The dark side of social media: Associations between the Dark Triad of personality, self-disclosure online and selfie-related behaviours
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs20172.71.88Keywords:
Dark Triad, Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, self-disclosure online, perceived controllability, selfies, social mediaAbstract
The present study investigated the relations between the Dark Triad personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), distinct dimensions of self-disclosure online (i.e., honesty, amount, positive valence, and intent) and selfie related-behaviours (taking, posting and editing selfies). The results indicated, that all three Dark Triad components were positively correlated with posting and editing selfies on social networking sites (SNSs). However, multiple regression analysis demonstrated that only narcissism predicted selfie-related behaviours. Narcissism and Machiavellianism were positively related to the amount of personal information disclosed online and the tendency to self-disclose intentionally in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Moreover, we found no significant correlations between the perceived controllability of Internet communication and two types of self-promotion in the Internet (self-disclosure online and selfie-related behaviours). Our findings demonstrate the importance of analysing the "dark" personality traits in the context of self-promotional behaviours in social media.
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