Yes for short term, probably not for long term.
I think you somewhat answered this already, at least for short term mating/relationships (per Jonason). There does seem to be evidence that the "dark triad" personality provides an advantage when it comes to short term mating, but perhaps not for long term relationships.
- Jonason, et al. The Dark Triad: Facilitating a Short-Term Mating Strategy in Men, European Journal of Personality, 2009 (LINK).
We found that the scores on the Dark Triad traits were positively related to having more sex partners, an unrestricted sociosexuality and a greater preference for short-term mates. We demonstrated that the association between the Dark Triad composite was correlated with short-term mating above and beyond effects of participant’s age, sex and extraversion.
However, from the same report, we have this:
Whereas such a strategy capitalises on quantity at the cost of receiving long-term benefits, individuals who are not high on the Dark Triad traits—the majority of populations—may be better equipped to form cooperative long-term relationships and, to a lesser degree, short-term relationships without deception. This long-term, nonexploitive strategy may represent a slower but more stable approach to reproduction.
- Jonason, et al., The costs and benefits of the Dark Triad: Implications for mate poaching and mate retention tactics, Personality and Individual Differences, 2010 (LINK).
This study finds that high scorers on the dark triad scale are more likely to "poach" those already in a relationship and/or to be poached by others in a relationship:
...scores on the Dark Triad were correlated with rates of poaching mates from others for new relationships and being poached by others for new relationships. Such associations may explain the higher numbers of sexual partners by high scorers on Dark Triad traits (Jonason et al., 2009). That is, by being willing to poach others away from their relationships and by being willing to leave ongoing relationships for new ones, such opportunistic individuals enjoy access to more novel romantic or sexual partners.
For this to work... there's at least some indication that dark rriad traits are enough to promote infidelity in a previously existing relationship... but we don't know if "nice guys" are the ones having their mates poached. In fact, the same study goes on to say:
Dark Triad individuals tend to have their own mates poached away by others.
- Alia & Chamorro-Premuzic, The dark side of love and life satisfaction: Associations with intimate relationships, psychopathy and Machiavellianism, Personality and Individual Differences, 2010 (LINK).
This study finds that Machiavellianism (one of the dark triad traits) is negatively correlated with relationship intimacy (which I take to imply a lower long-term relationship satisfaction):
Machiavellianism was negatively associated with life satisfaction and intimacy, which is not surprising when considering that this trait is associated with negative emotions (e.g., McHoskey et al., 1998) and a lack of interpersonal affect in interpersonal relationships
- Jonason & Kavanagh, The dark side of love: Love styles and the Dark Triad, Personality and Individual Differences, 2010 (LINK.
This last study may suggest, again, that dark triad high-scorers are more apt to choose short term mating strategies vs. long term endeavors.
These individuals may go into relationships of any kind because of their own needs; the other individual may be immaterial or irrelevant. That is, the features of the other person are not the determining factors that lead to relationships emerging for those who are high on the Dark Triad. Instead, these individuals may “use” others to get what they want. We do not contend that these individuals are ambivalent to the attractiveness of their partners, but instead, their short-term mating lifestyle may be expressed in a “whatever I can get” attitude. However, this question does deserve future attention.
- Wilbur & Cambell, What do women want? An interactionist account of women’s mate preferences, Personality and Individual Differences, 2010 (LINK)
Lastly, this article suggests that women want primarily attractiveness for short-term mates, and both attractiveness and ambition (signaling genetic fitness and a good provider) for dating and long-term relationships:
...attractive targets were preferred as short-term sexual partners...ambitious men were preferred as dating partners [and] attractive men were preferred as dating partners...ambitious men were preferred as long-term romantic partners [and] attractive men were preferred as long-term romantic partners...
- Gangestad et al., Women's Preferences for Male Behavioral Displays Change Across the Menstrual Cycle, Psychological Science, 2004 (LINK).
This might be the money study/quote right here:
A sample of 237 normally ovulating women viewed 36 or 40 videotaped men who were competing for a potential lunch date and then rated each man's attractiveness as a short-term and a long-term mate. As predicted, women's preference for men who displayed social presence and direct intrasexual competitiveness increased on high-fertility days relative to low-fertility days, but only in a short-term, not a long-term, mating context.
One would need the whole report to know what "social presence" and "intrasexual competitiveness" implies -- I'm reading this as dominating/confidence and attractiveness. Now quite the "dark triad" but perhaps related. At the very least we find that desires for "alpha" signals wane as relationship desires shift from short to long.
Summary: So, from your own sources and some I've provided, I'd put the results like so:
- Women do prefer "bad boys" for short-term mating choices, despite the intuitively negative desirability of such choices
- High "dark triad" scorers self report more sex partners than non-high-scorers (so they're obviously finding willing participants)
- High "dark triad" scorers self-identify as preferring short term mating scenarios
- At least one of the dark triad components, Machiavellianism, seems to diminish relationship intimacy (which I think decreases long term relationship predicted success, but I could be wrong)
- Women seem to prefer attractiveness and ambition, period
- Women's desires changed based on both fertility and whether or not they are seeking short or long-term relationships (short-term seeking and fertility increases desirability of "alpha male" signals)
So, for long term strategies, it doesn't seem that dark triad high-scorers will fare as well. Across the board, attraction and ambition (or money) influence relationship partner choices a lot, and fertility and the type of mate (long vs. short term) will also affect what about a male is attractive.
Hope that doesn't cloud the water too much -- none of these provided quite what I hoped, but I think they are related enough to list as an answer.
xkcd #513 Friends by Randall Munroe
