People Who Like Villains Like Darth Vader Are Villainous Themselves, Study

In every story, there is good and evil. Most people would probably choose the good guy and hate the villain. But some people like the latter rather than the former, which intrigued researchers from Aarhus University.

Villains such as Cruella De Vil, Darth Vader, and many others are just some iconic villains in history. New research looked at the relationship between villains and the people who like them and found some interesting insights.

The study suggests that people who prefer fictional villains to heroes are more likely to be villainous themselves, Black Christian News reported. That means these people often fit into the so-called dark triad personality, which scores high on Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.

"Some individuals may come to engage positively with villainous characters because they are like them, that is because they share the villains' immoral outlook to some degree," the researchers said.

People With Dark Triad Personality More Likely Feel Positive Towards Villains

According to the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Poetics, dark triad traits correlate with people who prefer watching villains than heroes.

They asked over 1,000 people from North America and gave them questionnaires to fill out their personalities and views towards fictional characters. They asked the participants what they think of specific villains that they could think of and on the three well-known controls: Matrix franchise' Mr. Smith, X-Men's Mystique, and Darth Vader from Star Wars.

The researchers found that people who like these villains are more likely to have the dark triad traits and are more likely to feel positive about villains, MailOnline reported. The findings revealed that these individuals feel enjoyment, identification, fascination, and empathy towards the villains.

They added that, generally speaking, males were more prone to experience various forms of villain personality. But young males, in particular, are found to have higher levels of villain positivity. The results suggest that this could be a function of their particularly high levels of dark personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy.

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What Is the Dark Triad?

Psychologists have identified the three traits under the dark triad personality. It is not something that can usually be heard in the workplace but is a buzzword in the field of psychology. Below is the definition of the three traits, according to Mind Tools:

Narcissism - comes from Greek mythology wherein a man named Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection on the pool of water and drowned. Narcissistic people could be self-centered, selfish, arrogant, boastful, lacks empathy, and hypersensitive to criticism.
Machiavellianism - the name is inspired by the renowned 16th-century Italian politician Niccolo Machiavelli. During his time, people thought that his book "The Prince" promoted dark arts of cunning and deceit in diplomacy. Taking inspiration from that, this trait describes a person who lacks emotion and morality, fond of manipulation, duplicity, and self-interest.
Psychopathy - describes a person who lacks empathy or remorse, has antisocial behavior, is manipulative, and volatile. Psychologists noted that psychopathy traits and being a psychopath have distinction wherein a psychopath is commonly held n association with criminal behavior.