Dark Triad personality types tend to have road rage. There is no denying it that they use their cars, SUVs, and trucks as weaponry. Driving with a pervasive sense of entitlement and with a completely egocentric perspective, they tend to dominate the roadways putting everyone in the car with them (including themselves) at risk. Their reckless driving habits put everyone on the streets, in parking lots, and on sidewalks in danger.
Take a quick peek at the driving record of any person you suspect might have a Cluster B personality type. Those who tend to exhibit milder symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder or ASPD are likely to have a handful of tickets.
Spot a person who is a Malignant Narcissist, expect violations like speeding and running red lights to show up. Seatbelt tickets are commonly handed out to such people, noting that their deliberate antagonism of police during routine traffic stops will net gain them a ticket for failing to wear their seatbelt in any state with a restraint safety law.
Thinking they are above the law is a common trait for narcissistic and anti-social people both. When folks develop comorbid personality disorders like NPD + Sociopathy or NPD + Psychopathy the catchy name they are commonly referred to in pop-psychology social circles is “Narcopath”, noting that most Narcopaths tend to exhibit traits of a Narcissistic Sociopath most commonly.
Dark Triads are different and have different driving habits entirely. Dark Triads tend to exhibit all the traits of a Narcissistic Psychopath or a Narcissistic Sociopath with a hefty twist of Sadistic temperament and Machiavellian nature thrown in the psychological mix.
A Narcopath will tend to exhibit random bursts of rage while driving. They may hoot and holler and rant and scream at cars behind them or passing them while voicing their entitlement-based thinking. Other drivers will be shouted at, tailgated, and [drivers] name-called. Speeding and running red lights or stop signs tends to happen frequently for these character types from day one of getting behind the wheel of a car.
Due to their criminal nature, such individuals typically will brag about having learned to drive cars long before they were of legal age to have a drivers license and they will be the first to tell you all about how stupid or reckless other drivers on the road are that they are actively menacing.
But a Dark Triad? Now those folks are the ones who are truly morally reprehensible and scary.
Dark Triad drivers get tickets for or called out by friends and family members privately for doing things like:
- Excessive speeding (greater than 15 miles an hour over the limit)
- Speeding tickets in school zones
- DELIBERATE running of red lights (not “pink” or yellow accidentally while making a simple right or something similar like getting caught in the intersection due to traffic in front not moving)
- blocking the box — look it up if you are unfamiliar with the term or have never driven in tight traffic quarters in a major downtown area or city
- fail to heed lane restrictions (excessive weaving)
- carry concealed weapons in vehicles to use to threaten other drivers visually — typically without concealed carry permits or using legal weaponry
- reckless driving
- failure to keep insurance current
- failure to follow at safe distances
- engage in sudden braking to frustrate and endanger drivers behind them they are targeting for abuse and deliberately provoking
- causing traffic accidents by not following the local laws put in place as common courtesy habits and safety
- will drive on lawns or sidewalks randomly and aggressively
- will use vehicles to do things like damage or destroy lawns or people’s personal property
- hit and run accidents are COMMON
- DUI is COMMON
- Driving while intoxicated or under the influence of illegal drugs or prescription drugs that advise against operating machinery after taking is commonplace
- Vehicular Manslaughter
- hitting or almost deliberately hitting pedestrians, bicyclists, or groups of people using crosswalks
- screaming to intimidate and insult joggers, people walking lawfully, or cars passing
- slamming on brakes to punish a person in the car (throwing their face towards the dash in an attempt to hurt them even when they are wearing a seatbelt)
- making turns at rates of speed that are not safe for the driver, passenger, or ANYONE in the vicinity
- flipping automobiles in a street driving (rather than extreme off-road, planned setting)
- finding crashing cars exciting and invigorating
- refusing to come to complete stops at stop signs, rolling through stop signs, or simply ignoring stop signs claiming “nobody is coming”
- Using the vehicle to injure a passenger by suddenly jerking the wheel
- deliberately curbing the wheels to jolt and silence a talking passenger
- Threatening to wreck the car with a passenger in it
- refusing to wear a seat belt, claiming they will do what they want, that they don’t need to wear one, and showing zero regards for illegal activity if state laws command wearing them
- Impulse issues behind the wheel
- zero signs of remorse for reckless endangerment of themselves and everyone around them
- road rage impulse control issues leading to a rapid rate of increased speed followed by intense breaking
- using cars to hit mailboxes
- allowing passengers to do things like play mailbox baseball or go “street surfing” (standing up through a sunroof or on a rooftop, balancing)
- using a car, truck, or other vehicles to run over animals like family pets, stray animals, or wildlife intentionally
- using a vehicle to barricade, chase, stalk, harass, or otherwise trap in an abuse victim who is trying to flee
- distracted driving
- driving while texting or entering GPS map coordinates
- driving without a valid driver’s license for any reason
- leaving the scene of an accident
- refusal to allow other people to merge safely into oncoming traffic
- causing accidents and failing to report a person is injured, fleeing without Good Samaritan attempt to call 911 or reporting
- littering out car windows or driving with materials unsecured in the back of a truck
- driving commercial vehicles recklessly
- failure to look both directions and in blind spots before changing lanes
- mean-spirited, angry “punitive” horn-honking, music blasting, or repeated blaring
- using the horn to annoy residents in quiet neighborhoods or to harass and embarrass a target at their home or place of business while stalking and aggressing
- more than one extreme traffic ticket (i.e. speeding, reckless driving)
- driving with open containers, after downing a shot, or after having more than one drink of alcohol in any 4 hour period (noting it takes the average liver 1-2 hours to process a cocktail below the legal limit for DUI in most American states and international countries)
- speeding up or intentionally driving to frighten, terrify, or control the emotions of a passenger being targeted for Narcissistic Abuse physically, psychologically, and/or emotionally
- jumping out of a car in a rage to confront another driver
- throwing the car into park in the middle of a thoroughfare to block in another driver
- confronting other drivers while brandishing weapons like guns, clubs, bats, tools, boards, sticks, kubotans, knives, or mag lights
- using lurching car gas-brake moves to cause physical pain to a passenger or menace a pedestrian or other driver
- speakers so loud that people in other cars, businesses, or residential houses and buildings are forced to listen without choice
- fleeing from police on foot or in traffic (leaping fences, hiding in offices, trespassing on private property in an attempt to avoid taking legal responsibility for any crime or Cluster B activity
- being involved in a car chase — think OJ Simpson in his white Bronco on the California highways and byways joyriding
Seriously. There are like a million and twelve more warning signs that a person you know — or even yourself — has got some serious entitlement-thinking problems related to driving.
Learn to spot the red flags that a person has a Cluster B personality type and do not minimize the very real risk riding with them in a car or being on the road at the same time they are is doing to other people’s lives.
Police are starting to have the ability to know immediately that a person is likely to by NPD or ASPD simply from a quick check of their car computer. Friends and family members who know a person well can and should also be using their brains to decide whether or not a person has a chronic history of disregarding the lives and safety of everybody.
If a person has more than one or two traffic tickets in a decade, chances are there’s more going on with their personality type than driving like an airhead or having a bit of a lead foot while driving, for instance, on a well known, straight and boring commute to work when they are late some morning.
Is speeding an inherently unsafe activity? Not necessarily. But what it is is a defiant disrespect for other drivers, passengers, and local traffic laws when and if a person is using their vehicle to go from point A to point B while letting loose their inner BULLY.
Road Rage is a symptom of Dark Triad personality disorder. Dark Triad people show symptoms of ASPD and NPD with a Machiavellian nature and Sadistic streak. Remember this… because bottom line, it’s one of the clearest red flag warnings to judges, police, social service agents, and other authority figures who have common sense and thoughtful personalities that a person has a criminal nature.
Truly, it’s one of the most disconcerting red flags of all, noting road rage is a poker tell (of sorts) for ASPD [Anti-Social Personality Disorder] as well as things like NPD [Narcissistic Personality Disorder], HPD [Histrionic Personality Disorder], and BPD [Borderline Personality Disorder. People can and should be outraged at judges who allow repeat traffic offenders off with guilt charges adjudicated for criminal traffic violations… but more importantly, friends and family members of any person who drives with a sense of entitlement that reflects a callous disregard for both themselves, any person riding in the car, or public safety should absolutely refuse to ride with them behind the wheel even for the most mundane of errand-running or commuter activities.
