The Effect Of Perceived Money Scarcity On Attraction To The Dark Triad:the Mediating Role Of Anticipated Emotion

Mate selection is an eternal topic in human society.In the course of human evolution,men and women will gradually form their own mate preferences.Mate preference may give preference to certain components,but this is not always the case.For example,in mate selection,some individuals may be distracted by certain factors(such as cognitive distortion,low self-esteem),leading them to be attracted to false high mate value(such as people with dark personality traits).While a number of factors have been identified that lead to a preference for dating someone with darker personality traits,there are other issues with the process that need to be explored,such as money scarcity.Past research has found that feelings of money scarcity can lead to low self-esteem and affect life decisions,and mate choice is part of the decision-making process.Does experiencing money scarcity lead people to prefer people with darker personality traits?This paper focuses on money scarcity,including the imagined money scarcity and the real money scarcity.Combined with two behavioral experiments(N = 196),this paper intends to explore whether money scarcity will affect people’s evaluation attitude toward dating partners with dark personality,as well as its psychological mechanism,so as to promote the understanding of the influence of money scarcity on mate selection.There are two studies,which are described as follows:Study 1 examined the effect of money scarcity on the attractiveness of dark personality traits.96 college students were recruited in a hybrid experiment design of2(money scarcity:scarce,not scarce)×3(dark personality:Machiavellian,narcissism,psychopathy).The results showed that(1)the attractiveness score of the money scarcity group was significantly higher than that of the no scarcity group.(2)Money scarcity positively predicted Machiavelli and narcissistic trait attraction.(3)People prefer Machiavellian and narcissistic traits over psychopathic traits.In study 2,based on study 1,we examined the effects of money scarcity and anticipated emotion on the attractiveness of dark personality traits.100 college students were recruited in a hybrid experiment design of 2(money scarcity:scarce,not scarce)× 3(dark personality:Machiavellian,narcissism,psychopathy),Measure anticipatory emotion to examine mediating effects.The results showed that,first,the money scarcity group rated the dark personality trait attractiveness significantly higher than the no scarcity group.Further analysis showed that the attractiveness rating of the money scarcity group was significantly higher than that of the no scarcity group on the narcissism and Machiavellian trait dimensions,while there was no significant difference on the psychopathic trait dimension.Second,the money scarcity group was significantly more willing to consider the narcissistic advertiser as a long-term partner than the no scarcity group Second,people prefer Machiavellian and narcissistic traits over psychopathic traits.Third,anticipatory emotion(in addition to negative anticipatory emotion in the short-term mate selection context shown in narcissistic advertisements)mediated the effect of money scarcity on Machiavelli and narcissistic trait attractiveness ratings.In other words,participants with a higher sense of scarcity preferred the Machiavellian and narcissistic traits of their date,and increased their liking for them by anticipating higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions as they imagined interacting with them.By combining the results of the above two studies,the conclusion can be reached:(1)Money scarcity has a positive effect on people’s liking for the Dark Triad.Individuals with higher sense of scarcity showed more preference for Machiavelli and narcissistic traits.(2)Anticipatory emotion mediated the effect of money scarcity on people’s preference for the Dark Triad(Machiavellian and narcissism traits).