scale

Library entry verified September 2026. Metadata is provided for reference. Questionnaires are built in Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing, and can be taken to Qualtrics, Google Forms or Microsoft Forms, with their CSV responses brought back for scoring.