Unveiling the influence of the Italian mafia as a Dark Triad threat on individuals’ affective states and the power of defense mechanisms

Abstract

The present research investigated whether the Italian mafia as a Dark Triad threat increased threat-related affective states and explored how thinking about defense mechanisms may help to reduce these states. For this, we conducted a multi-method experimental study with Italians (N = 253). The quantitative results show that the mafia as a threat manipulation increased threat-related affective states in terms of higher behavioral inhibition (BIS) and lower behavioral activation (BAS). The qualitative results further depict proximal and distal defense mechanisms to reduce this threat, which can be categorized into models of threat and defense. Exploratory analyses indicate that naming distal defenses positively affected the increase of BAS. Additionally, when participants had higher levels of BIS after the threat, naming more defenses and proximal defenses positively affected the decrease of BIS. Further qualitative results provide valuable information on effective personal and societal buffers for the perceived threat of the Italian mafia.