Associations between the dark triad of personality and unspecified/specific forms of Internet-use disorder

Cornelia Sindermann; Rayna Sariyska; Bernd Lachmann; Matthias Brand; Christian Montag

doi:10.1556/2006.7.2018.114

Associations between the dark triad of personality and unspecified/specific forms of Internet-use disorder

J Behav Addict. 2018 Dec 1;7(4):985-992. doi: 10.1556/2006.7.2018.114. Epub 2018 Dec 13.

Authors

Cornelia Sindermann¹, Rayna Sariyska¹, Bernd Lachmann¹, Matthias Brand^{2

3}, Christian Montag^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ 1 Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University , Ulm, Germany.
² 2 General Psychology: Cognition and Center for Behavioral Addiction Research, University of Duisburg-Essen , Duisburg, Germany.
³ 3 Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Essen, Germany.
⁴ 4 The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China , Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Background and aims: Despite indications that the dark triad of personality might be associated with Internet-use disorder (IUD), research about these associations is lacking.

Methods: Two studies were performed to grasp the links between these variables. In the first study, a sample consisting of N = 468 participants (n = 130 males) filled in the Short Dark Triad Questionnaire to assess scores in the dark triad of personality and the short Internet Addiction Test to assess tendencies toward unspecified IUD. In the second study, another independent sample of N = 472 participants (n = 143 males) filled in the same questionnaires plus items about specific forms of IUD.

Results: Traits Machiavellianism and psychopathy were positively linked to tendencies toward unspecified IUD in both samples and males and females. Regarding the associations between tendencies toward specific IUDs and the dark triad of personality, no significant associations were found in males (at least not passing correction procedures for multiple testing). In females, trait Machiavellianism/psychopathy and tendencies toward Internet-shopping disorder, trait psychopathy, and tendencies toward Internet-pornography-use disorder as well as trait Machiavellianism and tendencies toward Internet-communication disorder were significantly positively correlated [at least one of the (sub)scales assessing the respective specific IUD was significantly associated with the respective dark triad trait even after correction procedures for multiple testing]. No robust pattern of associations between trait narcissism and unspecified/specific forms of IUD could be observed across (sub)samples.

Discussion and conclusions: These results indicate positive associations of the traits Machiavellianism and psychopathy (on a subclinical level) with tendencies toward IUD, especially unspecified IUD. The associations with tendencies toward specific forms of IUD seem more complex with differential personality correlates for each specific IUD. These associations need to be replicated.

Keywords: Machiavellianism; dark triad; narcissism; psychopathy; specific forms of IUD; unspecified IUD.

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Antisocial Personality Disorder / epidemiology
Antisocial Personality Disorder / physiopathology*
Behavior, Addictive / epidemiology
Behavior, Addictive / physiopathology*
Comorbidity
Female
Humans
Internet*
Machiavellianism*
Male
Narcissism*
Young Adult

Grants and funding

Funding sources: The financial support for this study was provided by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes; CS is a scholarship holder from this foundation). CM is funded by a Heisenberg grant (DFG, MO2363/3-2) from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). None of the funding sources had any role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.