Bringing Light Into the Dark: Associations of Fire Interest and Fire Setting With the Dark Tetrad
Department
Lebenswissenschaftliche Fakultät
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Abstract
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.
Description
This article was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Keywords
Dark Triad, Dark Tetrad, sensation seeking, fire interest, fire setting
Dewey Decimal Classification
150 Psychologie
References
Publisher DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.876575
Citation
Wehner, Caroline, Ziegler, Matthias, Kirchhof, Simon, Lämmle, Lena.(2022). Bringing Light Into the Dark: Associations of Fire Interest and Fire Setting With the Dark Tetrad. Frontiers in psychology, 13. 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.876575