Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking

Abstract: According to the Moral Foundations Theory, there are five moral foundations: Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity. Various studies have aimed to identify moral profiles that differ in the pattern of support for the five moral foundations. Those profiles correspond to distinct ideological positions. However, there are cultural differences in emphasis of certain moral foundations, and no research has been conducted on a Croatian sample to identify moral profiles. We conducted a study on 352 Croatian students and identified three moral profiles: the High Moralist, the Moderate, and the Individuator. The three profiles differ in political attitudes, religious orientations, and personality dimensions. We explain how the differences between our results and the previous research may be reflecting the cultural differences between Croatian culture and those of the US and New Zealand.

Abstract: Although previous studies have suggested reliable associations between personality traits and body image outcomes, the bulk of this research has been conducted in Western nations. As cultural factors may affect relationships between personality and outcome variables, the present study examined associations between the Big Five personality traits and body appreciation (i.e., a facet of positive body image) in a sample of Malaysian adults. A total of 782 adults (465 women and 317 men) completed an online survey consisting of measures of body appreciation, the Big Five personality traits, and demographic items. Linear model analysis indicated that body appreciation was significantly and negatively associated with Neuroticism while positively associated with Conscientiousness and Agreeableness respectively. Associations between body appreciation and Openness and Extraversion were not significant, nor was the moderating effect of gender. The findings replicate the previously reported negative association between Neuroticism and body appreciation and also suggest that associations with the other Big Five facets may be shaped by cultural contexts.

Abstract: Attachment style could be regarded as a prerequisite to resilience, playing an important role in positive adaptation, yet little is known about the mechanism of this attachment-resilience relationship. The present study explored the relationship between attachment style, dichotomous thinking, and resilience. Cross-sectional data from 3,760 participants were used for analysis. The results showed that attachment anxiety, not avoidance, had a statistically significant negative correlation with dichotomous thinking. Both attachment anxiety and avoidance had significant correlations with subscales of dichotomous thinking, though in different directions. Dichotomous thinking, preference for dichotomy, and profit-loss thinking were significantly associated with resilience, yet dichotomous belief was negatively associated with resilience. Attachment anxiety had a negative impact on resilience by increasing the level of dichotomous belief and a positive impact on resilience by increasing the level of preference for dichotomy. Attachment avoidance could have a negative impact on resilience by decreasing the level of preference for dichotomy and increasing the level of dichotomous belief. These findings suggest that dichotomous belief could be one shared feature both dimensions of insecure attachment.

Abstract: Three studies explored the influence of grandiose and vulnerable narcissism on negative responsibility attributions and unforgiveness following a conflict in an intimate relationship. We tested Morf and Rhodewalt’s (2001a , 2001b ) Dynamic Self-Regulatory Processing Model of Narcissism. In the first two studies, participants were primarily heterosexual college students in a serious dating relationship and both types of narcissism were examined. The first study involved participants’ self-nominated biggest conflict. The second study involved an agreed-upon conflict. The third study attempted a conceptual replication of the actor effects found in the first two studies by testing mediation models with narcissism, negative responsibility attributions, and unforgiveness in a larger, convenience sample of MTurk workers. The first two studies showed gender differences suggesting that responsibility attributions either partially or fully mediated the relationship between grandiose narcissism and unforgiveness in males. The pattern of results for females was different in the first two studies. The third study showed that responsibility attributions partially mediated the relationship between all three forms of narcissism (grandiose narcissism, vulnerable narcissism, and entitlement) and unforgiveness in males and females supporting the Dynamic Self-Regulatory Processing Model of Narcissism.

Abstract: Understanding occupational preferences through Big Five personality traits offers a crucial insight into the socio-psychological profiles of working individuals, extending beyond mere occupational behaviors. Previous research, however, has not conclusively shown that the broad, situation-general Big Five traits can systematically account for occupational preferences as outlined by the existing RIASEC model. The RIASEC framework’s reliance on theory-driven, preselected occupational scenarios may hinder this explanation. In this study, we initially employed data-driven, exploratory methods to identify and validate occupational preference factors from thousands of participants’ responses to a wide array of occupational titles. Subsequently, we explored the connections between the Big Five traits and these newly identified preference factors. Our analysis revealed a coherent and systematic relationship between data-driven occupational preferences and the Big Five traits, formulating the Hexagonal Openness–Extraversion–Agreeableness model of occupational personality traits. This model facilitates a broader understanding of individuals’ work-related personalities from a comprehensive social-psychological viewpoint.

Abstract: How does information about personality learned prior to an observation affect the accuracy of personality judgments? 151 judges were given true, false, or no information about a target’s personality and then watched a recorded interview and judged the Big Five personality traits. Compared to judges without prior information, judges given true information had greater distinctive accuracy, and judges given false information had lower distinctive accuracy and normativity. These results highlight the importance of using reliable and accurate sources of information when forming impressions of others.

Abstract: Using longitudinal data from over 14,000 participants in the Household, Income, and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, this study examined how levels of personality traits and their changes predict future self-control. The Big Five traits were assessed at four points between 2005 and 2017. Self-control was evaluated in 2019. For data analysis, latent growth curve analyses were performed. While the initial levels of extraversion and openness showed negligible predictive effects, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness more strongly predicted future self-control. Furthermore, the results showed that increases in conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness were associated with higher future self-control. These results provide new insights into the relationship between personality traits and self-control by showing the predictive power of initial trait levels and their developmental trajectories.

Abstract: Deficits in saccade performance (i.e., rapid eye movements) are commonly observed in people with schizophrenia. Investigations of the schizotypy-saccade relationship have been exclusively explored in non-clinical individuals, with mixed findings. Of the three saccadic paradigms, research has predominantly focused on the antisaccade paradigm, while the relationship between schizotypy and prosaccade and memory-guided saccade performance remains underexplored. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between schizotypy and saccade performance across the three saccadic paradigms in both patients and non-clinical individuals. Sixty-two patients with schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder and 148 non-clinical individuals completed the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE) self-report questionnaire as a measure of schizotypy. All participants also completed a prosaccade, memory-guided saccade and antisaccade task. Canonical correlation analyses were conducted to examine the collective, multivariate relationship between the set of schizotypy variables and the sets of prosaccade, memory-guided saccade and antisaccade variables. Differences between patients and non-clinical groups were in line with previous research. In the non-clinical group, Cognitive Disorganisation was the highest contributing variable to prosaccade performance and prosaccade latency was the highest contributing variable to schizotypy. There was no significant relationship between schizotypy and memory-guided or antisaccade performance. No significant relationships between schizotypy and saccade performance were observed in the patient group. Our findings suggest a relationship between disorganized schizotypy and basic processing speed in non-clinical individuals. This relationship was not observed in patients, suggesting that sub-clinical saccade performance may not mirror impairments observed in schizophrenia. Our findings in the non-clinical group were inconsistent with previous studies. These used different schizotypy inventories, suggesting that schizotypy measures derived from different conceptual backgrounds may not be comparable.

Abstract: Self-report measures of empathy capture several distinct facets of the empathy concept. What does this mean for how different “empathies” are correlated with personality? To find out, we measured six empirically derived facets of self-reported empathy in a data-driven approach, plus self-reported global empathy, along with 25 personality variables ( N = 351). The analysis consisted of first correlating each of these seven empathy facets with all of the personality variables, yielding a vector of personality correlates for each empathy facet. Next, we created profile correlations by correlating these vectors of correlates between the empathy facets to show similarities and differences in terms of their pattern of personality correlates. Some of the empathy facets had extremely similar profiles of personality correlates, while others stood apart. These findings indicate that the personality profile of an empathic person depends on the specific facet of empathy that is employed.

Abstract: It is well-established that personality predicts a broad range of outcomes across life domains. However, the criterion validity of personality assessments is often limited. One strategy to increase criterion validity is to move from global, noncontextualized personality assessments toward contextualized personality assessments with reference to a specific context. We investigated whether a Big Five assessment contextualized to the work domain allows for better predictions of work-related outcomes than a noncontextualized Big Five assessment. Two hundred ninety respondents completed both the standard Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) and a work-specific variant thereof. In addition, they provided information on a broad range of work-related outcomes (job satisfaction, turnover intentions, organizational citizenship behavior, burnout risk, and occupational commitment), as well as on global health, a not strictly work-related outcome. Results showed that the contextualized personality assessment generally outperformed the noncontextualized one in terms of criterion validity for all outcomes, with the exception of global health. This applied to both the five broad personality domains and the 15 narrow personality facets. We conclude that if maximizing criterion validity in the work domain is the goal, contextualized personality assessments are preferable to noncontextualized ones.

Abstract: The Short Dark Tetrad of Personality (SD4) is a self-report instrument for screening individuals with dark personality traits, including narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism. In the present study, we examined the psychometric properties of the Persian version in an Iranian sample. After translating the instrument, we conducted a large online survey that included 1,696 participants (67% female), aged 18–60 years. We performed a series of confirmatory factor analyses and examined the nomological network to validate the instrument. After assessing five competing structural models, the four-factor model showed the best fit based on standard goodness-of-fit indices. The sub-scales also showed coherent links with risk-taking and pathological personality traits. We conclude that the Persian SD4 has a distinct four-factor structure with adequate reliability and validity. Therefore, it can be used to measure dark personality traits in Farsi-speaking samples.

Abstract: Previous research on the organizing structure of the Dark Triad (DT) personality traits has consistently found support for the presence of a strong commonality among the DT traits. However, such research has typically relied on a data collection method (e.g., single-source data, multiple traits measured together at the same time) that increases the likelihood of common method variance (CMV) that can artifactually increase the covariance between item scores. In the current study, we administered the 27-item Short Dark Triad (SD3) to 509 working adults in South Korea. Specifically, we added a procedural remedy to mitigate the effect of CMV (temporal separation of 2–5 days between measures), then used a bifactor model to extract a general core of the DT traits along with specific variance that is unique to each trait. Then, we calculated several model-based psychometric indices (omega coefficients, explained common variance) to examine the relative strength of the general and specific variances. Additionally, we examined the degree to which unique variance associated with each DT trait provides incremental validity beyond prediction provided by the commonality among the DT traits for predicting counterproductive work behavior. Results showed that the empirical overlap among the DT traits was not as strong as indicated in previous research.

Abstract: Previous research points to social/affiliative needs as playing an important role in orienting people towards conspiratorial thinking. Yet no research to date has compared the relative contribution of different forms of subjective interpersonal isolation to general conspiracist ideation (CI). Four studies ( N = 2,452) compare the associations between three forms of subjective isolation (loneliness, existential isolation, alienation/anomie) and CI. Results from Studies 1–3 indicate that existential isolation and alienation, but not loneliness, independently predict higher CI over and above other relevant predictors. Study 4 found that after controlling for relevant covariates, only anomie predicted CI. Exploratory analyses revealed that unique effects of existential isolation on CI emerged when the breakdown of the leadership subdimension of anomie was excluded from the model. Implications of the four studies are discussed.

Abstract: Several aspects contribute to whether a person reacts embittered after an injustice or not: the individual basic beliefs (respective life values) of the person, the degree of belief in a just world, the perception of the injustice situation itself, and coping capacities in the form of wisdom. The present study explores to which degree these core aspects contribute to embitterment reaction after a confrontation with injustice. An experimental investigation was conducted in a convenience sample of 228 young persons from the general population (age 28, 68% females). Participants gave sociodemographics, and their wisdom attitudes, life values, and belief in a just world. Then an example of an injustice situation was presented in the form of a short text vignette, followed by a short assessment of the person’s embitterment reaction. The more the participants perceived the situation as unjust, the higher their embitterment reaction. Higher self-enhancement value was associated with higher embitterment after exposure to the injustice situation. In contrast, general belief in a just world, wisdom attitudes, and other life values were not associated with the strength of embitterment reaction. Also, the type of problem (private or work injustice) and sociodemographic characteristics of the participants were not predictive of the embitterment. Not the general belief in a just world, but the interpretation of a concrete situation as unjust is associated with an emotional reaction (here: embitterment) and potentially following behavior. Concluding from comparison with other research, the type of situation and life values of persons may have different and not linear impacts on embitterment reaction.