Updated January 29, Reviewed by Lybi Ma. On social media and in everyday conversations, words like "narcissist" and "pathological liar" get thrown around a lot.
But people often misuse these terms to the point that the real meaning gets lost. People often label someone a narcissist to describe a self-obsessed liar who manipulates and gaslights others for positive attention or personal gain usually in the context of romantic relationships. While this notion is not entirely wrong, other personality traits predict lying much better than narcissism.
In our recent research, we investigated how certain dark personality traits are linked to lying. Our results showed that narcissism was surprisingly one of the weakest dark personality traits in predicting the various types of lies. Narcissism was not related at all to telling altruistic lies.
While narcissism was connected to telling self-serving and vindictive lies, the other four dark traits were stronger predictors. Other dark traits, like sadism, callousness, and vindictiveness are more clearly tied to unethical behavior.
Look beyond narcissism when thinking about why people lie or manipulate others. Traits like callousness, vindictiveness, and sadism may better help explain why someone chooses to deceive , whether to harm others or to serve their own interests. Understanding the different traits that drive lying and manipulation can help you navigate your relationships and avoid being duped.
