The interplay of the Dark Triad and social media use motives to social media disorder

Wai Yen Tang; Felix Reer; Thorsten Quandt

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.111402

The interplay of the Dark Triad and social media use motives to social media disorder

Wai Yen Tang^*, Felix Reer, Thorsten Quandt

^*Corresponding author for this work

Communication Science

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Social media are integral communication channels in our digital world and likewise, studies have examined its benefits and harms, like addictive use (‘social media disorder’; SMD). Among the contributing factors to SMD are personality differences and social media use motivations. The present study examined the relationships of the dark triad of personality, consisting of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, to SMD through social media use motivations. The study was conducted from an online survey of 1865 German social media users. Parallel mediation analyses indicate that each dark personality trait was directly and indirectly associated to SMD via entertainment, communication and self-expression motives. There are different indirect associations via relationship maintenance motivation, a negative indirect association was found for narcissism, a positive indirect association for psychopathy and no significant indirect association for Machiavellianism. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the motivational processes underlying the link between dark personality traits and SMD.

Original language	English
Article number	111402
Pages (from-to)	1-6
Number of pages	6
Journal	Personality and Individual Differences
Volume	187
Early online date	4 Dec 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111402
Publication status	Published - Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Parts of the research leading to these results were funded by the Daimler and Benz Foundation via the project “Internet und seelische Gesundheit” (“Internet and Mental Health”). None of the funding sources had any role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors

Keywords

Addiction
Dark triad
Motivation
Personality
Social media

Access to Document

10.1016/j.paid.2021.111402

Handle.net

Persistent link

Cite this

@article{bbf8ddadee5745eba0f813eb4c0eefbc,

title = "The interplay of the Dark Triad and social media use motives to social media disorder",

abstract = "Social media are integral communication channels in our digital world and likewise, studies have examined its benefits and harms, like addictive use ({\textquoteleft}social media disorder{\textquoteright}; SMD). Among the contributing factors to SMD are personality differences and social media use motivations. The present study examined the relationships of the dark triad of personality, consisting of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, to SMD through social media use motivations. The study was conducted from an online survey of 1865 German social media users. Parallel mediation analyses indicate that each dark personality trait was directly and indirectly associated to SMD via entertainment, communication and self-expression motives. There are different indirect associations via relationship maintenance motivation, a negative indirect association was found for narcissism, a positive indirect association for psychopathy and no significant indirect association for Machiavellianism. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the motivational processes underlying the link between dark personality traits and SMD.",

keywords = "Addiction, Dark triad, Motivation, Personality, Social media",

author = "Tang, {Wai Yen} and Felix Reer and Thorsten Quandt",

note = "Funding Information: Parts of the research leading to these results were funded by the Daimler and Benz Foundation via the project “Internet und seelische Gesundheit” (“Internet and Mental Health”). None of the funding sources had any role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors",

year = "2022",

month = mar,

doi = "10.1016/j.paid.2021.111402",

language = "English",

volume = "187",

pages = "1--6",

journal = "Personality and Individual Differences",

issn = "0191-8869",

publisher = "Elsevier BV",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The interplay of the Dark Triad and social media use motives to social media disorder

AU - Tang, Wai Yen

AU - Reer, Felix

AU - Quandt, Thorsten

N1 - Funding Information: Parts of the research leading to these results were funded by the Daimler and Benz Foundation via the project “Internet und seelische Gesundheit” (“Internet and Mental Health”). None of the funding sources had any role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors

PY - 2022/3

Y1 - 2022/3

N2 - Social media are integral communication channels in our digital world and likewise, studies have examined its benefits and harms, like addictive use (‘social media disorder’; SMD). Among the contributing factors to SMD are personality differences and social media use motivations. The present study examined the relationships of the dark triad of personality, consisting of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, to SMD through social media use motivations. The study was conducted from an online survey of 1865 German social media users. Parallel mediation analyses indicate that each dark personality trait was directly and indirectly associated to SMD via entertainment, communication and self-expression motives. There are different indirect associations via relationship maintenance motivation, a negative indirect association was found for narcissism, a positive indirect association for psychopathy and no significant indirect association for Machiavellianism. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the motivational processes underlying the link between dark personality traits and SMD.

AB - Social media are integral communication channels in our digital world and likewise, studies have examined its benefits and harms, like addictive use (‘social media disorder’; SMD). Among the contributing factors to SMD are personality differences and social media use motivations. The present study examined the relationships of the dark triad of personality, consisting of narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, to SMD through social media use motivations. The study was conducted from an online survey of 1865 German social media users. Parallel mediation analyses indicate that each dark personality trait was directly and indirectly associated to SMD via entertainment, communication and self-expression motives. There are different indirect associations via relationship maintenance motivation, a negative indirect association was found for narcissism, a positive indirect association for psychopathy and no significant indirect association for Machiavellianism. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the motivational processes underlying the link between dark personality traits and SMD.

KW - Addiction

KW - Dark triad

KW - Motivation

KW - Personality

KW - Social media

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120604662&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85120604662&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.paid.2021.111402

DO - 10.1016/j.paid.2021.111402

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85120604662

SN - 0191-8869

VL - 187

SP - 1

EP - 6

JO - Personality and Individual Differences

JF - Personality and Individual Differences

M1 - 111402

ER -

The interplay of the Dark Triad and social media use motives to social media disorder

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Handle.net

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this