Narcissism Test: The Dark Triad

By Murat Şahin · Updated November 12, 2026 · How we test

How this narcissism test works

Press Start the dark triad test and you see one statement at a time, such as "I enjoy being admired" or "I can lie easily without feeling nervous." Pick how well each one describes you, from Disagree to Agree. Keys 1 to 5 work too, and Back lets you change an answer. There are 27 statements and most people need about four minutes.

Nine statements measure each of the three traits of the dark triad: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Some are worded the other way ("I am happy to let others take the credit") and are reversed before scoring. Honest answers give a more useful result than flattering ones, and nobody sees them but you. These traits are linked to the broad dimensions of the Big Five personality test: in Paulhus and Williams's study, all three went with low agreeableness.

What the dark triad is

Delroy Paulhus and Kevin Williams (2002) gave the name "dark triad" to three socially aversive traits that overlap but are not the same. They studied them in ordinary people, not in clinics, and that everyday range is what this test is about:

• Narcissism: a sense of being special, a wish for admiration and attention, and sensitivity to criticism. In research it is usually measured with scales descended from the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (Raskin & Hall, 1979).
• Machiavellianism: a cool, strategic view of people: flattery and deception are tools, and others' motives are suspected. Richard Christie and Florence Geis (1970) named it after Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince.
• Psychopathy: impulsivity and thrill-seeking combined with low empathy, guilt and fear.

All three share a core of callousness, which is why people with a high score on one often score higher on the others. Each also has its own flavour: narcissism is about the self-image, Machiavellianism about long-term strategy, psychopathy about short-term impulse.

How to read your score

Each trait's raw total runs from 9 to 45, which we convert to 0–100 with (raw − 9) ÷ 36 × 100. Under each bar a short text changes at fixed points we chose for readability: below 35 reads as the low end, 35 to 65 as the middle, above 65 as the high end. The score is not a percentile. The items are original and there is no norm group, so a 70 does not mean you are more narcissistic than 70% of people.

A higher bar describes a tendency in how you answered, not your worth as a person. A high score does not make you a bad person, and some of these tendencies, such as confidence, coolness under pressure or careful planning, are useful in the right setting. The costs usually show in relationships: feeling entitled, using people or acting before thinking about others.

Is this a test for narcissistic personality disorder?

No. Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) and antisocial personality disorder are clinical diagnoses defined in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). They require long-lasting patterns that cause real impairment and can only be diagnosed by a qualified clinician after an interview. Psychopathy in forensic settings is assessed with structured tools such as the Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (Hare, 2003), not with self-report. This page is not a clinical test: it cannot tell you, or anyone else, whether a person has a personality disorder.

It is also not a way to test someone else. If you are worried about a partner, colleague or family member who treats you badly, your experience matters more than any label; a counsellor or support service can help you think it through.

What you can do with your result

• Narcissism high: notice when criticism feels like an attack, and try asking what part of it could be true.
• Machiavellianism high: ask whether the people around you would describe your relationships as fair.
• Psychopathy high: practise a short pause before acting on impulse, especially when angry.

Understanding your own and other people's feelings works against all three; the emotional intelligence test looks at those skills.

Limits of this test

The 27 statements were written for this site and are original and unnormed. They are not the Short Dark Triad (SD3), the NPI or any other published scale, and they have not been validated in a published study. Answers depend on honesty and mood. Use the result for self-reflection only, never for hiring, screening or judging others. If you are worried about your behaviour or your relationships, talk to a psychologist.

More tests like this: personality tests.

Sources

• Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 556–563.
• Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Introducing the Short Dark Triad (SD3): A brief measure of dark personality traits. Assessment, 21(1), 28–41.
• Furnham, A., Richards, S. C., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). The Dark Triad of personality: A 10 year review. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(3), 199–216.
• Raskin, R. N., & Hall, C. S. (1979). A narcissistic personality inventory. Psychological Reports, 45(2), 590.
• Christie, R., & Geis, F. L. (1970). Studies in Machiavellianism. Academic Press.
• Hare, R. D. (2003). The Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (2nd ed.). Multi-Health Systems.
• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).

Frequently asked questions