The Dark Tetrad: When Cruelty Becomes The Reward

So I did an episode, I think f- for...

I watched, uh, Julie and I watched, uh, I think it was like Toxic Love.

It's a documentary on, uh, Netflix.

And I did an episode shortly after that on something that was from the early 2000s called the Dark Triad.

And as I looked a little more into it, um, I came across something else.

Um, and I'm not gonna recap what I talked about last time.

I'll, I'll allude to it.

But I'm gonna focus on what's, what's called, um, the Dark Tetrad.

So if you remember, we, you have narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and the fourth being sadism.

Um, and I think when we hear sadism, you automatically think something extreme like, like serial killers, s- you know, severe physical violence, um, sexual sadism.

Um, it's, it's...

This is an interesting one, um, because, y- you know, narcissism essentially says, "I need to protect or elevate me," and that status, that, uh, uh, entitlement, that's admiration, obviously grandiosity.

Machiavellianism, it essentially says, "I can use you." Um, strategy, the manipulating, deception, being calculating.

Psychopathy says, "Your suffering doesn't stop me." It's callousness.

It's lack of empathy.

It's reduced remorse, uh, emotional detachment.

And sadism introduces something else.

"Your suffering may actually reward me." And that, that distinction, in my opinion, is, is pretty significant.

And if you have kind of a distinction of, you know, the person who uses you versus the person who enjoys hurting you.

So say you have somebody that, um, wants your job.

Um, a highly Machiavellian person might manipulate the management into firing you.

And why? Because they want your position.

And if management suddenly says, "You don't have to destroy this person's career.

We're giving you the pro- promotion anyway," um, for the Machiavellian, the objective has been achieved.

And there may be no reason to continue hurting you because the suffering was instrumental.