The lingering question as to whether sadism should be added to the three malevolent qualities in the "Dark Triad" has led psychologists to develop a test that seeks to uncover traits linked to sadism, otherwise known as the love of cruelty or the love of inflicting pain on other people.

Like Us on Facebook

"The Assessment of Sadistic Personality: Preliminary psychometric evidence for a new measure" developed by researchers at the Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario in Canada seeks to assess sadism as a human trait. To address this, the researchers developed a new self-report measure, the Assessment of Sadistic Personality (ASP).

Researchers believe sadism should be included in the "Dark Triad." The Dark Triad is a clinical term that consists of these three harmful personality traits: narcissism (intense self-love); Machiavellianism (a penchant for manipulating other people) and psychopathy (a lack of empathy for other people). The term "dark" implies people with these traits have malevolent qualities.

Psychologists note any one of these traits makes a person a source of intense discomfort and stress. While science can't say if people in are good or evil, per se, it has gotten better at determining if people enjoy hurting other people.

A growing number of studies over the last few years reveal that sadism correlates specifically and strongly with cruel behavior such as trolling and cyberbullying. ASP is an attempt at better determining a person's proclivity for sadism.

Researchers began with a 20 question test they found was good at measuring sadism and Dark Triad traits. The results also suggested there are specific and interpretable patterns in people's misanthropic personalities.

The test, however, wasn't as accurate as researchers had hoped in identifying sadism as separate from psychopathy and the rest of the Dark Triad. The revised the test and came out with a nine-question version.

The new test was given to 202 students and the results were better than the previous test. It did a better job of showing that sadism is a separate category, suggesting it might be added to the Dark Triad.

Unsurprisingly, men scored much more highly than women for the negative traits in the test. These results were published the journal Personality and Individual Differences.

Researchers acknowledge they still have to improve ASP. They're hopeful ASP will play a significant role as they better understand sadism in clinical terms.

Here are the nine questions the test used to measure how sadistic someone is:

* I have made fun of people so that they know I am in control.

* I never get tired of pushing people around.

* I would hurt somebody if it meant I would be in control.

* When I mock someone, it's funny to see them get upset.

* Being mean to others can be exciting.

* I get pleasure from mocking people in front of their friends.

* Watching people get into fights excites me.

* I think about hurting people who irritate me.

* I would not purposely hurt anybody, even if I didn't like them.

Tagssadism, Assessment of Sadistic Personality, Dark Triad, Narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy