Dark triad and social media addiction: A meta-analysis

Abstract

The dark triad consists of three personality traits including narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Social media addiction is defined as individuals’ losing control over social media use and thus experiencing negative reflections on academic, social, and emotional life. Dark triad personality traits can be considered to be positively associated with social media addiction. This study aims to investigate the association between the dark triad and social media addiction using meta-analysis method. The meta-analysis includes a total of 7064 participants in 15 studies. Results indicated a positive association between the dark triad and social media addiction. The study also utilized meta-regression analysis to determine the moderator role of measures used for dark triad and social media addiction. The results showed that measures did not have a significant moderator role in the association between the dark triad and social media addiction. Analyses indicated high and significant heterogeneity. In conclusion, a medium-level, positive, and significant effect size was found in the association between the dark triad and social media addiction. The results of this study indicate the need to focus on personality factors for the prevention of and intervention for social media addiction.

Keywords

• dark triad
• social media addiction
• meta-analysis

Karanlık üçlü ve sosyal medya bağımlılığı: Bir meta-analiz çalışması

Öz

Karanlık üçlü, üç kişilik özelliğinden oluşmaktadır. Bunlar, narsisizm, Makyavelizm ve psikopatidir. Sosyal medya bağımlılığı bireyin sosyal medyayı kullanım kontrolünü kaybetmesi ve bunun sonucunda bireyin akademik, sosyal ve duygusal yaşam alanlarına olumsuz yansıması olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Karanlık üçlü kişilik özellikleri sosyal medya bağımlılığı pozitif ilişkili olabilir. Bu çerçevede çalışmanın amacı karanlık üçlü ile sosyal medya bağımlılığı arasındaki ilişkinin meta-analiz ile incelenmesidir. Bu meta-analiz çalışması 15 ayrı çalışma ve 7064 katılımcıyı içermektedir. Yapılan analiz sonucunda narsisizm, Makyavelizm ve psikopati ile sosyal medya bağımlılığı arasında pozitif ilişki bulunmuştur. Ayrıca karanlık üçlü ve sosyal medya bağımlılığı için kullanılan ölçek tiplerinin düzenleyici rolünü belirlemek için meta-regresyon analizi yapılmıştır. Yapılan analiz sonucunda karanlık üçlü kişilik özellikleri ile sosyal medya bağımlılığı arasındaki ilişkide ölçek tipinin düzenleyici rolünün anlamlı olmadığı bulunmuştur. Yapılan analiz sonucunda heterojenlik anlamlı bulunmuştur. Sonuç olarak karanlık üçlü kişilik modeli ile sosyal medya arasındaki ilişkide orta düzeyde pozitif yönde anlamlı etki büyüklüğü olduğu sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• karanlık üçlü
• sosyal medya bağımlılığı
• meta-analiz

References

1. Abell, L., & Brewer, G. (2014). Machiavellianism, self-monitoring, self-promotion and relational aggression on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 258–262.
2. American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5 Task Force. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5™ (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Publishing,
3. Andreassen, C. S. (2015). Online social network site addiction: A comprehensive review. Current Addiction Reports, 2(2), 175–184.
4. Andreassen, C. S., & Pallesen, S. (2014). Social network site addiction-an overview. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 20, 4053–4061.
5. Andreassen, C. S., Pallesen, S., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). The relationship between addictive use of social media, narcissism, and self-esteem: Findings from a large national survey. Addictive Behaviors, 64, 287–293.
6. Andreassen, C. S., Torsheim, T., Brunborg, G. S., & Pallesen, S. (2012). Development of a Facebook Addiction Scale. Psychological Reports, 110(2), 501–517.
7. Arrigo, B. A., & Shipley, S. (2001). The confusion over psychopathy (I): Historical considerations. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 45(3), 325–344.
8. Balta, S., Jonason, P., Denes, A., Emirtekin, E., Tosuntaş, Ş. B., Kircaburun, K., & Griffiths, M. D. (2019). Dark personality traits and problematic smartphone use: The mediating role of fearful attachment. Personality and Individual Differences, 149, 214–219.

9. Begg, C. B., & Mazumdar, M. (1994). Operating characteristics of a rank correlation test for publication bias. Biometrics, 50(4), 1088–1101.
10. Bergman, S. M., Fearrington, M. E., Davenport, S. W., & Bergman, J. Z. (2011). Millennials, narcissism, and social networking: What narcissists do on social networking sites and why. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(5), 706–711.
11. Bilevicius, E., Neufeld, D. C., Single, A., Foot, M., Ellery, M., Keough, M. T., & Johnson, E. A. (2019). Vulnerable narcissism and addiction: The mediating role of shame. Addictive Behaviors, 92, 115–121.
12. Borenstein, M., Hedges, L., Higgins, J., & Rothstein, H. (2013). Comprehensive metaanalysis (3rd ed.). Biostat.
13. Brand, M., Wegmann, E., Stark, R., Müller, A., Wölfling, K., Robbins, T. W., & Potenza, M. N. (2019). The Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model for addictive behaviors: Update, generalization to addictive behaviors beyond Internet-use disorders, and specification of the process character of addictive behaviors. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 104, 1–10.
14. Brand, M., Young, K. S., Laier, C., Wölfling, K., & Potenza, M. N. (2016). Integrating psychological and neurobiological considerations regarding the development and maintenance of specific internet-use disorders: An Interaction of Person-Affect- Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 71, 252–266.
15. Bruno, A., Quattrone, D., Scimeca, G., Cicciarelli, C., Romeo, V. M., Pandolfo, G., Zoccali, R. A., & Muscatello, M. R. A. (2014). Unraveling exercise addiction: The role of narcissism and self-esteem. Journal of Addiction, 2014, 987841.
16. Card, N. A. (2012). Applied meta-analysis for social science research. Guilford Press.
17. Chung, K. L., Morshidi, I., Yoong, L. C., & Thian, K. N. (2019). The role of the dark tetrad and impulsivity in social media addiction: Findings from Malaysia. Personality and Individual Differences, 143, 62–67.
18. Cooper, H. (2010). Research synthesis and meta-analysis. SAGE Publication.
19. Demircioğlu, Z. I. (2020). Antecedents of social media addiction and cyberbullying among adolescents: Attachment, the dark triad, rejection sensitivity and friendship quality (Unpublished master’s thesis). Çankaya University, Ankara.
20. Demircioğlu, Z. I., & Göncü Köse, A. (2021). Effects of attachment styles, dark triad, rejection sensitivity, and relationship satisfaction on social media addiction: A mediated model. Current Psychology, 40(1), 414–428.
21. Duval, S., & Tweedie, R. (2000). Trim and fill: A simple funnel-plot-based method of testing and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics, 56(2), 455–63.
22. Gardiner, J. D., & Lawson, J. (2022). Depending on the dark triad: Exploring relationships between malign personality traits, substance and process addictions. Journal of Substance Use, 1–6.
23. Gignac G. E., & Szodorai E. T. (2016). Effect size guidelines for individual differences researchers. Personal and Individual Differences, 102, 74–78.
24. Gunnthorsdottir, A., McCabe, K., & Smith, V. (2002). Using the Machiavellianism instrument to predict trustworthiness in a bargaining game. Journal of Economic Psychology, 23(1), 49–66.
25. Güler, H., Öztay, O. H., & Özkoçak, V. (2022). Evaluation of the relationship between social media addiction and aggression. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 21(3), 1350–1366.
26. Hare, R. D., & Neumann, C. S. (2009). Psychopathy: Assessment and forensic implications. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 54(12), 791–802.
27. Higgins, J. P., Thomas, J., Chandler, J., Cumpston, M., Li, T., Page, M. J., & Welch, V. A. (Eds.). (2019). Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions. John Wiley & Sons.
28. Hou, Y., Xiong, D., Jiang, T., Song, L., & Wang, Q. (2019). Social media addiction: Its impact, mediation, and intervention. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 13(1), Article 4.
29. Huang, C. (2022). Social media addiction and personality: A meta‐analysis. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 25(4), 747–761.
30. Hussain, Z., Wegmann, E., & Griffiths, M. D. (2021). The association between problematic social networking site use, dark triad traits, and emotion dysregulation. BMC Psychology, 9(1), 1–13.
31. Jauk, E., & Dieterich, R. (2019). Addiction and the dark triad of personality. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, 662.
32. Jonason, P. K., & Webster, G. D. (2010). The dirty dozen: A concise measure of the dark triad. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 420–432.
33. Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Introducing the short dark triad (SD3): A brief measure of dark personality traits. Assessment, 21, 28–41.
34. Kardefelt-Winther, D. (2014). A conceptual and methodological critique of internet addiction research: Towards a model of compensatory internet use. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 351–354.
35. Kircaburun, K., Demetrovics, Z., & Tosuntaş, Ş. B. (2019). Analyzing the links between problematic social media use, dark triad traits, and self-esteem. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 17(6), 1496–1507.
36. Kircaburun, K., Jonason, P. K., & Griffiths, M. D. (2018). The dark tetrad traits and problematic social media use: The mediating role of cyberbullying and cyberstalking. Personality and Individual Differences, 135, 264–269.
37. Kumpasoğlu, G. B., Eltan, S., Merdan-Yıldız, E. D., & Durak-Batıgün, A. (2021). Mediating role of life satisfaction and death anxiety in the relationship between dark triad and social media addiction. Personality and Individual Differences, 172, 110606.
38. Kuss, D. J., & Griffiths, M. D. (2020). Internet addiction in psychotherapy. Palgrave Pivot.
39. Leary, M. R. (2001). Social anxiety as an early warning system: A refinement and extension of the self-presentational theory of social anxiety. Allyn & Bacon.
40. Lee, S. L. (2019). Predicting SNS addiction with the big five and the dark triad. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 13(1), Article 3.
41. Lyvers, M., Salviani, A., Costan, S., & Thorberg, F. A. (2022). Alexithymia, narcissism and social anxiety in relation to social media and internet addiction symptoms. International Journal of Psychology, 57(5), 606–612.
42. Mejía-Suazo, C. J., Landa-Blanco, M., Mejía-Suazo, G. A., & Martínez, C. A. M. (2021). Dark and light triad: Relationship between personality traits and addiction to mobile phones, video games and internet. Center for Open Science.
43. Michels, M. (2022). General intelligence and the dark triad: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Indıvıdual Dıfferences, 43(1), 35-46.
44. Moher, D., Liberati, A., Tetzlaff, J., Altman, D. G., & The PRISMA Group. (2009). Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: The PRISMA statement. PLoS Med, 6(7), e1000097.
45. Monacis, L., Griffiths, M. D., Limone, P., Sinatra, M., & Servidio, R. (2020). Selfitis behavior: Assessing the Italian version of the Selfitis Behavior Scale and its mediating role in the relationship of dark traits with social media addiction. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(16), 5738.
46. Morf, C. C., & Rhodewalt, F. (2001). Unraveling the paradoxes of narcissism: A dynamic self-regulatory processing model. Psychological Inquiry, 12(4), 177–196.
47. Mowlaie, M., Abolghasemi, A., & Aghababaei, N. (2016). Pathological narcissism, brain behavioral systems and tendency to substance abuse: The mediating role of self-control. Personality and Individual Differences, 88, 247–250.
48. Müller, A., Claes, L., Birlin, A., Georgiadou, E., Laskowski, N. M., Steins-Loeber, S., & de Zwaan, M. (2021). Associations of buying-shopping disorder symptoms with identity confusion, materialism, and socially undesirable personality features in a community sample. European Addiction Research, 27(2), 142–150.
49. Necula, C. N. (2020). The relation between the dark triad and social media addiction, with the moderating role of social anxiety in young people. Journal of Experiential Psychotherapy, 23(3), 47–59.
50. Nguyen, T. H., Lin, K-H., Rahman, F. F., Ou, J-P., & Wong, W-K. (2020). Study of depression, anxiety, and social media addiction among undergraduate students. Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences, 23(4), 284–303.
51. Nikbin, D., Taghizadeh, S. K., & Rahman, S. A. (2022). Linking dark triad traits to Instagram addiction: The mediating role of motives. Technology in Society, 68, 101892.
52. Orwin, R. G. (1983). A fail-safe N for effect size in meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Statistics, 8, 157–159.
53. Paulhus, D. L. (2001). Normal narcissism: Two minimalist accounts. Psychological Inquiry, 12(4), 228–230.
54. 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.
55. Pearson, C., & Hussain, Z. (2017). Smartphone use, addiction, narcissism, and personality: A mixed methods investigation. In Gaming and Technology Addiction, 5(1), 17–32.
56. Ryan, T., Chester, A., Reece, J., & Xenos, S. (2014). The uses and abuses of Facebook: A review of Facebook addiction. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 3(3), 133–148.
57. Savcı, M. (2019). Social media craving and the amount of self-disclosure: The mediating role of the dark triad. International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 11(4), 1-10.
58. Savci, M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2019). The development of the Turkish Social Media Craving Scale (SMCS): A validation study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 19(2), 359–373.
59. Servidio, R., Griffiths, M. D., & Demetrovics, Z. (2021). Dark triad of personality and problematic smartphone use: A preliminary study on the mediating role of fear of missing out. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(16), 8463.
60. Sherry, S. B., Hewitt, P. L., Besser, A., Flett, G. L., & Klein, C. (2006). Machiavellianism, trait perfectionism, and perfectionistic self-presentation. Personality and Individual Differences, 40(4), 829–839.
61. Sindermann, C., Elhai, J. D., & Montag, C. (2020). Predicting tendencies towards the disordered use of Facebook's social media platforms: On the role of personality, impulsivity, and social anxiety. Psychiatry Research, 285, 112793.
62. Tahoon, R. (2020). Mediating effects of dark personality triad and real and mediated social interaction on social media addiction and academic performance in university students. Clinical and Experimental Psychology, 6(4), 1–10.
63. Tang, W. Y., Reer, F., & Quandt, T. (2020). The interplay of gaming disorder, gaming motivations, and the dark triad. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 9(2), 491–496.
64. Tang, W. Y., Reer, F., & Quandt, T. (2022). The interplay of the dark triad and social media use motives to social media disorder. Personality and Individual Differences, 187, 111402.
65. Turel, O., Poppa, N., & Gil-Or, O. (2018). Neuroticism magnifies the detrimental association between social media addiction symptoms and wellbeing in women, but not in men: A three-way moderation model. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89(3), 605–619.
66. Tutgun-Ünal, A., & Deniz, L. (2015). Development of the Social Media Addiction Scale. Online Academic Journal of Information Technology, 6(21), 52–70.
67. van den Eijnden, R. J., Lemmens, J. S., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2016). The Social Media Disorder Scale. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, 478–487.
68. Vize, C. E., Lynam, D. R., Collison, K. L., & Miller, J. D. (2018). Differences among dark triad components: A meta-analytic investigation. Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment, 9(2), 101–111.
69. Winters, A. M., Malouff, J. M., & Schutte, N. S. (2022). The association between the five-factor model of personality and problem cannabis use: A meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 193, 111635.
70. Wong, B. Z. R., Goh, S. J., & Hui, J. Y. (2020). Dark triad and social media addiction: The mediating roles of coping strategies (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia.
71. Young, K. S. (1998). Internet addiction: The emergence of a new clinical disorder. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 1(3), 237–244.