The Chameleons of Dating: Psychopathic Traits Are Associated with Mimicking Prosocial Personality Traits in Dating Contexts

Psychopathic traits are associated with lower levels of Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, and Agreeableness from the HEXACO model, which capture antisocial traits. Yet, individuals with psychopathic traits—men in particular—appear to successfully acquire dating partners despite these traits. We examine in this paper whether men higher in psychopathic traits might shift their personality traits to mimic those that are more prosocial to appear more attractive to prospective dates. Participants were 165 heterosexual college men who completed the HEXACO and then watched a woman’s dating video. After the video, participants completed the HEXACO again with the instructions to be appealing to the woman in the video. Results showed that psychopathic traits were associated with greater increases in Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, and Agreeableness, and fewer increases in Extraversion across the HEXACO profiles. The observed increases in Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, and Agreeableness may represent men’s attempts at mimicking prosocial personality traits to appear more attractive as a potential partner. The findings suggest that psychopathic traits may affect men’s willingness to deceptively enhance prosocial personality traits, possibly as a means to appeal to prospective partners.