How Likable Are Personality Disorder and General Personality Traits to Those Who Possess Them?

OBJECTIVE: The goal of the present study was to investigate whether having higher scores on maladaptive personality traits was related to rating these traits as more likable.

METHOD: Two studies were conducted, one with personality disorder traits (N = 219; Mage  = 19.4; 63.8% female; 76.6% Caucasian) and one with general personality traits (N = 198; Mage  = 19.5; 69.7% female; 77.3% Caucasian). In each study, participants self-rated their own personality and separately provided ratings of how "likable" they considered those personality traits.

RESULTS: As expected, participants rated maladaptive traits more favorably if they considered themselves to possess those traits as well. Also as expected, individuals with higher Antagonism scores (including self-rated Dark Triad constructs of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) rated Antagonism and its related facets as "tolerable"-not necessarily likable, but as less unlikable than the average participant.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings have implications for the ways that individuals with personality pathology perceive the people around them, which may in turn impact their expectations and behaviors.