Social Media Usage and the Dark Triad Traits among Undergraduate students- An Exploratory Study

Authors:

Shravani Varanasi, Justin Joy Naik, Dr. Sudeep Chandra

Pages: 9-16

Abstract:

Excessive Social media Usage (SMU) among young adults has proven to be a cause for concern, research being conducted in order to elucidate upon the same. The current study hypothesized a possible link between dependent social media usage and the presence of dark personality traits (DT3), namely Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Using a descriptive correlation study design, scales for measuring SMU and DT3 were administered among a purposive sample of 441 students. The scales used were the “The Dirty Dozen Questionnaire" and “Social Media Use Questionnaire” for measuring DT3 and SMU respectively. The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant positive correlational relationship between SMU and the DT3. In addition, significant gender differences were observed in SMU, Machiavellianism (M), Psychopathy (P) and Dark Triad (DT3). The implications of the findings are discussed. Further probe into the nature of the relationship between SMU and DT3 on various domains was recommended.