Your sex drive may be intimately linked to your personality, new research suggests, with certain "dark" personality traits being common among those with the highest libido.
Narcissism—a personality disorder characterized by self-importance and a lack of empathy for others—and everyday sadism—the tendency to derive pleasure, especially sexual pleasure, from inflicting pain—were the strongest predictors of sex drive and porn use.
"Arguably, the most common topic on the news involves people (mostly men) getting into trouble for their sexual behavior," Delroy Paulhus, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, told Newsweek. "Individual differences in sex drive may play a role. And, given the growing recognition that four 'dark' personalities (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, everyday sadism) can be distinguished, we sought to clarify which ones would be accompanied by a high sex drive."
The study, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, assessed sex drive and pornography use across hundreds of Canadian university students while also assessing their adherence to these four "dark" personality traits.
"The results were that narcissists and everyday sadists reported the highest sex drive," Paulhus said. "The former seems linked to a fulsome self-confidence and excitement-seeking; the latter may be underlain by a hyper-sexuality that requires escalating forms of sexual stimulation, such as BDSM activities."
Male participants scored higher on all "dark" personality traits, as well as on sex drive and pornography use.
While these findings are based on observational data, and therefore do not confirm a mechanistic relationship, Paulhus suggested that there may be a genetic influence underpinning both personality and sex drive, especially in men.
"The common biological substrate for both may involve individual differences in testosterone levels," he said. "However, research on this topic is controversial."
But why does this matter? "A high sex drive may lead to criminal and or negative workplace consequences," Paulhus said. "But most common is conflict with romantic partners."
Their findings also suggest that the four "dark" personality members can indeed be separated, at least based on sex drive. However, because their results are based on data from college students, it is unclear how generalizable they will be for the wider population.
"In our two current studies, the mode and median were both 19," the researchers write. "The limited sexual experience of youth would surely impair self-perceptions of sex drive. Future research on older participants may moderate the pattern of our observed associations."
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References
Trapnell, P. D., Poulter, M. M. L., & Paulhus, D. L. (2024). Sex drive among the Dark Tetrad. Personality and Individual Differences, 231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112835
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