Measuring the Dark Factor of Personality in French

Abstract: Research on socially/ethically aversive personality traits has increasingly focused on their common core, the dark factor of personality (D). Based on large samples (total N > 167,000), we herein evaluate the French-language version (in comparison to the English original) of the 70-item D measure (D70), including psychometric properties, measurement invariance, sources of noninvariance, and criterion-related validity. Results confirm highly satisfactory psychometric properties and validity. Configural and metric invariance, as well as partial scalar and strict invariance are demonstrated across languages. The predominant sources for noninvariance were translation and comprehension bias. All findings also held for the shorter D35 and D16 measures, which are subsets of the D70. In sum, the D70 is a reliable measure of aversive personality in French, nomologically consistent with previously validated language versions suitable for cross-cultural research.