Negative campaigning is “dark”— Not just disagreeable or dishonest: Results from German candidates’ self-reports

As it has been argued that “dark” personality is highly correlated with or even equivalent to the low poles of the basic personality traits honesty-humility and agreeableness, the explanatory role of dark personality as a unique driver of socially aversive behavior is called into question. Focusing on negative campaigning among candidates running for election, we analyze whether the relationship between aversive (dark) personality and negative campaigning remains or disappears when controlling for basic personality traits. Using self-reports from 1673 German candidates running for state parliaments, we show that low agreeableness, low honesty-humility, and high levels of aversive personality are linked to negative campaigning. When estimating a joint model including basic and aversive personality traits, the effect of honesty-humility disappears whereas the impact of agreeableness and aversive personality remains significant. We conclude that aversive personality, despite its similarities to low honesty-humility, and low agreeableness explain socially aversive behavior in the political domain—i.e. negative campaigning—beyond basic personality traits.