These individuals might well harbor what psychologists call dark personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism. People with dark personalities are callous, manipulative, and antagonistic. They violate rules, lie and cheat, hurt others, and pursue their own interests heedless of the consequences on others.
Those who liked or repeatedly watched clips glorifying notorious serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer or fictional villains like Joe Goldberg from Netflix's "You," scored higher for hybristophilia, than those who scrolled past, according to the peer-reviewed research published in the journal Deviant Behavior, the only journal that specifically and exclusively addresses social deviance. The findings also indicate that personality traits like Machiavellianism and psychopathy are strong predictors of these tendencies.