Narcissism was positively associated with workplace bullying when participants reported a high power-distance climate. At the average climate level, the association was not statistically significant, and it was also not significant one standard deviation below the average, although the analysis reported a small low-climate significance region. The result suggests a context-dependent association, not proof that a power-distance climate causes bullying.
The high-climate estimate for the narcissism-bullying slope was 0.65, with a standard error of 0.18 and a p-value below 0.001. At the mean, the estimate was 0.27 with p = 0.06; at low climate it was -0.12 with p = 0.52. Those results make the high-climate association the clearest part of the interaction, while the other simple slopes remain uncertain.
The broader pattern was uneven
The wider pattern was mixed. In the final moderation models, psychopathy and power-distance climate had positive associations with both workplace bullying and counterproductive work behavior, or CWB. Narcissism also had a positive association with bullying, while Machiavellianism was positively associated with CWB. The predictors entered before the interaction terms accounted for an additional 26% to 27% of outcome variance.
For CWB, narcissism did not show a statistically significant association at average or high climate levels. Below the climate mean, the estimated slope was negative but marginal, at -0.40 with a standard error of 0.22 and p = 0.07; at the mean it was -0.10 with p = 0.55, and at high climate it was 0.20 with p = 0.36.
How the study measured workplace behavior
The findings came from an anonymous Japanese online-panel study. The screening stage received 2,202 responses, 676 people were recruited for the main survey, and 387 remained after response-quality screening. The survey drew on working adults in Japan, and participation was voluntary, with informed consent and institutional ethics approval reported.
The researchers measured Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism with the Japanese Short Dark Triad, a 27-item scale with nine items for each subscale. Participants rated the items from 1 to 5. Perceived power-distance climate was assessed with a 12-item Organizational Climate Scale.
Workplace bullying was measured as perpetration frequency using 22 objective items about the previous six months; the study did not use the single-item subjective criterion. Counterproductive work behavior was examined as a separate workplace-deviance outcome.
The central question was whether perceived power-distance climate interacted statistically with the three Dark Triad traits in relation to workplace deviance, and whether ingratiation formed an indirect pathway. The analysis entered covariates first, the traits and climate second, and interaction terms third. Researchers probed interactions with simple slopes and Johnson-Neyman analyses, then estimated indirect paths with structural equation modeling and 5,000 bootstrap resamples.
A possible route through ingratiation
One possible route involved ingratiation, a set of interpersonal behaviors measured here through items on other enhancement, opinion conformity, self-presentation and favor rendering. The analysis asked whether trait or climate scores were statistically linked to deviance partly through ingratiation, rather than treating the pathway as a proven cause.
The reported regression paths into ingratiation were positive for Machiavellianism, narcissism and power-distance climate. Psychopathy was not statistically significant in that analysis.
The mediation results narrative reported that ingratiation was marginally associated with bullying but unrelated to CWB. The reported bullying path had a coefficient of 0.10 and p = 0.07, while the CWB path was -0.03 with p = 0.57. Indirect effects were therefore estimated only for bullying, with generally small reported effects for Machiavellianism, narcissism and power-distance climate, but not psychopathy.
The indirect-effect results listed four labeled estimates with 95% confidence intervals that differed across paths. The supplied analysis does not identify which label belongs to which named predictor. It also notes a discrepancy in the report over whether psychopathy was significantly associated with ingratiation.
Why the finding needs caution
A supplementary ordinal analysis of annual income found one small significant main association, involving narcissism. No other main effects or Dark Triad-by-power-distance interactions were observed. The analysis does not establish a broader career benefit or a causal income effect.
The design limits the conclusions. The data were cross-sectional and self-reported, so they cannot establish causal relationships or show which variable came first. Responses may also have been affected by social desirability, self-evaluation bias and common-method variance, while the number of hypothesis tests creates a risk of false-positive findings, known as Type I error.
Power-distance climate was inferred from an organizational climate scale rather than measured with an established direct organizational power-distance measure. The sample came from one national online panel, so the findings do not establish that the same associations would appear in other populations.
The study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI, Grant Number 21K13716.
Paper data and sources
Original title: How do Dark Triad traits predict workplace deviance? The moderating role of perceived organizational power distance and the mediating role of ingratiation
Authors: Tamura A
Journal/Repository: Frontiers in psychology
Status: Peer-reviewed
First online: 2026-10-09
DOI: Not available
Original paper · Full text