Perceived Dark Tetrad Traits and Marital Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Gender

Abstract

Dark personality traits are consistently linked to poorer romantic functioning, yet this evidence rests almost entirely on self-reported traits, leaving unclear how a spouse's perceived dark characteristics relate to marital evaluation. This study examined whether perceived Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism were differentially associated with two facets of marital satisfaction, and whether gender moderated them. Married individuals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi completed Urdu adaptations of the Short Dark Tetrad and the ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale, rating their spouse on the former and their marriage on the latter. Data were analysed through correlation, regression, and moderation. All four subscales were negatively associated with both outcomes and jointly explained a substantial share of variance, whereas demographic variables contributed negligibly. The subscales were so highly intercorrelated, however, that individual contributions could not be separated: collinearity indices exceeded conventional thresholds, pairwise comparisons of the trait-outcome correlations showed no differences, and predictor rank ordering reversed across outcomes. Men and women did not differ on any variable, although interaction terms were consistently directional, indicating a steeper association among men. Perceived dark traits appear to operate as an undifferentiated negative partner appraisal rather than four separable subscales, gender conditioning strength but not direction.