11. Personality and Cyber Culture Flashcards
What is cyberculture
Social conditions brought about by the widespread use of computer networks
Outline the proliferation of social media
- 82% of Australians are on social media
Facebook:
- 2.93 billion monthly active users
- 36.7% of the earth’s population are on it
- 16 million Australians on FB
- 66% active AU FB users
What are some areas for personality research in cyberculture?
- Self-presentation / identity management on social media and online contexts
- Avatar creation and online presentation in gaming / virtual worlds
- Identity misrepresentation and criminality in online relationships
- Dark niches and the web
- New disorders
What is the uses and gratification model?
Takes into account different needs and desires for internet activity: personal identity, relationships, escapism
People predict that we will adapt what we do prior to the internet and do this on the internet:
- information seeking
- interpersonal utility
- entertainment
- pass the time
- convenience
What are the benefits of the internet environment?
Provides: a unique protective environment encouraging people to express themselves more freely (particularly important for shy people)
McKenna and Bargh:
- anonymity
- reduced importance of physical appearance
- greater control over time and pace of interaction
- an outlet for socially inhibited
What are the benefits of cyberculture in regard to identity?
Suler:
- dissociation and multiple identities
- allow us to experiment w/ facets of identity
- control of expression
- reality and living out fantasies
The internet facilitates social interaction.
Gender swapping:
- nearly half of males have female avatars
- 2/3 of females have male avatars
In terms of trait approaches to personality and cyber culture: what is introversion and neuroticism associated with (benefits!)
People who are high in introversion (overwhelmed by groups) and neuroticism (can get upset and deal with it later) will benefit the most from these facets:
- anonymity
- no physical proximity or contact with others
- control over the interaction
Also:
- neurotic introverts tend to locate the ‘real me’ in internet interactions (whereas non-neurotic extroverts locate the real me in f2f interactions)
Introversion and neuroticism - avatars
- introverts are more likely to select attractive avatars
- neuroticism has the highest discrepancy between self and avatars
- females high in neuroticism selected the most attractive avatars (had the biggest attractiveness discrepancy)
How do extroverts use the internet?
- Facilitate offline relationships as well (means of social extension)
- positively associated with using the internet for leisure and social activities
What are the generational cohort differences in terms of internet use
DotNets (77-99): association between extraversion and using internet for leisure / social activities
Dutifuls (10-45) and Boomers (46-64): extraversion and using the internet for information / duty activities
How does the 5 Factor Model link with Social Network Site usage?
Social network site usage = status updates, posting photos, gaming, interaction, friends, information
Extraversion and openness most correlated with SNS activities
Increased narcissism is linked to all SNS activities - this link is stronger in Non-Western, Non-individualist samples
What is the potential for some internet use disorders?
Marengo: Big 5 and smartphone use disorder - people higher in neuroticism and lower in conscientiousness tend to be associated with smartphone disorder
Marino: 5FM and facebook use disorder - high neuroticism and low conscientiousness
Meynadier: 5FM and problematic social media use - high neuroticism, low conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness
i.e. high neuroticism is associated with all problematic internet usage
What are the limitations of personality (5FM) research and cyberculture?
- relatively new area of research
- most is cross sectional
- unofficial diagnosis (issues with comparison because we have not yet defined the diagnosis)
What is internet gaming disorder
pattern of excessive and prolonged internet gaming that results in a cluster of cognitive & behavioural symptoms
2 meta analyses indicate assoctiation with
- high neuroticism
- low conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness
What are some facets of the darker side of personality and cyberculture
Cyber aggression: intentional harm delivered via electronic means to a person / group of people irrespective of age, and who perceives such act as offensive, derogatory, harmful or unwanted
Cyberbullying: an aggressive, intentional act using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself
occurs mostly on insta, followed by facebook and snapchat
What are the main reasons people get cyberbullied?
- appearance
Prevalence of cyberbullying
- 20-40% of adolescents report being cyberbullied
- Females are targeted more than Males
- kids as young as 5 are being targets
- proportion of those directly involved in cyber bullying aged 13 and over (gets higher as you age to 18)
What is the online disinhibition effect?
Reduction of inhibition and social restraint on the internet
- dissociative anonymity and invisibility
- benign disinhibition -> nto harmful disinhibition - i.e. when these facets allow you to do good (i.e. donate money)
- toxic disinhibition –> people becoming toxic in their behaviours because of it
Leads to ‘dark niches’ on the internet: aspects of personality related to the dark tetrad have united people and found ways to express themselves
- antisocial individuals have greater opportunities to connect with others and pursue antisocial behaviours
Who cyberbullies?
When controlling for covariance in the dark tetrad,
the main driver in cyber bullying is psychopathy
A study looked at the proportion of people who engaged in cyber aggression (via self-report) and found that
36% of the sample had
Cyber aggression and the dark triad
- was correlated with the dark triad
- when you control the variables, psychopathy is the strongest predictor
another weak predictor was how much facebook use they had
In a study of cyberbullying and dark triad in uni students:
51% of uni students engaged in cyberbullying
- psychopathy predicted cyber bullying
Sadism was related to trolling behaviour: behaving in a deceptive, destructive or disruptive manner in a social setting with no instrumental purpose
Sadism is the best predictor of
- trolling and trolling enjoyment
What is the strongest and weakest D4 predictor of antisocial online behaviour
Moor and Anderson’s Systematic Review
- Psychopathy = strongest and most consistent
- Narcissism = least related to antisocial online behaviour
