Good v. evil: Predicting sinning with dark personality traits and moral foundations

Using life history theory, we provided (N = 1236) insight into individual differences in the engagement in human vice or sin (e.g., lust) by examining individual differences in dark personality traits and morality. Moral foundations were associated with sin through the individualizing aspects of morality. Dark personality traits accounted for almost six times more variance in individual differences in sinning than the moral foundations which suggests that it is personality rather than morality that is responsible for sinning behaviors. While sadism and spitefulness accounted for unique and significantly more variance, this was a small and specialized amount. We replicated effects suggesting men are more strongly embodied by dark personality traits and behaviors than women are, and women are more morally virtuous than men are, but showed these sex differences were a function of dark personality traits—in particular—and moral foundations. Overwhelmingly, dark personality traits trump participant’ sex and moral foundations in accounting for variance in sin.