ArticleBMC psychology2025
It's what's inside that counts: how dark triad traits mediate gender differences in prosocial behavior.
Article in BMC psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThis study examined whether gender differences in empathy and prosocial behavior operate through Dark Triad personality traits. By treating personality as the mediator, we move beyond male–female comparisons and provide a clear, culturally relevant explanation for when and why gender-linked helping patterns emerge.
methodsUsing convenience sampling, 323 Chinese undergraduates (133 males, 190 females) completed validated self-report questionnaires: the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE), the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM), and the Dirty Dozen (DD). Mediation and sequential mediation analyses were conducted using SPSS and Mplus.
resultsEmpathy did not differ by gender. However, psychopathy significantly mediated the link between gender and both empathy dimensions. Machiavellianism and psychopathy mediated gender differences in anonymous and compliant prosocial behaviors. A sequential pathway showed that psychopathy reduced affective empathy, which in turn lowered altruistic behavior among men.
conclusionsGender showed little direct association with empathy and prosocial behavior once Dark Triad traits were accounted for; psychopathy (and, for some domains, Machiavellianism) mediated the observed differences. These findings suggest that research on prosociality should prioritize underlying personality mechanisms rather than gender per se.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.