“Toxic personality is defined mainly by harmful interpersonal behaviors, such as manipulation, persistent negativity, and excessive criticism,” say scientists from three different universities around the world.
For the experiment, they took a sample of 547 people from Turkey, who were subjected to the “dark triad of personality,” which involves narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism.
In this way, the authors developed a six-question measure to identify the malevolent traits a person may have and called it the “Toxic Personality Scale (TPS).”
“The TPS is a practical and brief tool, which makes it easier to use in large-scale research and in clinical settings where time is a critical factor,” say its creators.
However, they warned that the scale was tested on young Turkish people, so on a universal level it may vary depending on the social and cultural contexts surrounding the individual, although it can serve as an example for you to apply to your new crush. Oops!