ABOUT US

Research interests

 

​​Differentiating Dark Personalities: The Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad

The Dark Triad refers to three overlapping but distinct personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The addition of everyday sadism creates the Dark Tetrad ​

Key Findings​

• To date, we have found that Machiavellianism is the most misunderstood trait.

• These misunderstandings stem from the strategic nature of Machiavellianism. 

• They adapt to their environment to maximize their personal gain. 

 

Deception:  Mimicry Deception Theory (MDT)

​Mimicry Deception Theory (MDT) posits that there are four elements of long-term deception: Increased complexity, increased host or community integration, sustainable resource extraction, low detectability. ​

Key Findings

• Long-term deception as defined by MDT predicts increased financial losses in fraud cases.

• Long-term deceivers maintain secrecy more effectively.

• Long-term deceivers "hack" systems in a more stealthy manner.

• The patterns observed in MDT can be used to profile child sex offenders. 

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Relationships: Emophilia

Emophilia is the tendency to fall in love fast, easily, and often. For example, have you ever known someone who falls in love after a first date? Or, do you tend to feel emotional connections with partners right away?​

Key Findings​

• Those high in emophilia have a lower threshold for falling in love.

• Those high in emophilia are disproportionately drawn to manipulative partners. 

• Emophilia is associated with a high risk of infidelity

• Emophilia can lead to sexual risk-taking among women.​

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Cybersecurity

Along with our collaborators, we study  cyber-attacker personality and tactics. We also study solutions to preventing phishing attacks from being effective.

​Key Findings

• Dark Triad traits are associated with different patterns of cyberattacks. 

• Those lacking either intellectual humility or confidence struggle with identifying phishing emails.

• Psychological "inoculation" is a key solution to preventing phishing attacks.

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Organizational Behavior

Our research on organizational behavior examines topics such as destructive supervision and toxic employee behavior. 

​Key Findings

• Machiavellian individuals perform best under destructive leaders.

• Learning to think like a Machiavellian may be the solution for dealing with them.  

• Optimal screening approaches for detecting toxic traits.

• Employee ghosting is complex, but there are solutions to attract the best talent.