The Dark Triad of Personality and Considering Cosmetic Surgery: An Exploratory Study

This study is the first to directly investigate the relationship between the Dark Triad traits and considering cosmetic surgery. The sample consisted of 222 university students, aged between 18 and 37 (M = 24.59, SD = 4.17), from Tehran, Iran. Participants completed the Short Dark Triad scale and “consider” subscale of Acceptance of Cosmetic Surgery Scale. Descriptive statistics and evaluation of sex differences suggested that psychopathy was significantly higher in men and considering cosmetic surgery was significantly higher in women. Correlational analyses showed that psychopathy was associated with considering cosmetic surgery in men and women. Machiavellianism was associated with considering cosmetic surgery in women, but not men. Narcissism was not found to be related to considering cosmetic surgery. Findings of this study indicated that psychopathy is associated with considering cosmetic surgery. Moreover, sex moderated the relationship between Machiavellianism and considering cosmetic surgery. Implications of this exploratory study and future directions are discussed.
Source: Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research