Finding the Dark Triad in Wolf of Wall Street

This discussion explores the dark triad of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy in the character of Jordan Belfort in the movie Wolf of Wall Street.

Running head: FINDING THE DARK TRIAD IN WOLF OF WALL STREET
FINDING THE DARK TRIAD IN WOLF OF WALL STREET
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Author note

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FINDING THE DARK TRIAD IN WOLF OF WALL STREET
Introduction
In this discussion of the dark triad of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, the
character that has been chosen is Jordan Belfort from the movie Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
directed by Martin Scorsese (Imdb.com., 2019). The movie starred Leonardo DiCaprio in the
lead role as Jordan Belfort. After watching the movie, it is clear that Jordan Belfort has the
characteristics of narcissism and Machiavellianism. This discussion will provide evidences and
arguments to prove the character’s possession of the two traits.
Discussion
The movie is based on the real life character of Jordon Belfort, a broker and his journey
from rags to riches and then to rags again. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the part quite convincingly
making the viewers both hate him and love him. The character has all the features of
Machiavellianism and some features of narcissism as well. in order to comprehend the character
and its alignment with the dark triad, it is important to first explain the the concept.
The dark triad – narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy – is a set of personality
traits in psychology. These traits are referred as ‘dark’ because of the malicious qualities these
traits have (Jones & Paulhus, 2014). While narcissism refers to an individual’s pursuit of
satisfaction from pride or egotistic appreciation of one’s self image and qualities,
Machiavellianism is simply being manipulative, exploitative and cynical. Machiavellianism also
refers to the extreme focus on self-interest and cheating. Psychopathy on the other hand, relates
to anti-social behavior, selfishness, impulsivity and remorselessness (Jones & Paulhus, 2014)..
In the movie, the character demonstrates behaviors that could be easily aligned with
narcissism and Machiavellianism. The character demonstrates the traits of narcissism in the

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scene when he introduces himself at the beginning of the movie. The tone of his narration clearly
indicates that he has much grandiosity in him. “The year I turned 26 as the head of my own
brokerage firm, made 49 million dollars, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of
million a week” ("The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - IMDb", 2019). It is evident from these lines
above that the character has high regards for himself and his ability to be supremely rich.
Furthermore, in the scene where Jordan Belfort sells the shares with his flawless act and then
narrates that the others at the Investor Center Company looked at him as if he had discovered
fire. The attitude and gesture demonstrated in that scene align perfectly with narcissism. When
he makes the sales, he knows that he is fooling people and making them waste their hard-earned
money in bad bets and stocks. This behavior is clearly a trait of narcissism. Throughout the film,
Belfort fools people to buy stocks and shares and spends those money on drugs, women and on
his lavish lifestyle. This behavior clearly reflects the narcissism trait.
The trait of Machiavellianism could also be seen in Belfort’s behavior as he manipulates
people into believing his lies. In the beginning scene when Belfort narrates his story and then
gives his speech to the employees of his firm Stratton Oakmont, his Machiavellian trait is clearly
visible. While giving an inspirational speech to his fellow employees, Belfort throws away his
supposedly 40,000 dollar gold watch for the employees to catch. “Yeah boys, dig it out, hit him,
hit him”, he shouts. This shows that he does not care about morality, either in himself or in
others. He only knows one way to live and that is to manipulate others into believing his lies and
becoming rich. Machiavellianism is similar to both narcissism and psychopathy, as Miller et al.
(2017) argue. According to the authors, the traits of Machiavellianism and psychopathy
particularly match thus raising doubts as to whether those with Machiavellianism traits could be
considered psychopath as well or not (Miller et al., 2017). In light of this argument, Jordon

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Belfort turns out to be a psychopath as well. Jordon Belfort too was a sociopath who laundered
money, did drugs, and committed other such crimes without thinking twice. In the movie, his
sociopathic behavior could be seen when he triumphantly inaugurates his company and asks his
employees to loot people.
Conclusion
To conclude, it could be reiterated that Jordon Belfort’s character in the movie Wolf of
Wall Street demonstrated two traits of the dark triad namely narcissism and Machiavellianism.
The discussion has provided instances from the movie that prove the argument. The discussion
also found that the three traits have some similarities and that the character in the movie has
demonstrated all these.

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References:
Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Introducing the short dark triad (SD3) a brief measure of
dark personality traits. Assessment, 21(1), 28-41.
Miller, J. D., Hyatt, C. S., Maples‐Keller, J. L., Carter, N. T., & Lynam, D. R. (2017).
Psychopathy and Machiavellianism: A distinction without a difference?. Journal of
personality, 85(4), 439-453.
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) - IMDb. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993846/