Instruments

The scales listed below were used in the correlation comparisons. Descriptive statistics for the scale scores and scale internal reliabilities are reported in the previously-published papers using these datasets (Austin and O’Donnell, 2013; Austin et al., 2014; Austin and Vahle, 2016).

Mini-markers (Saucier, 1994)

This set of 40 trait-descriptive adjectives provides scores on the Big Five dimensions of Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness (O), Agreeableness (A), and Conscientiousness (C). Responses are on a five-point scale indicating how accurately the adjective describes the respondent, with end points very inaccurately, very accurately.

HEXACO-60 (Ashton and Lee, 2009)

This 60-item scale assesses the personality dimensions of Honesty-Humility (H), Emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), and Openness (O). Responses are on a five-point scale with end points strongly disagree, strongly agree.

Mach IV (Christie and Geis, 1970)

This 20-item scale assesses Machiavellianism, with responses on a five-point scale with end points strongly disagree, strongly agree.

NPI-16 (Ames et al., 2006)

This scale has 16 forced-choice items assessing grandiose narcissism.

Hypersensitive narcissism scale (Hendin and Cheek, 1997)

This 10-item scale, assesses vulnerable narcissism, with responses on a five-point scale with end points strongly disagree, strongly agree.

Levenson self-report psychopathy scale (Levenson et al., 1995)

This scale assesses primary (16 items) and secondary (10 items) psychopathy in general population samples, with responses on a five-point scale with end points strongly disagree, strongly agree.

Trait EI

Results are reported for total scores on the 144-item TEIQue (Petrides, 2009) and the 30-item TEIQue-SF (Petrides and Furnham, 2006). These measures have a 7-point response scale with end points completely disagree, completely agree.

Table 5

Items selected for the MEOS-SF and MEOS-VSF.

MEOS item	Item numbers used in Tables ​Tables2,2, ​,33
ENHANCE
43	Enhance 1	If someone is feeling anxious, I try to calm them down by talking with them.
38	Enhance 2	When someone is anxious about a problem, I try to help them work out a solution.
28	Enhance 3	If someone is anxious, I try to reassure them.
35	Enhance 4	When someone is under stress I try to boost their confidence in their ability to cope.
31	Enhance 5	When someone is unhappy, I show that I understand how they are feeling.
57	Enhance 6	If someone has a problem I offer to help if they need it.
DIVERT
46	Divert 1	If someone is angry, I try to divert their mood by being cheerful.
53	Divert 2	When someone is in a low mood I behave in a happy and cheerful way to make them feel better.
33	Divert 3	When someone is in a bad mood I try to divert them by telling jokes or funny stories.
22	Divert 4	When someone is unhappy I try to cheer them by talking about something positive.
3	Divert 5	I sometimes use humor to try to lift another person’s mood.
45	Divert 6	If someone is being awkward, I try to defuse the situation by being cheerful and pleasant.
WORSEN
21	Worsen 1	I use anger to get others to do things that I want them to do.
19	Worsen 2	I sometimes put someone down in public to make them feel bad.
32	Worsen 3	I know how to make someone feel ashamed about something that they have done in order to stop them from doing it again.
47	Worsen 4	I can make someone feel anxious so that they will act in a particular way.
29	Worsen 5	I use criticism to make others feel that they should work harder.
20	Worsen 6	If I don’t like someone’s behavior I make negative comments in order to make them feel bad.
INAUTHENTIC
4	Inauthentic 1	I sometimes sulk to make someone feel guilty.
44	Inauthentic 2	I sometimes sulk to get someone to change their behavior.
5	Inauthentic 3	If someone’s behavior has caused me distress, I try to make them feel guilty about it.
37	Inauthentic 4	I sometimes use flattery to gain or keep someone’s good opinion.
12	Inauthentic 5	If I want someone to do something for me, I try to elicit sympathy from them.
2	Inauthentic 6	If I want someone to do something for me, I am especially nice to them before asking.
CONCEAL
30	Conceal 1	I often conceal feelings of anger and distress from others.
36	Conceal 2	I hide my feelings so others won’t worry about me.
8	Conceal 3	When someone has made me upset or angry, I often conceal my feelings.
18	Conceal 4	When someone has made me upset or angry, I tend to downplay my feelings.
23	Conceal 5	I don’t believe in telling others about my problems – I keep them to myself.
26	Conceal 6	If someone tries to make me feel better when I am feeling low, I pretend to feel happier to please that person.

All 30 items are used in the MEOS-SF. The 24 items of the MEOS-VSF are shown in italic.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6010560