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Abstract
The present study suggests that personality traits play a larger role in sexual assault perpetration in college samples than was once believed. Specifically, perpetrators report more willingness to engage in sexual relations without closeness or commitment (i.e., less restricted sociosexuality), and the present study suggests that higher levels of trait narcissism and trait psychopathy mediate this association. A large (N = 355) sample of college men self-reported their levels of trait narcissism, trait psychopathy, sociosexuality, sexual assault perpetration, and Five Factor Model (FFM) traits. Results suggested perpetrators reported higher levels of trait psychopathy and the grandiose, but not the vulnerable, type of trait narcissism. Disagreeableness partially mediated the relationship between sexual assault perpetration and both grandiose narcissism and psychopathy. Finally, measures of grandiose narcissism and psychopathy partially mediated the relationship between sociosexuality and sexual assault perpetration.