Examination of the Correlation Between Ethical Attitudes and Dark Triad Personality Traits Among University Students

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the relationship between the ethical attitudes of university students and their Dark Triad personality traits. Research has suggested that the juvenile attitudes of people predict their later behaviour. Therefore, it is worth exploring this area for future aspects. Both topics are at the center of research, both individually and in terms of the correlations between them. In the present paper, we examined the relationship between ethical attitudes and the Dark Triad personality traits through questionnaires used in international research with background variables. We found that the most unethical behaviour is ‘Divulging confidential information,’ ‘Passing blame for your errors to an innocent co-worker,’ and ‘Claiming credit for someone else's work.’ The least unethical behaviour is ‘Eating snacks while at your workstation’. Factor analysis and linear regression analysis were used. Despite our expectations, the revealed relationships between ethical attitudes and Dark Triad personality traits were not clearly positive. According to the regression model, the dark triad personality score is lower if the respondent is female, studies at the commerce-marketing major, and has higher values at the following factors: ‘physiological unethicalness’, ‘overcharge’, and ‘other ethical attitudes’ factors.