Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug;88(4):780-793.
doi: 10.1111/jopy.12526. Epub 2019 Dec 2.

Common, nonsexual masochistic preferences are positively associated with antisocial personality traits

Christina Sagioglou  1 , Tobias Greitemeyer  1
Affiliations

Common, nonsexual masochistic preferences are positively associated with antisocial personality traits

Christina Sagioglou et al. J Pers. 2020 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: Based on prior research linking masochism and antisocial behavior to sensation seeking, we hypothesized that masochistic and antisocial preferences are positively correlated. Besides sensation seeking, we tested whether disgust sensitivity (due to its inhibitory function) and shared social values (e.g., stimulation) accounted for the masochistic-antisocial link. We additionally examined the link in relation to broad personality factors.

Method: Six online and laboratory studies (N = 2,999) with US-American and European samples.

Results: We consistently found positive correlations between masochistic enjoyment (e.g., enjoying the burn of spicy food, disgusting jokes, pounding heart, painful massage) and antisocial traits such as subclinical psychopathy, everyday sadism, and low Honesty-Humility. We observed behavioral correlations in that experienced pleasure of a painful event was positively related to causing another person to feel pain. Shared sensation seeking, low disgust sensitivity, and endorsement of social values such as social power, hedonism, and a stimulating life partially accounted for the masochistic-antisocial link.

Conclusion: The extent to which a person enjoys threatening stimuli on the self is reliably related to how much a person enjoys and evokes others' suffering. Future research could explore the common core that underlies common masochistic and antisocial preferences beyond the mediators tested here.

Keywords: antisocial personality traits; benign masochism; disgust sensitivity; sensation seeking; social values.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
All graphs display benign masochism on the y axis in relation to sadism (Row 1), psychopathy (Row 2), and Honesty‐Humility: Fairness (Row 3) on the x axis, respectively. Note that in Studies 1 and 5, benign masochism was assessed on a scale from 1 to 10. In Study 5, sadism was assessed on a scale from 1 to 7, and psychopathy was assessed on a scale from 1 to 9. In all other studies, benign masochism was assessed on a scale from 0 to 100, and sadism, psychopathy, and fairness were assessed on a scale from 1 to 5. Scales are curtailed in each plot to better highlight the relevant section of the observed values. The line represents the linear regression line with 95% confidence interval
Figure 2
Figure 2
Correlations of benign masochism and the Dark Tetrad with Schwartz's social value scale. r > .09 are significant at p < .05; r > .16 are significant at p < .001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ashton, M. C. , & Lee, K. (2005). Honesty‐humility, the Big Five, and the five‐factor model. Journal of Personality, 73, 1321–1354. 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00351.x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ashton, M. C. , & Lee, K. (2009). The HEXACO‐60: A short measure of the major dimensions of personality. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91, 340–345. 10.1080/00223890902935878 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Baumeister, R. F. (1988). Masochism as escape from self. Journal of Sex Research, 25, 28–59. 10.1080/00224498809551444 - DOI
    1. Baumeister, R. F. (1989). Masochism and the self. New York: Psychology Press.
    1. Baumeister, R. F. (1991). Escaping the self. Alcoholism, spirituality, masochism, and other flights from the burden of selfhood. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Publication types