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Not only Trolls are Trolling the Internet: A study on dark personality traits, online environment, and commentary styles

Kajonius, Petri LU and Connysdotter Karlsson, Anna M. (2020) In International Journal of Personality Psychology 6.
Abstract
On the Internet, many commentary styles take place on various forums, and abuse is not uncommon. We investigated the personality traits related to individuals’ behaviors on Internet forum posting. The Dark Short Tetrad (SD4) were used to predict (N = 212) three types of commentary styles: Trolling (malicious posting), Lurking (reading/not posting) and Posting (reading/posting). The results showed that Trolling co-varied with Sadism (r = .38) and Machiavellianism (r = .28). The results also showed that people high on dark traits are Trolling the Internet. Exploratory mediator analyses further revealed that various aspects of anonymity trivially moderate personality traits and behavior (indirect effects β ≈ .10). The overall take-home... (More)
On the Internet, many commentary styles take place on various forums, and abuse is not uncommon. We investigated the personality traits related to individuals’ behaviors on Internet forum posting. The Dark Short Tetrad (SD4) were used to predict (N = 212) three types of commentary styles: Trolling (malicious posting), Lurking (reading/not posting) and Posting (reading/posting). The results showed that Trolling co-varied with Sadism (r = .38) and Machiavellianism (r = .28). The results also showed that people high on dark traits are Trolling the Internet. Exploratory mediator analyses further revealed that various aspects of anonymity trivially moderate personality traits and behavior (indirect effects β ≈ .10). The overall take-home message is that personality traits, especially dark traits, play a role in how individuals express themselves online. This provides well-needed insight in abusive behaviors in forums on the internet. (Less)
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
International Journal of Personality Psychology
volume
6
publisher
University of Groningen
ISSN
2451-9243
DOI
10.21827/ijpp.6.37214
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
feed6d64-4b4f-4285-8d05-d80d64043cc9
date added to LUP
2022-03-07 15:01:19
date last changed
2023-02-06 11:17:31
@article{feed6d64-4b4f-4285-8d05-d80d64043cc9,
  abstract     = {{On the Internet, many commentary styles take place on various forums, and abuse is not uncommon. We investigated the personality traits related to individuals’ behaviors on Internet forum posting. The Dark Short Tetrad (SD4) were used to predict (N = 212) three types of commentary styles: Trolling (malicious posting), Lurking (reading/not posting) and Posting (reading/posting). The results showed that Trolling co-varied with Sadism (r = .38) and Machiavellianism (r = .28). The results also showed that people high on dark traits are Trolling the Internet. Exploratory mediator analyses further revealed that various aspects of anonymity trivially moderate personality traits and behavior (indirect effects β ≈ .10). The overall take-home message is that personality traits, especially dark traits, play a role in how individuals express themselves online. This provides well-needed insight in abusive behaviors in forums on the internet.}},
  author       = {{Kajonius, Petri and Connysdotter Karlsson, Anna M.}},
  issn         = {{2451-9243}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{University of Groningen}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Personality Psychology}},
  title        = {{Not only Trolls are Trolling the Internet: A study on dark personality traits, online environment, and commentary styles}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.21827/ijpp.6.37214}},
  doi          = {{10.21827/ijpp.6.37214}},
  volume       = {{6}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}