People with narcissistic, psychopathic and Machiavellian personality traits are more likely to use touch to manipulate their partners in romantic relationships, according to research from Binghamton University published in Current Psychology.
Richard Mattson, professor of psychology at Binghamton University, and a team of students surveyed over 500 college students about their overall comfort with being touched, the extent to which they would manoeuvre themselves away from touch due to discomfort, and their use of touch in ways that are not beneficial to the other person.
“What’s new about our work isn’t just in identifying problematic uses of touch — it’s linking those behaviours to the type of person who is inclined to use them on a romantic partner,” Mattson said. “Not only are you not getting the benefits of touch in these relationships, but the flip side of that is that they are powerful, so they can actually be used in the service of oneself at the expense of the relationship partner.”
Dark triad types use touch
The research team investigated how specific attachment styles and personality traits impact the way people give and receive physical affection in intimate relationships. They found those with dark triad personality traits, including psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism, are more likely to use touch to manipulate their partner.
The results varied by gender. For men, comfort with being touched was more associated with relationship insecurity. Men who were anxious about their relationship status were more likely to use touch to get reassurance from their partners, while those who were uncomfortable with closeness did not like being touched themselves, irrespective of other personality traits. Women who possessed dark triad traits were more uncomfortable with being touched themselves but likelier to use touch as a means of manipulation.
People with high levels of dark triad traits tend to have short-term romantic relationships that are fraught with difficulty, sometimes even violence, Mattson said. However, researchers do not know much about how those traits play out specifically in relationships.
Mattson said an assumption is that what is core to these traits is a “me, first, you, second” orientation. He added the team was examining this as it manifests in something critically important to relationships, which is how individuals orient towards and exchange affection through touch.
Mattson said the information could help carve out areas for potential clinical intervention. Touch alone could be palliative for situations in which somebody needs support, with positive downstream effects on health, even if the person finds physical touch aversive. He suggested touch could potentially be leveraged in scenarios to provide frontline, inexpensive interventions for those who have not learned to use touch in healthy, reciprocal ways and instead rely on it for control or self-protection.
