Lecture 2 – Experiencing online aggression
Dark Triad personality traits and adolescent cyber-aggression
Pabian, S., De Backer, C.J.S., & Vandebosch, H. (2015). Dark Triad personality traits and adolescent cyber-aggression.
Personality and individual differences, 75, 41-46.
Introduction
Not much is known about motives and personality profiles of online aggressors.
Dark Triad characteristics = Machiavellianism, and particularly narcissism and psychopathy
This study first to study association between Dark Triad traits and cyber-aggression among an
adolescent population (14-18 years old)
Cyber-aggresion = “intentional harm delivered by the use of electronic means to a person or a group
of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as offensive, derogatory, harmful or
unwanted”
- In this paper: any act of violence that falls under this general definition
Cyber-aggression among school-aged children
- Earlier research Profiling perpetrators of cyber-aggression in terms of: socio-demographic
variables, social-cognitive factors, personality traits (e.g. self-control, self-confidence, social
competence)
- This study 3 socially aversive personality traits – Machiavellianism, narcissism,
psychopathy (= the Dark Triad).
Cyber-aggression and Dark Triad personality traits
Machiavellianism = manipulative strategies of social conduct that are not correlated with general
intelligence, that do not necessarily lead to success
Narcissism and psychopathy treated as sub-clinical traits in the Dark Triad composite
- Narcissism includes a sense of importance and uniqueness, fantasies of unlimited success,
requesting constant attention, expecting special favours, being interpersonally exploitative
- Psychopathy 3 important elements: impulsive behavioural style, arrogant, deceitful
interpersonal style, deficient affective experience
The 3 components of the Dark Triad have been associated with both offline aggression and cyber-
aggression.
Relation between both narcissism and psychopathic traits and aggressive behaviour:
- Highest aggression among those who score high on narcissism, and especially among those
who show psychopathic callous-unemotional traits
Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy together linked to children’s offline aggression,
children’s theory of mind abilities, adult’s offline aggression, and adults’ cyber-aggression.
Present study Investigates how all Dark Triad traits correspond to cyber-aggression among
adolescents (aged 14-18) using Facebook.
,Method
Sample + Procedure
- 324 adolescents, aged 14-18 (M = 16.05).
- Online survey. Questions regarding sociodemographics, the 3 personality traits of the Dark
Triad, questions about respondent’s cyber-aggression activities on Facebook and intensity of
Facebook use.
Measures
The Short Dark Triad
- 27 items, 9 for each personality trait. 5 point-scale.
- Items excluded after factor analysis: 2 for Machiavellianism, 1 for narcissism, 2 for
psychopathy. 22 items were left.
Facebook cyber-aggression
- 8 items to measure cyber-aggression on Facebook.
- Participants indicated the number of times they engaged in the different activities.
Facebook Intensity Scale
- Measure for Facebook usage
- Self-report measures (number of FB friends, minutes spent on FB daily)
- Attitudinal questions (emotional connection to FB, integration of FB into daily activities).
Results
- 3 Dark Triad subscales and Facebook intensity explained 33.6% of the variance of cyber-
aggression.
- Psychopathy + Facebook intensity significant predictors of adolescents’ self-reported
cyber-aggression.
- Machiavellianism + narcissism not predictors of cyber-aggression.
Correlations between 3 personality traits:
- Intense FB use higher scores on Machiavellianism + psychopathy; not on narcissism
- Boys scored higher on Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism
- Girls were more intensive Facebook users
- Younger adolescents score higher on psychopathy than older adolescents
,Not supported: mediating role of Facebook intensity relations between dark personality traits and
cyber-aggression were not mediated by Facebook intensity.
Discussion
The dark triad and cyber-aggression among adolescent boys & girls
- This study shows that only psychopathy, and not Machiavellianism and narcissism are
related to cyber-aggression on Facebook among 14-18 year olds.
- Contradiction to previous research: Facebook intensity does not correlate with narcissism
(more frequent FB use does not lead to higher narcissism scores)
- Boys score higher on cyber-aggression, Machiavellianism and psychopathy.
- This study showed a decrease in psychopathic traits with increasing age.
Limitations
- Instruments did not allow to look into detailed sub constructs of psychopathy, narcissism and
Machiavellianism.
- Convenience sample, so generalizations of results should be taken with caution.
- Study relied on self-report measures, which may be subject to response distortions.
Using the theory of planned behaviour to understand
cyberbullying : the importance of beliefs for developing
interventions
Pabian, S., & Vandebosch, H. (2014). Using the theory of planned behaviour to understand cyberbullying : the importance of
beliefs for developing interventions. European journal of developmental psychology, 11(4), 463-477.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2013.858626
Introduction
- Earlier studies: focus on profiling cyberbullies in term of sociodemographic characteristics
(age, gender, personality traits (e.g. self-control, narcissism), involvement with
(cyber)bullying, ICT-use).
- More recently: change of focus towards studying the proximal determinants of cyberbullying,
e.g. attitudes, perceived norms, risk perception.
- Shortcomings:
o When these determinants are being studied, this is done in isolation from other
determinants.
o Beliefs underlying these determinants are not taken into account.
This study overcome these shortcomings, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) as a
starting point.
Literature review
Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)
- States that people’s intention to perform a certain behaviour is the best predictor of their
actual behaviour.
- Intention, in turn, is determined by 3 belief-based concepts:
o Attitude (A) a person’s global affective evaluation of a behaviour
, o Subjective norm (SN) perception of what others think of the behaviour
o Perceived behavioural control (PBC) perceived ease or difficulty of performing the
behaviour
- The more favourable A and SN, and the greater PBC, the stronger the intention to perform
the behaviour.
Previous study shows that the 3 TPB factors explained 44.8% of the total variance of adolescents’
intention to cyberbully. However, only direct measurements of the key concepts (A, SN, PBC) were
used no information about underlying beliefs (e.g. attitudes: why are they positive or negative
with respect to cyberbullying?)
Beliefs underlying attitude (A) towards cyberbullying
A person’s attitude is based on behavioural beliefs, whereby each belief connects the behaviour to a
certain affective, normative, or moral outcome or attribute.
- Cyberbullying might have positive (e.g. enhance status in peer group, provide a way to vent
negative feelings, or evoke positive feelings (being funny of more powerful than others)) or
negative (e.g. evoke feelings of guilt or knowing that the victim is hurt) outcomes underlying
adolescent’s attitudes towards cyberbullying.
Beliefs underlying subjective norm (SN) towards cyberbullying
The subjective norm is the perception of what others think of the behaviour and is formed by
normative beliefs.
- Beliefs include expectations about whether reference groups (e.g. friends or parents) think
that you should perform the behaviour or not (= injunctive norm beliefs).
- SN is also based on what others actually do (= descriptive norm beliefs).
- Authors also relate normative beliefs to social pressure, which is more directly experienced
social influence.
Not a lot of studies investigate normative beliefs in relation to cyberbullying, but there are
indications on the role that peers, parents and teachers might play.
- E.g. positive relationship between being a bystander and being a perpetrator of cyberbullying
seeing others perform the behaviour (descriptive norm) might lead to subjective beliefs
about their (positive) attitude towards cyberbullying (injunctive norm), and may also create
social pressure (to join in).
Beliefs underlying the perceived behavioural control (PBC)
PBC is defined as perceived ease or difficulty of performing the behaviour, and is based on control
beliefs. Control beliefs refer to how likely a person feels that particular factors could make it easier or
more difficult to perform the behaviour.
- With regard to cyberbullying (perceived) anonymity on the internet and the associated
(lower) risk of getting caught might play a facilitating role. Additionally, the lack of direct,
face-to-face contact may make people feel less restraint about saying hurtful things. Finally,
having ICT skills may make cyberbullying easy to perform behaviour.
Method
Aim test which behavioural, normative and control beliefs are the best predictors of A, SN and
PBC with regard to cyberbullying.
