| Abstract: | The Dark Triad personality traits - psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism - are, due to their nature, often classified as socially less desirable traits. They are characterised by emotional restraint, duplicity, and aggressiveness, with frequent involvement in cyberbullying often mentioned in this context. In order to examine why individuals with higher levels of Dark Triad traits are more likely to engage in cyberbullying, we investigated the role of the online environment, which, among other aspects, offers users anonymity and a reduced sense of responsibility for their actions. In this context, we decided to conduct a more detailed examination of the process of online disinhibition, through which individuals tend to feel freer on the internet. We were also interested in how this relationship changes depending on the perceived support for cyberbullying within one's social environment. Within this framework, we examined individuals' perceptions of peer social norms regarding cyberbullying in secondary school and university settings. The study included 212 adult secondary school and university students who, within the framework of an online survey, completed the questionnaires measuring the Dark Triad (SD3), cyberbullying (ECIPQ), online disinhibition (ODS), and perceived social norms. Their results were analysed using linear regression, multiple regression, mediation and moderation analyses, and finally, moderated mediation. We found that psychopathy, online disinhibition, and perceived social norms significantly and positively predict cyberbullying perpetration. In the mediation analyses, we confirmed a partial mediating role of online disinhibition in the relationships between all three Dark Triad traits and cyberbullying, as well as a moderating role of perceived social norms in the relationships between psychopathy and cyberbullying and between narcissism and cyberbullying. In the context of the final proposed moderated mediation model, we found that the indirect effect of online disinhibition on the relationship between Machiavellianism and cyberbullying, as well as between narcissism and cyberbullying, was statistically significant only under medium and high levels of perceived support for cyberbullying. The main limitations of our study include socially desirable responding inherent to self-report measures and the relatively small sample size. |
|---|
