ABSTRACT
Toxic personality traits are characteristic ways of being and behaving that areharmful to other people. They are deeply ingrained and relatively enduring patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior that cause considerable damage in interpersonal relationships, the workplace, and society. On a broader social scale, toxicity or a lack of toxicity in the personalities of national and political leaders is a critical issue with respect to international relations. The chapter explains how individuals in the friendship circle were able to identify and modify toxic personality traits. Participants confronted behaviors in each other that they found to be personally unpleasant, noxious, or hurtful. They were especially critical of personality traits that were demeaning of others, such as attitudes of superiority, contempt, sarcasm, dishonesty, phoniness, and cynicism. The aversive effect of a “toxic” person on the quality of an interaction is generally stronger than the beneficial effect of a person who has more positive characteristics.
