Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Identifying The Prevalence Of The “Dark Triad” Personality Traits In Law Students: Eradicating An Unwarranted Stereotype, Jacob I. Newton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The personalities of lawyers are often categorized to be immoral, at least more so than those of other professionals. An abundance of literature parallels this generalization and depicts lawyers’ personalities as narcissistic, psychopathic and high in Machiavellian attitudes. Together, these three traits form the “Dark Triad” of personality. 53 law students from 3 law schools in Ontario completed a survey measuring their levels on the “Dark Triad”. Results show that the law students from the present sample do not display any “Dark Triad” trait significantly greater than the general population. It found that male law students were not significantly “darker” …