In the field of psychology a lot of papers have been published on the so-called 'Dark Triad' of traits: narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism. These traits are all associated with undesirable behaviours like manipulation, egotism and callousness. But this focus on the undesirable side of our personalities “misrepresents the full capacities of humanity,” according to Scott Barry Kaufmann and colleagues.

Earlier this year, the team published a new scale to measure what they call the 'Light Triad', made up of humanism, 'Kantianism' (treating people not as a means to an end, but as an end itself), and faith in humanity. The work was exploratory and it’s still early days, but the team found that high scores on the Light Triad traits were associated with a greater quality of life — and overall, people generally scored higher on the Light Triad than the Dark Triad.