SynthesisFrontiers in psychiatry2025
Cold hearts and dark minds: a systematic review and meta-analysis of empathy across dark triad personalities.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Dark Tetrad Traits Differentially Predict Gossip Frequency and Motives.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Moral Decision-Making, Machiavellianism, and Social Cognition in Autism: An Exploratory Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Common and distinct morphometric correlates of the Dark Triad traits: machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy in a healthy male sample.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Influence of Dark Triad Personality on Attitudes Toward Brain Death, Organ Donation, and Futile Therapy.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2026Article
- Evaluation of the relationship between resilience and empathy in medical professionals using structural equation modeling.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Perception of a caring ethical climate as a factor facilitating the stress and exhaustion of employees with dark triad traits of personality: a moderated mediation model.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- It's what's inside that counts: how dark triad traits mediate gender differences in prosocial behavior.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Dark Triad Traits, Sex, and Social Desirability as Predictors of Non-Consensual Intimate Media Sharing Proclivity, Enjoyment, and Approval in UK University Students.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Introduction: This systematic review and meta-analysis explored cognitive and affective empathy differences across Dark Triad traits-Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy. Methods: Registered on PROSPERO and following PRISMA guidelines, PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, ProQuest, and Google Scholar were searched for studies published until June 2024. Risk of bias was evaluated using Egger's test and Rank correlation test, along with risk-of-bias plots (Robvis) for quality assessment. Results: Fourteen studies (N = 5,328) met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed Narcissism was negatively associated with affective empathy (r= -.134, p<.05) but not significantly linked to cognitive empathy (r= .061, p= .215), while Machiavellianism had a significant negative correlation with both cognitive (r= -.089, p<.05) and affective empathy (r= -.291, p<.0001). Psychopathy demonstrated the strongest negative association with affective empathy (r= -.347, p<.0001). Moderate-to-high heterogeneity was found across all analyses (I Discussion: This review underscores differential empathy profiles across Dark Triad traits, with significant affective empathy deficits in Psychopathy and Machiavellianism and the complex role of cognitive empathy in Narcissism and Machiavellianism. Further research should examine situational and subtype -specific factors influencing empathy in Dark Triad traits to enhance theoretical understanding and inform interventions. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42024559533, identifier CRD42024559533.
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