Identifying psychological factors predicting drug buying and selling behavior in people

The drugs are a strategic and multifaceted threat from a pathological point of view, that one of its aspects may become more prominent than the other aspects over time. This threat endangers not only individual security but also national security and the ontological or existential security of a society. This study aimed to investigate the predictive psychological factors of drug dealings. This is a descriptive correlational study. The statistical population of the present study included all the people of Lordegan in 2019. The target group was 50 drug dealers that were selected by chain sampling (snowball), and another group was 50 ordinary people in the community who were not addicted and had no role in drug dealing by available sampling. Zuckerman Excitement Questionnaire (1978) and Johnson & Wister's (2010) dark personality questionnaire were used to gathering information, and the data were analyzed using SPSS-24 software. The findings showed that the variables of age and marital status (single and divorced) and all subscales of these two components except narcissism, were strong predictors of drug dealings. Also, the comparison of drug dealers and control group showed that the amount of dark personality traits and excitement are significantly different in the two groups. The motivation of the drug trade is based on a combination of psychological, emotional, and social factors, and People's emotions are used as psychological mechanisms to moderate the incompatible and dark traits of individuals' personalities.