Journal
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 13, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.876575
Keywords
Dark Triad; Dark Tetrad; sensation seeking; fire interest; fire setting
Categories
Funding
- German Research Foundation (DFG)
- Fund of Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study investigated the relationship between fire interest, fire setting, and potential personality traits. The results showed that psychopathy and sadism from the Dark Tetrad were associated with fire interest and fire setting, while other traits and sensation seeking did not significantly contribute to the predictions.
Fire setting is a significant problem for society, costing many human lives and causing great property damage. One important risk factor of fire setting observed in forensic samples is fire interest. However, less is known about the relationship of fire interest and fire setting to other variables such as personality traits in subclinical samples. In this study, we observed the relationship of potentially important personality traits with fire interest and fire setting in a sample of N = 222 students. In addition to zero-order correlations, we calculated path models and a logistic regression including all predictor variables. From the Dark Tetrad, consisting of psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and three facets of sadism, psychopathy, and physical sadism were found to be associated with fire interest and fire setting. Furthermore, vicarious sadism was associated with fire interest. The other Dark Tetrad traits and four sensation seeking facets did not substantially add to the predictions. This confirms the results of previous studies with clinical and forensic samples with psychopathy and sadism as relevant predictors for fire interest and fire setting. Our results also provide evidence for viewing sadism as the multidimensional construct discriminating between vicarious and other forms of sadism, for the distinction of psychopathy and Machiavellianism, and for the Dark Tetrad being linked to object related violence.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available