Dark but not black: A reply to Zarei, Ghorbani, and Gharibi (2016)

Zarei, Ghorbani, and Gharibi (2016) reviewed the construct of the Dark Triad in a review article. The current paper is a response to these authors. Hereby, we argue that the proposed translations of these authors into Persian language are technically problematic. In addition to shortcomings in literature review, Machiavellianism and psychopathy are not adequately addressed by Zarei et al. (2016). Importantly, as can be seen in their title, these authors claim that Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy are the abstract of scientific psychology in the last one hundred years. By providing historical evidence on the Dark Triad traits, we strongly counter these authors’ subjective opinion, suggesting that some of these constructs have appeared in psychological literature less than half a century ego. We do encourage scholars to research the utility of the Dark Triad in Iranian context, however, we simultaneously invite scholars to conduct exhaustive literature reviews. Iranian researchers who are interested to work in this area of study are also encourages to consider the limited number of works that have been already conducted on the Dark Triad in Iran. Finally, this response paper may provide a basis for Iranian personality psychologists who want to study the Dark Triad in Iranian culture to build upon.