Sadism refers to deriving pleasure from inflicting physical or emotional pain on others.
A new review illuminates the personality traits that relate to higher levels of sadism.
Key Facts:
- Sadism is linked to “dark personality traits” like psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Of these, psychopathy shows the strongest connection.
- Antisocial behaviors like aggression and rule-breaking contribute to sadism, as do interpersonal-affective traits like grandiosity and lack of empathy.
- Situational factors like boredom and negative attitudes toward victims can strengthen sadistic tendencies already present due to personality.
- More research is needed on the link between clinically-defined personality disorders and sadism, using diverse samples and behavioral measures.
Source: Curr Psychiatry Rep (2023)
What is Sadism & Why Does it Matter?
Sadism refers to deriving pleasure and enjoyment from inflicting physical or emotional pain and suffering on others.
It can range from rather “everyday” forms like enjoying violent sports or movies, to more severe manifestations like sexual gratification from hurting partners.
Though often studied in the context of sexual disorders, sadism has interpersonal consequences that extend far beyond sexuality.
According to the authors, sadistic tendencies are likely more common than typically assumed.
Past estimates show that around 7% of college students acknowledge some form of everyday sadism.
The actual rates may be higher, as social stigma causes people to under-report sadistic pleasures.
Understanding the psychology behind sadism matters because it has hugely destructive effects at both individual and societal levels.
As the authors note, “because of its highly destructive nature, it is important to understand interpersonal and context variables that heighten the risk of sadism.”
Illuminating the personality basis of sadism can help identify those most vulnerable to developing sadistic pleasures.
Dark Triad Personality Traits: Psychopathy, Narcissism, etc.
Which personality traits show the strongest links to higher sadism? The review highlights the role of so-called “Dark Triad” traits – psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism.
These overlapping traits are marked by callousness, manipulation, aggression and a tendency toward self-promotion.
Meta-analyses show that among the dark traits, subclinical psychopathy demonstrates the closest relationship with sadism.
Psychopathy as a clinical condition is characterized by lack of empathy, guiltlessness, shallow emotional responses, and manipulation of others.
The review shows that sadism correlates with all aspects of psychopathy, including erratic lifestyle and criminal behaviors as well as callous interpersonal tendencies.
This suggests that sadism has both an interpersonal-emotional basis and a behavioral basis in terms of aggression and norm-breaking.
Besides psychopathy, narcissism and vulnerable narcissism also relate to higher sadism.
Narcissism involves grandiose self-focus, feelings of entitlement, and attention-seeking behaviors.
Vulnerable narcissism refers to a defensive variant marked by insecurity and sensitivity to ego threats.
Both narcissistic tendencies are linked to increased sadism.
Behaviors & Beliefs: Multiple Origins of Sadism
The review discusses two pathways that could lead to higher sadism: one driven by beliefs and personality tendencies, the other by behaviors over time.
Certain personality traits like entitlement, grandiosity and lack of empathy may enable sadists to focus solely on their own pleasure without concern for consequences.
The authors term this the “my pleasure first” attitude.
Separately, studies show that repeated engagement in harmful behaviors like aggression can desensitize perpetrators over time.
Eventually aggressors may derive pleasure from cruelty – in other words, “practice makes perfect” when it comes to sadism.
Supporting this, an experiment showed that participants instructed to kill more bugs initially were later more likely to derive enjoyment from the cruel acts.
This dual pathway helps explain why both callous/manipulative personality traits and antisocial behavioral tendencies relate to sadism.
The review emphasizes that longitudinal studies are needed to clarify which specific traits exert a causal risk effect on the development of sadistic pleasures.
Bored & Dehumanized: Situations that Worsen Sadism
Personality provides the baseline level of sadism, but situational factors can strengthen its expression.
For instance, boredom strongly relates to sadistic tendencies.
Boredom is an unpleasant state defined by inability to engage in satisfying activities.
Seeking stimulation, sadists may turn to cruelty to escape boredom’s clutches.
Studies show boredom correlates with higher everyday sadism, and bored participants behave more cruelly unless prevented from doing so.
Dehumanization of victims also unleashes sadistic potential.
Viewing people as objects rather than humans with rights and autonomy increases willingness to harm them.
Sex offenders often dehumanize partners, but everyday objectification likely also enables sadism.
Personality plays a role here too – the review showed that narcissists are more likely to objectify others as useful objects, possibly enabling their cruel tendencies.
Finally, an experiment showed that inducing negative attitudes toward victims (bugs in this case) increased killing behavior during an extermination task.
Though it did not increase reported enjoyment of the cruel acts, the findings show that situational factors can worsen harm already set in motion by sadistic personality traits.
Self-Reports vs. Actual Behavior: Issues in Measurement
An over-reliance on self-report measures hampers sadism research.
Social stigma likely causes underreporting of sadistic tendencies.
Newer behavioral lab measures offer hope for more objective assessment.
For instance, some studies measure willingness to harm bugs or blast opponents with unpleasant noise. These methods reduce social desirability biases.
However, self-report and behavioral assessments do not always agree.
Those admitting high sadism may behave un-sadistically when given the chance, and vice versa.
Discrepancies might indicate distinct facets of sadism not captured by either measure alone.
Integrating subjective, behavioral and neurological measures could provide a more complete picture of this poorly understood construct.
Next Steps for Understanding Sadism
The review highlighted pressing areas for future research.
First, more diverse community and clinical samples are needed.
Current over-reliance on educated young samples, especially undergraduate psychology majors, reduces generalizability of findings.
Replications in offenders and psychiatric patients would prove informative.
Mixed gender samples would also help clarify any differences in how sadism manifests across men and women.
Second, more research on DSM-defined personality disorders and sadism is vital.
For instance, longitudinal studies tracking those high in borderline traits could assess contributions to emerging sadistic tendencies.
Studies differentiating impact of sadism versus psychopathy on outcomes like criminal recidivism would also help disentangle these closely related constructs.
Finally, tying sadism to the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders introduced in the DSM-5 could be illuminating.
Facets like callousness, deceitfulness, hostility and impulsivity may relate to sadism beyond links to official diagnoses.
In summary, this review illuminates one main fact – more research is direly needed to clarify the personality basis of sadism using diverse samples and measures.
Understanding sadism’s psychological underpinnings can help identify those at highest risk and guide clinical interventions to reduce inhabited harm against others.
References
- Study: Sadism and Personality Disorders
- Authors: Lobbestael et al. (2023)
