Men with high dark triad personality traits can accurately infer dark triad traits from other people’s faces

<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction</jats:title><jats:p>The literature suggests that people can accurately infer dark triad (DT) personality traits from other peoples’ faces. Using a self-report scale, this study investigated the impact of participants’ DT personality traits on their ability to accurately infer other peoples’ DT traits from facial cues.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>We created composite facial photographs of Japanese people with varying Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism scores. The Japanese participants (<jats:italic>N</jats:italic> = 170) assessed these three DT traits in the facial photographs and completed a questionnaire that assessed their own DT traits.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The results indicated that the participants could accurately infer all three DT traits from female faces but not from male faces. Male participants showed a positive correlation between accurate inferences of other men’s Machiavellianism and their own DT traits. In contrast, female participants showed a negative correlation between correct inferences of men’s DT traits and their own DT traits.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion</jats:title><jats:p>These findings offer novel insights into human evolutionary and social adaptations.</jats:p></jats:sec>