The Archives of Sexual Behavior recently published research that examines the role of dark personality traits in activism. The findings indicate a pattern where narcissistic grandiosity is associated with higher participation in LGBTQ movements, demonstrating that motivations for activism can range widely from genuine altruism to personal image-building.

The researchers were driven to explore these motivations to better understand a concept they proposed: the dark-ego-vehicle principle, a theoretical framework suggesting that some individuals might exploit social activism for self-serving purposes. According to this principle, individuals with “dark” personality traits—such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, or sadism—may engage in activism not to advance its altruistic goals but to satisfy their own self-serving needs. These individuals exploit activism as a “vehicle” to fulfill desires for attention, status, or power.

“The DEVP assumes that individuals with high levels of dark traits may inauthentically and selfishly use prosocial activism to satisfy their own ego-focused dark needs (e.g., the need to signal one’s own moral virtue, a behavior that has been coined virtue signaling),” explained study authors Ann Krispenz, a postdoctoral associate, and Alex Bertrams, the head of the Educational Psychology Lab at the University of Bern.

“As narcissistic people are particularly keen to gain attention, fame, and prestige, certain forms of activism that are currently prominently covered by the media are likely to be particularly attractive to them. We consider LGBQ and gender-identity activism as forms of activism getting a high level of public attention.”

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