First off, when I say “everyday sadist” I don’t mean the fun bedtime BDSM kind of sadism, which could fit well enough into those two words at first glance. An everyday sadist is a personality type in which the individual seeks out and acts on opportunities to be cruel. These are the assholes of the world or the people that can never seem to escape being an asshole. And the next thing you know they’re throwing a Coke can at the back of your head when you’re biking home from work. They’re everywhere, but in terms of psychology, remain somewhat unaccounted for.

Assholes are most definitely a thing psychology is interested in. There is a classification known as the Dark Triad of personality traits, which includes narcissism and psychopathy, as well as what’s known as Machiavellianism, a sort of ultra-selfishness defined by “duplicity and cunningness.” These aren’t so much illnesses on their own; rather they’re related behaviors that might factor into a diagnosis of something bigger and treatable, like antisocial personality disorder. You aren’t likely to win an insanity plea with a diagnosis of Machiavellianism.

An interesting and rather dark study came out of the University of British Columbia last month suggesting a need to upgrade the classification of “everyday sadism” to the Dark Triad ranks. Essentially, the research demonstrated that sadistic behavior can be “captured” or predicted in an experimental setting. One part of the work gave participants (unawares that they were be evaluated as sadists) a sadism questionnaire (asking things like, "do you agree that hurting people is exciting?") and then offered the participants different options of a task to complete: grinding live bugs up in a machine, helping someone grind up bugs, cleaning toilets, or holding their hand in ice water. And, yes, social psychology is kind of amazing.

The finding is obvious: the sadists on paper were sadists in real life. Or they thought they were: the bugs were actually spared, unbeknownst to the participants. Meanwhile, in the study’s second part, the sadists from the first part were given the opportunity to blast white noise at other humans for kicks, but only after completing a boring, tedious task. Those scoring high on the sadist questionnaire thought it was worth the trouble, while those scoring high in other Dark Triad aspects couldn’t be bothered. "Only sadists were willing to work for the opportunity to hurt an innocent person,” the study explains. This implies that sadism is something distinct from the other Dark Triad behaviors.  

"We hope this research will persuade readers to construe sadism as something more than a sexual disorder to be studied in hardened criminals," the researchers, led by EE Buckles, said in a press release. Which is a statement that really only reinforces how incredibly weird this whole realm of psychology makes me feel and that I probably need to work even harder at avoiding other humans.   

@everydayelk