Particularly in women, the Dark Tetrad facets were associated with social media use

Social media use and personality: Beyond self-reports and trait-level assessments. Lennart Freyth, Bernad Batinic, Peter K. Jonason. Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 202, February 2023, 111960. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2022.111960

Highlights

• Narcissistic and Machiavellian facets correlated with Instagram use intensity.

• The HEXACO models showed (almost) no links to objective social media usage.

• Particularly in women, the Dark Tetrad facets were associated with social media use.

Abstract: We investigated how objective, behavioral data on social media use was correlated with the Dark Tetrad facets and the HEXACO traits. We tracked usage time and usage session of social media users (N = 243), considering Instagram to be a visual social medium compared to Facebook and, therefore, to be related to “dark” personality characteristics (i.e., short-term mating, antisocial attitudes). Additional to bivariate correlations, we controlled the Dark Tetrad facets for the HEXACO model and vice versa using partialed correlations, and found that agentic extraversion, self-entered antagonism, and Machiavellian tactics, but not the HEXACO traits, were correlated with Instagram usage time and sessions. We observed no personality correlations with Facebook use. In women, more facets were associated with Instagram use, while in men only boldness was linked to it. We discuss the findings in the light of short-term mating and antisocial behavior on social media (e.g., niche specialization, cyberstalking). Disentangling the Dark Tetrad traits helped refine previous findings.

Keywords: Dark tetradHEXACOInstagramSocial mediaBehavioral dataFacets

3. Discussion

Previous research on personality and social media use has at least two shortcomings. It relied mainly on self-reported data of social media use and analyzed either the Dark Triad traits or the Big Five traits, which made it hard to uncover exact associations and to compare both. Thus, we correlated behavioral data of the two largest social networks—Instagram and Facebook—with the Dark Tetrad facets and the HEXACO traits instead of the Dark Triad and the Big Five traits to refine previous research.

In general, the Dark Tetrad facets—but not the HEXACO traits—were associated with Instagram use. Whereas both taxonomies were almost completely uncorrelated with Facebook use. These findings were underlined by the partialed correlations, confirming H1 partially (i.e., agentic extraversion, neurotic narcissism; H1a for time but not for sessions) and H2 (i.e., Machiavellian tactics), but not H3 (i.e., meanness, disinhibition) and H4 (i.e., indirect sadism). We observed a different pattern among women in whom numerous dark facets showed stronger associations with Instagram usage time and particularly sessions-confirming H1b, H2, H3b, and H4 only for women, whereas only bold men used Instagram longer and more frequently. This supports the difference of Instagram of a highly visual social media app (Marengo et al., 2018) when compared to Facebook, which developed into a general platform with different interactions and more text-based interactions. Indicating, the link between Instagram use and the Dark Tetrad facets supports the assumption of using mating tactics on visual social media such as Instagram but not on Facebook. Interestingly, we could not identify an overall link between disinhibition and Instagram usage time or sessions (rejecting H3, limiting H3b to women). Probably our outcome markers did not match with previous ones, or objective Instagram data did not match the concrete behavior (e.g., phubbing; Grieve & March, 2021). What we could find was a relationship between Instagram use and indirect sadism, but only in women. This might be a consequence of antisocial online behaviors (Moor & Anderson, 2019), or-more specific-a result of intimate partner cyberstalking, a mating strategy to avoid mating mistakes (March, Szymczak, Di Rago, & Jonason, 2022).

Relationships between personality and social media usage intensity were almost completely limited to the Dark Tetrad facets. Probably, because high-scoring individuals are looking for mating purposes online (Fox & Rooney, 2015) and prefer the environment because of more possible mating success there (i.e., better fitness pay-offs, niche specialization; Penke & Jokela, 2016). Remarkable, exploitative, callous men (i.e., meanness; Jonason et al., 2009) spend less time online, while mild (i.e., boldness) psychopathic tactics (Jonason et al., 2014) are associated with more time spent and sessions on Instagram. Along with this, highly emotional women, use Instagram for a longer time than men, highlighting potential tactics used in this visual social media. Noteworthy, several facets were only linked to increased usage in women (e.g., self-centered antagonism), a finding that could be interpreted as mating tactics in modern, liberal societies with smaller sex differences. Particularly as we provide a German and not Anglo-American sample (Schmitt, 2005). Future researchers should investigate if visual social media might provide a safe environment for women to engage in (more) short-term mating (Baranowski & Hecht, 2015). These and general, upcoming challenges for society might emerge as usage time increases (Hodes & Thomas, 2021).

3.1. Limitations and conclusions

Despite our use of a tracked sample of sufficient size, our study has several limitations. Different Dark Tetrad facets could be chosen, yet we consider the ones picked best for an independent and holistic view of the taxonomy. This way, we could refine results on everyday sadism (Moor & Anderson, 2019), but the link between Instagram usage times and sessions with physical sadism instead of indirect sadism—in women and not in men—needs further investigation. Future research should investigate sex differences in personality and associated objective social media use with larger sample sizes to clarify our observed tendencies. Low internal consistency scores of the HEXACO traits are common among short scales, especially when using heterogeneous items (Rammstedt & Beierlein, 2014) to measure a complex but unidimensional construct or trait (Schmitt, 1996). However, we would suggest using long-versions for further research. Last, we only captured usage intensity objectively, upcoming research should investigate people's concrete behaviors on top and combine them with intensity and personality for analyses. And those studies should use experimental designs.

We show the importance of disentangling the Dark Tetrad traits when trying to understand their role in understanding objective social media use. Visual social media was used more intensely by people high in agentic extraversion, self-centered antagonism, and Machiavellian tactics but not by mean or impulsive individuals. Sex differences were not only observed in personality, but manifested in associated usage, too. While women with high Dark Tetrad facets used Instagram more intensely, only bold men did. The use of Instagram, as a visual social media, differs substantially from Facebook use regarding its users' personality characteristics, potentially for mating purposes on top of solely antisocial online behaviors. The findings are consistent with and sharpen previous research as only the Dark Tetrad traits, not the HEXACO traits, were associated with visual social media use. Like light attracts moths, social media seems to attract antisocial personalities.