Educational use only. The Light Triad Scale is a research measure of how you hold other people in mind. It is not a clinical instrument, it diagnoses nothing, and a low score is not a Dark Triad score.

The Light Triad Scale

The Light Triad Test

Kantianism, Humanism, Faith in Humanity. Read by someone assessed on the other side.

The dark triad has a thousand tests. The light triad, the three traits its authors proposed as the constructive counterpart, has the one published scale and almost nobody reading it honestly. This is that scale, twelve items, scored against the 1,518adults it was validated on in 2019 (Kaufman, Yaden, Hyde and Tsukayama), with the commentary written by someone the instrument was built to find the absence of. If you have taken the Dark Triad Test, the result computes your balance.

12 items
3 facets
2 minutes to complete
Measure the light

Free to take, and your verdict is free. The full report, with the working behind it, is $9.99.

The three facets of the light triad

Four items each, as Kaufman’s team published them. The whole scale is what each facet is for, read from the side that fails it.

Kantianism
People as ends, never as means.
  • ·Honesty over charm
  • ·Discomfort with steering people
  • ·Authenticity over reputation
  • ·Not thinking about what you want from them

The facet that is the direct opposite of the dark side's working method.

Humanism
Every person is worth something.
  • ·Admiring other people
  • ·Applauding their successes
  • ·Treating people as valuable
  • ·Listening to anyone

Whether other people register as people, or as terrain.

Faith in Humanity
People are mostly good.
  • ·Seeing the best in people
  • ·Expecting fair dealing
  • ·Believing people are mostly good
  • ·Forgiving quickly

The facet that gets people used, and the lowest-scoring one in the published sample.

The five verdicts

Each facet scores 4 to 20 and the top third counts as high. The pattern across the three lands in one of five, and the total is placed against the published sample.

The Open Hand
All three facets lit. You refuse the lever, you rate people, and you expect them to deal fairly.
The Honest Skeptic
Kantianism high, Faith in Humanity not. You will not use people, and you do not expect them to spare you.
The Warm Operator
Humanism or faith high, Kantianism not. You like people, or trust them, and you will steer them when it suits you.
The Unlit Room
No facet high, most of them low. The light triad did not find much to measure.
The Realist
The middle of the scale on every facet. Light enough to function, not enough to be used.

Light vs dark triad: the balance

One number the paper computed

The paper did not just score the light triad. It scored the dark one in the same people and subtracted: light minus dark. The average person came out 1.3 points light, with a spread of 1.1, and the two triads were only moderately opposed, which means the interesting people are the ones who score high on both.

Take the Dark Triad Test on this site in the same session and your Light Triad result page computes the balance for you, against that published average. Either order works.

Who is reading this

Kanika Batra · Diagnosed ASPD · Assessed Factor 1

I am diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder, and my psychiatrist assessed me as Factor 1 psychopathy. That is a clinician’s assessment, not a label I chose. The light triad is the instrument built to measure the thing that assessment says I lack, which makes me the wrong person to take it and the right person to explain what each item is for.

Every result on this page is written from that side of the glass: what a high Faith in Humanity score looks like to someone who reads it as an opening, what Kantianism refuses that I use daily, and why the warm profile that scores well on Humanism and badly on Kantianism is the one I would least want to be across a table from. The scale is theirs. The reading is mine.

Measure the light

Frequently Asked Questions

The light triad is a set of three traits proposed by Scott Barry Kaufman and colleagues in 2019 as the constructive counterpart to the dark triad. Kantianism means treating people as ends in themselves rather than as means to what you want. Humanism means valuing the dignity and worth of each person. Faith in Humanity means believing people are fundamentally good. Together they describe a beneficent orientation toward others, measured by the 12-item Light Triad Scale.
Yes. The twelve items are the published Light Triad Scale from Kaufman, Yaden, Hyde and Tsukayama (2019), four per facet, on the same five-point agreement scale. Your total is compared with the combined sample in that paper, 1,518 adults with a mean of 3.80 and a standard deviation of 0.64. The five verdicts and the commentary are ours; the instrument is theirs.
Not quite. The paper found the two only moderately negatively correlated, which means plenty of people score high on both or low on both. A low light score is not a dark score, and a high dark score does not guarantee a low light one. That is why this page computes a balance, light minus dark, when you have taken both tests: the difference is the informative number, not either score alone.
The published average is 3.80 on the 1 to 5 item scale, with most people between about 3.2 and 4.4. The authors also computed a light-minus-dark balance and found the average person leans light by 1.3 points; only a small minority scored below zero. This page reports your total against that sample and bands each facet in thirds of its range. A high score is not a prize and a low one is not a diagnosis.
Because the light triad is the instrument built to measure what the dark side lacks, and the person best placed to describe what each item is for is someone who fails it. Kanika is diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder and was clinically assessed as Factor 1 psychopathy by her psychiatrist. The commentary on every result is written from that position: what your light score looks like across a table from someone who reads it for a living.
Yes. Take the Dark Triad Test on this site in the same browser session, then return to your Light Triad result. The result page reads both and computes the balance the way the paper did: your Light Triad item mean minus your Dark Triad item mean, compared with the published average of 1.3. Either order works.
No. The Light Triad Scale is a research measure of a personality orientation, not a clinical instrument, and nothing on this page diagnoses anyone. A low score describes an absence of certain attitudes toward other people; it does not describe a disorder. Only a licensed clinician with a full history can diagnose anything.
Your answers are stored in your browser session, and a copy of the scores and verdict is kept so a share link can work if you ask for one. Nothing is published. If you give an email at the result, it is used for the result email and the short follow-up, and you can delete it at any time.

Related reading

Companion quiz

The Dark Triad Test (SD3)

The other half of the balance. Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy against the Jones and Paulhus 2014 norms (n=998). Take it in the same session and this test computes light minus dark.

Guide

The Dark Triad: The Complete Guide

The long read on what the light triad is the opposite of, written by someone who reads the dark for a living.

Read

Factor 1 vs Factor 2

Which of Hare's two psychopathy factors leads. The cold core or the hot shell, twenty items.

Wide map

The Dark Mirror Assessment

The wide map. Six Cluster B types instead of three virtues, with the Index behind it so you can see where you sit among everyone who took it.

Instrument: Kaufman, S. B., Yaden, D. B., Hyde, E., & Tsukayama, E. (2019). The Light vs. Dark Triad of Personality: Contrasting Two Very Different Profiles of Human Nature. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 467. Open access. The total is compared with that paper’s combined sample; the facets are banded in thirds of their range as a reading aid.

How this test is scored
The instrument
The Light Triad Scale (Kaufman, Yaden, Hyde and Tsukayama 2019). 12 items.
How it is scored
Twelve statements on a five-point scale, no reverse items; each subscale is the mean of its four items.
What it is compared against
Combined N=1,518 adults, 2019: total 3.80 (SD 0.64), Kantianism 4.01, Humanism 3.94, Faith in Humanity 3.45.
What the research says is wrong with it
It is a measure of how you treat people, not a clinical instrument, and light and dark are not opposites: the Light Triad correlates with the SD3 at r = -0.48, so a high score on one does not rule out the other. Humanism is the weakest subscale in every adaptation.
What a result is not
A result here is a trait profile, never a disorder and never a diagnosis. Only a clinician with your full history can diagnose anything, and no self-report questionnaire can.