The relation of romantic jealousy causes with the dark triad personality traits and self-esteem

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the moderation effect of Self-esteem on the relation between the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy) and Romantic Jealousy Causes (Inadequacy and fear of loss). Another aim of this study was to investigate the relation between the Dark Triad, Romantic Jealousy Causes, and Self-esteem throughout both the length of the romantic relationship and the age span, and then examine the effect of gender on this relation. Method: The research participants were students in the age range of 18 to 27 who have ongoing romantic relationships, a total of 321 individuals, including 208 women and 126 men. The participants were selected by the convenience sampling method and were given Informed Voluntary Consent Form, Sociodemographic Form, Romantic Jealousy Questionnaire (Romantic Jealousy Causes), Short Dark Triad (SD3) Inventory, and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale-Short Form (RSES) via an online survey platform. The data collected from participants were analyzed with SPSS for the Windows v25 program. Results: According to the study, a positive relation was found between the Dark Triad on one hand, and inadequacy and fear of loss on the other hand. Machiavellianism was merely found to be positively correlated with Romantic Jealousy while psychopathy and narcissism were not found to have any significant correlation with romantic jealousy. The results of variables investigated according to gender showed that, in the case of women, Machiavellianism was positively correlated with fear of loss only, while for men, Machiavellianism was positively correlated with both inadequacy and fear of loss. Finally, the moderation effect of self-esteem on the relationship between the Dark Triad and Romantic Jealousy Causes was not found. According to the correlation between gender, age, length of the romantic relationship, and the scales; men were found to be more jealous due to inadequacy more than women. Machiavellianism and psychopathy were found to be decreased with age, they were also found to increase Self-esteem. Psychopathy and the length of the romantic relationship were found negatively correlated while Self-esteem and the length of the romantic relationship were found positively correlated. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that there was a significant relationship between the Machiavellianism and the Causes of Romantic Jealousy which is caused by inadequacy and fear of loss. Furthermore, individuals, based on their gender, age, and length of the romantic relationship were shown to have some differences in scales. Finally, the moderation effect of self-esteem on the relationship between the Dark Triad and Romantic Jealousy Causes was not found. The results and limitations of this research were discussed with related researches in the literature. Key Words: The Dark Triad, Romantic Jealousy, Romantic Relationships, Self-esteem, Personality