Research Article
Dark Triad Personality and Online Trolling: The Mediating Role of Empathy
Erdal Hamarta
,
Muhammed Akat,
Ömer Faruk Akbulut
Article Metrics
Views
2692
Downloads
1028
Citations
Crossref
0
Hamarta E, Akat M, Akbulut ÃF. Dark triad personality and online trolling: The mediating role of empathy. European J Psychol E. 2023;6(1):45-53. doi: 10.12973/ejper.6.1.45
Hamarta, E., Akat, M., & Akbulut, Ã. F. (2023). Dark triad personality and online trolling: The mediating role of empathy. European Journal of Psychology and Educational Research, 6(1), 45-53. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejper.6.1.45
Hamarta Erdal, Muhammed Akat, and Ömer Faruk Akbulut. "Dark Triad Personality and Online Trolling: The Mediating Role of Empathy," European Journal of Psychology and Educational Research 6, no. 1 (2023): 45-53. https://doi.org/10.12973/ejper.6.1.45
Hamarta, E Akat, M & Akbulut, Ã 2023, 'Dark triad personality and online trolling: The mediating role of empathy', European Journal of Psychology and Educational Research, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 45-53. Hamarta, Erdal et al. "Dark Triad Personality and Online Trolling: The Mediating Role of Empathy." European Journal of Psychology and Educational Research, vol. 6, no. 1, 2023, pp. 45-53, https://doi.org/10.12973/ejper.6.1.45.
Abstract
Online trolling is online behavior in which the troll provokes, harms, and pretends to be someone else to achieve their goals. The purpose of trolls may be to harm the other person, but they can also be for entertainment purposes. Online trolling, for whatever purpose, can have significant psychological effects on individuals and people who are socially exposed. In addition, online trolling is becoming more common every day. However, there are very few studies on trolling. Therefore, the study aims to examine the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between dark triad personality traits and levels of online trolling. For this purpose, structural equation modeling and bootstrapping method was used. The participants comprised 516 (%71.6 females; %28.4 males) undergraduates. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 31 (XÌ„ = 21.09). The measures used included the Online Trolling Scale, Dirty Dozen Scale, and Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. In the study, it was found that there were significant relationships between the dark triad, online trolling, and empathy. Also, the results of the structural equation model showed that the effect of the dark triad on online trolling was mediated by empathy. This result was found to be significant with bootstrapping.
Keywords: Cyberpsychology, dark triad, empathy, online trolling, undergraduates.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Association Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Ang, R. P., & Goh, D. H. (2010). Cyberbullying among adolescents: The role of affective and cognitive empathy, and gender. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 41, 387–397. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-010-0176-3
Baughman, H. M., Dearing, S., Giammarco, E., & Vernon, P. A. (2012). Relationships between bullying behaviours and the dark triad: A study with adults. Personality and Individuals Differences, 52(5), 571-575. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.11.020
Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Trolls just want to have fun. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 97–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.016
Craker, N., & March, E. (2016). The dark side of Facebook®: The dark tetrad, negative social potency, and trolling behaviours. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.043
Çokluk, Ö., ÅžekercioÄŸlu, G., & Büyüköztrk, Åž. (2012). Sosyal bilimler için çok deÄŸiÅŸkenli istatistik: SPSS ve Lisrel uygulamaları [Multivariate SPSS and LISREL applications for social sciences]. Pegem.
Davis, M. H. (2018). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429493898
Eisenberg, N., Eggum, N. D., & Di Giunta, L. (2010). Empathy-related responding: Associations with prosocial behavior, aggression, and intergroup relations. Social Issues and Policy Review, 4(1), 143–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2409.2010.01020.x
Elliott, R., Bohart, A. C., Watson, J. C., & Greenberg, L. S. (2011). Empathy. Psychotherapy, 48(1), 43–49. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022187
Finney, S. J., & DiStefano, C. (2013). Nonnormal and categorical data in structural equation modeling. In G. R. Hancock & R. O. Mueller (Eds.), Structural equation modeling: A second course (pp. 439–492). IAP Information Age Publishing.
Furnham, A., Richards, S. C., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). The dark triad of personality: A 10-year review. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(3), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12018
Gandhi, A. U., Dawood, S., & Schroder, H. S. (2021). Empathy mindset moderates the association between low empathy and social aggression. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(3-4), 1679-1697. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517747604
Geçtan, E. (2010). Psychodynamic psychiatry and abnormal behavior. Metis.
Gladstein, G. A. (1983). Understanding empathy: Integrating counseling, developmental, and social psychology perspectives. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 30(4), 467–482. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.30.4.467
Goodboy, A. K., & Martin, M. M. (2015). The personality profile of a cyberbully: Examining the dark triad. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.02.052
Gylfason, H. F., Sveinsdottir, A. H., Vésteinsdóttir, V., & Sigurvinsdottir, R. (2021). Haters gonna hate, trolls gonna troll: The personality profile of a Facebook troll. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(11), Article 5722. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115722
Hamarta, E., Akat, M., & Deniz, M. (2021). Development of trolling scale: Validity and reliability study. Turkish Psychological Counseling and Guidance Journal/ Türk Psikolojik Danışma ve Rehberlik Dergisi, 11(63), 457-470. https://doi.org/10.17066/tpdrd.1050742
Hardaker, C. (2010). Trolling in asynchronous computer-mediated communication: From user discussions to academic definitions. Journal of Politeness Research, 6(2), 215–242. https://doi.org/10.1515/JPLR.2010.011
Howard, K., Zolnierek, K. H., Critz, K., Dailey, S., & Ceballos, N. (2019). An examination of psychosocial factors associated with malicious online trolling behaviors. Personality and Individual Differences, 149, 309–314. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.06.020
Jo, E., Kim, H. S., & Hwang, S. J. (2020). Mediating effect of communication ability in the relation between empathy and interpersonal relation in nursing students. The Journal of Korean Academic Society of Nursing Education, 26(3), 290–298. https://doi.org/10.5977/jkasne.2020.26.3.290 [In Korean]
Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006). Examining the relationship between low empathy and bullying. Aggressive Behavior: Official Journal of the International Society for Research on Aggression, 32(6), 540–550. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.20154
Jonason, P. K., & Krause, L. (2013). The emotional deficits associated with the dark triad traits: Cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and alexithymia. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(5), 532-537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.04.027
Jonason, P. K., & Webster, G. D. (2010). The dirty dozen: A concise measure of the dark triad. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 420-432. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019265
Kayış, A. R., Yılmaz, M. F., Satıcı, S. A., & Eraslan Çapan, B. (2018). Dirty Dozen Scale: A study of adaptation to Turkish university students. Alpha Psychiatry, 19(1), 34-40. https://doi.org/10.5455/apd.288773
Khodabakhsh, M. R., & Besharat, M. A. (2011). Mediation effect of narcissism on the relationship between empathy and the quality of interpersonal relationships. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 902–906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.10.175
Lyons, M. (2019). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy in everyday life. Elsevier Academic Press.
March, E. (2019). Psychopathy, sadism, empathy, and the motivation to cause harm: New evidence confirms malevolent nature of the Internet Troll. Personality and Individual Differences, 141, 133–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.01.001
Marshall, L. E., & Marshall, W. L. (2011). Empathy and antisocial behavior. The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology, 22(5), 742-759. https://doi.org/10.1080/14789949.2011.617544
Masui, K. (2019). Loneliness moderates the relationship between dark tetrad personality traits and internet trolling. Personality and Individual Differences, 150, Article 109475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.06.018
Nocera, T. R., & Dahlen, E. R. (2020). Dark triad personality traits in cyber aggression among college students. Violence and Victims, 35(4), 524–538. https://doi.org/10.1891/VV-D-18-00058
Nunnally, J. C., & Bernstein, I. H. (1994). Psychometric theory. McGraw-Hill
Ögel, K. (2014). Ä°nternet bağımlılığı: Ä°nternetin psikolojisini anlamak ve bağımlılıkla baÅŸa çıkmak [Internet addiction, understanding the psychology of internet and overcoming addiction]. Türkiye Ä°ÅŸ Bankası Cultural Publications.
Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36(6), 556–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0092-6566(02)00505-6
Pineda, D., Galan, M., Martinez-Martinez, A., Campagne, D. M., & Piqueras, J. A. (2022). Same personality, new ways to abuse: How dark tetrad personalities are connected with cyber intimate partner violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(13-14), NP11223–NP11241. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260521991307
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J.-Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879-891. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.40.3.879
Ruiz-Palomino, P., Bañón-Gomis, A., & Linuesa-Langreo, J. (2019). Impacts of peers’ unethical behavior on employees’ ethical intention: Moderated mediation by Machiavellian orientation. Business Ethics: A European Review, 28(2), 185-205. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12210
Schade, E. C., Voracek, M., & Tran, U. S. (2021). The nexus of the dark triad personality traits with cyberbullying, empathy, and emotional intelligence: a structural-equation modeling approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 659282. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.659282
Schimmenti, A., Jonason, P. K., Passanisi, A., La Marca, L., Di Dio, N., & Gervasi, A. M. (2019). Exploring the dark side of personality: Emotional awareness, empathy, and the dark triad traits in an Italian sample. Current Psychology, 38, 100–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9588-6
Schuman, K., & Dragotta, A. (2021). Empathy as a predictor of high-quality interpersonal apologies. European Journal of Social Psychology, 51(6), 896-909. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2786
Sest, N., & March, E. (2017). Constructing the cyber-troll: Psychopathy, sadism, and empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 119, 69–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.06.038
Shachaf, P., & Hara, N. (2010). Beyond vandalism: Wikipedia trolls. Journal of Information Science, 36(3), 357–370. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551510365390
Šincek, D., Duvnjak, I., & Tomašić-Humer, J. (2020). Empathy and gender effects on cyber-violence among Croatian youth. Psihologija, 53(4), 377-392. https://doi.org/10.2298/PSI190801002S
Spreng, R. N., McKinnon, M. C., Mar, R. A., & Levine, B. (2009). The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire: Scale development and initial validation of a factor-analytic solution to multiple empathy measures. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(1), 62-71. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890802484381
Totan, T., DoÄŸan, T., & Sapmaz, F. (2012). The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire: Evaluation of psychometric properties among Turkish university students. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 46, 179-198. https://ejer.com.tr/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ejer.2012.46.9.pdf
Tsitsika, A., Janikian, M., Wójcik, S., Makaruk, K., Tzavela, E., Tzavara, C., Greydanus, D., Merrick, J., & Richardson, C. (2015). Cyberbullying victimization prevalence and associations with internalizing and externalizing problems among adolescents in six European countries. Computers in Human Behavior, 51(Part A), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.04.048
Zych, I., Ortega-Ruiz, R., & Marín-López, I. (2016). Cyberbullying: Revisión sistemática de la investigación y aspectos relativos a suprevalencia y evaluación en los estudios espanoles [Cyberbullying: A systematic review of research, its prevalence and assessment issues in Spanish studies]. Psicología Educativa, 22(1), 5–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pse.2016.03.002
