Dark Triad, Locus of Control and affective status among individuals with an entrepreneurial intent

Aim The purpose of the present study was to assess personality factors such as the Dark Triad, i.e. psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism, internal locus of control, and positive and negative affect among applicants, presenting entrepreneurial intention, at the Chalmers School of Entrepreneurship in comparison with a reference group of psychology students from the University of Gothenburg, taking into account gender effects. Method A multivariate analysis of variance was performed to derive group x gender effects. Results The school of entrepreneurship applicants scored significantly lower compared to the reference group with regard to Machiavellianism and Positive Affect, but higher on Internal Locus of Control and Negative Affect. Male participants scored higher on Internal Locus of Control with an interaction effect of academic back-ground and gender for external locus of control. Discussion The unexpected findings that the students of psychology were more Machiavellian than the students of entrepreneurship are striking. It also discussed if the lack of Machiavellianism and psychopathy among the students of entrepreneurship render them more or less successful or more or less prone to adopt social and corporate responsibility in their future careers.