Dark personality traits predict support for violence by both Israel and Hamas

A recent study in Personality and Individual Differences reveals that certain dark personality traits, such as psychopathy and sadism, predict support for political violence from both Israel and Hamas. This finding challenges the common assumption that people's support for violence is typically specific to their own group's actions.

Researchers Tobias Greitemeyer from the University of Innsbruck and Tomislav Pavlović from the MOTIKA project conducted two online studies involving German and British participants. Participants completed questionnaires measuring their levels of Dark Tetrad traits—narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism—as well as their support for violent actions by Israel and Hamas.

The results showed that while support for violence by one side was generally negatively correlated with support for the other, individuals high in psychopathy and sadism were more likely to endorse violence from both sides, showing a generalized acceptance of violence regardless of which group was responsible. This effect remained present even after accounting for political ideologies.

Narcissism and Machiavellianism did not show consistent support for violence across both sides. The study also explored potential mechanisms, finding that interest in militarism and moral disengagement partially explained the link between dark personality traits and support for Israeli violent actions, but not for Hamas's actions.

The findings suggest that different cognitive pathways may be at play depending on the specific actor involved in the conflict.