TL;DR: It’s less that women are attracted to Dark Triads, and more that they are attracted to what they lie about. Dark Triads are more comfortable with this deception such as fakinh commitment.

PPD’s love-boner for the Dark Triad male is quite amusing and sad.

“Women are attracted to Dark Triad traits”

because:

“Dark Triad types get more sex”

This is a false equivalency that needs to be called out as just another way to have a feel-good chant by saying “women love assholes”.

 

Wikipedia says:

In psychology, the dark triad comprises the personality traits of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.

So let’s break that down...

Narcissism

The narcissistic personality has self-love that is so strong that it results in high levels of vanity, conceit, and selfishness.

Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism is characterized by a duplicitous interpersonal style, a cynical disregard for morality, and a focus on self-interest and personal gain.

Psychopathy

Psychopathy is identified by the tell-tale sign of shallow emotional responses. Personality traits associated with psychopathy include a lack of empathy or remorse, antisocial behavior, and volatility.

I bolded duplicitous because, duplicity is lying, lying about who you are and what you’re offering is a shortcut to actually having those things.

Women are less attracted to the trait of being ‘dark’ or a liar, they are attracted to the subject of the lie. And that lie is very often commitment.

“Women are the gatekeepers of sex, Men are the gatekeepers of commitment.”

This is still true - inb4 some 3/10 dude complains about not getting dates on Tinder - for average people who have average experiences, because women aren’t the ones that get to hold off on proposing marriage last I checked.

With this well-known trend, it’s very easy to imagine that a man can:

  1. Offer his commitment and exclusivity (falsely)

  2. Get in the pants of a woman who prefers or requires sex when there’s commitment (the majority).

  3. Find a new lady and repeat. Gaining more and more sex partners over time.

Feigning commitment is an easy thing to do at least initially, and the reason why it’s one of the things women are most paranoid about.

But a person can also lie about their position, financial status, generosity or kindness and other markers of attraction in order to convince a person to have sex.

This is the main affect we see when there’s a correlation betwen dark triad traits + high n count. And they don’t have to be. Because sex is much much easier to rack up by people with no qualms about cheating and lying.