Lecture 2: Experiencing Online Aggression
Online aggression: "Intentional harm delivered by the use of electronic means to a person or a group
of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as offensive, derogatory, harmful or
unwanted" (Grigg, 2010)
(Cyber)bullying: "Bullying is an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a groups
or an individual repeatedly and overtime against a victim who cannot easily defend him-or herself
(Olweus, 1993
Article 1: Dark Triad personality traits and adolescent cyber-aggression
A lot remains uncovered about the motives and personality profiles of online aggressors. This study
emphasizes the importance of Dark Triad characteristics (Machiavellianism, and particularly
narcissism and psychopathy).
Cyber-aggression?
- Aggressive, intentional act
- Using electronic means
- To a person or a group of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as
offensive, derogatory, harmful or unwanted
Dark personalities: those characterized by socially offensive traits
- Machiavellianism = manipulative strategies of social conducts that are not correlated with
general intelligence, and that do not necessarily lead to success
• Associated with offline aggression among adolescents
- Narcissism = includes a sense of importance and uniqueness, fantasies of unlimited success,
requesting constant attention, expecting special favors, and being interpersonally exploitative
• Associated with offline aggression among adolescents
• Narcissists function well in online environment (e.g., due to the controllability of
online self-presentation)
• Narcissistic exploitativeness (exploitative of others, only your own interest in mind,
no moral compassion), a sub-construct of narcissism, is associated with cyber-
aggression among adolescents
- Psychopathy = an impulsive behavioral style, an arrogant, deceitful interpersonal style and a
deficient affective experience
• Associated with offline aggression among adolescents
• Associated with cyber-aggression among adolescents
The three components of the Dark Triad have been associated with both offline aggression and cyber-
aggression, however, mostly looking at one trait.
Traits are clustered, however, correlations among the traits are fairly modest
Each component may still be viewed as a distinct aspect of socially aversive behavior
First to study the association between Dark Triad traits (as a combined Dark Triad cluster) and cyber-
aggression among and adolescent population.
,Method
Sample: 324 adolescent (63% girls) aged 14 to 18 (M = 16.05, SD = 1.31)
- Having a Facebook profile
- Convenience sample recruited in schools, scouting organizations and sport clubs
Collection
- Online survey
- Study follows the APA Ethical Guidelines for Research with Human Subjects
Instruments
- The Short Dark Triad (27 items, 9 per personality trait) - Five point scale
- Facebook Cyber-Aggression scale - A list of 8 activities indicating the number of times they
engaged in the specific activities in the past three months
• E.g., "sending insulting Facebook messages/comments to someone (repeatedly)"
- Facebook Intensity scale - measures Facebook usage with 2 self-reported assessments:
• Indicating number of Facebook friends on a nine-point scale
• Indicating the amount of minutes spent on Facebook on a six-point scale
• Then follows a series of Likert-scale attitudinal questions to tap the extent to which
the participant is emotionally connected to Facebook and integrated into his/her daily
activities on a five-point scale
Results
Frequency
- One out of 3 respondents (35.8%, N = 116) engages at least once in the past three months in
one or more than one of the eight cyber-aggression activities
- "Saying things about someone to make the person a laughing stock" was the most used
activity (17.6% of the respondents at least once in the past three months, N = 57)
- Followed by "sending insulting Facebook messages or comments to someone repeatedly"
(15.1%, N = 49)
- Only psychopathy (not Machiavellianism and narcissism) are related to cyber-aggression on
Facebook.
- Mere intensity in social network use does not give a significant relation between narcissism
and cyber-aggression
,Implications
As personality traits are fairly stabilized in this age group, cyber-aggression may be used as an
indicator of Dark Triad personality traits in adolescent individuals
Prevention?
- Social perspective-taking skills have been proven successful in overcoming egocentrism and
antisocial behavior
- Include training of these skills in prevention programs
Limitations
- Short Dark Triad instrument did not allow to investigate sub-constructs of Machiavellianism,
Narcissism, and Psychopathy
- Self-reports: may be subject to response distortions (e.g., extreme or central tendency
responding, negative affectivity bias, socially desirable responding)
• Solution:
• Use reports from multiple informants (peers, teachers, and parents)
• Social desirability scale to have an indication of the extent to which the responses are
influence by impressions management
- Convenience sample (more girls than boys and six out of ten people were following a general
educational program) - so generalization should be taken with extreme caution
Article 2: Using the theory of planned behavior to understand cyberbullying
Focus of the study:
Studies have mostly focused on profiling cyberbullies in terms of sociodemographic characteristics
(e.g., age & gender), personality traits (e.g., narcissism), involvement with traditional bullying and
cyberbullying and ICT-use.
Focus is now shifting toward proximal determinants: determine the behavior more directly (perceived
norms and risk perception).
- Shortcomings
• Received few attention in previous research
• Studied in isolation from other proximal determinants
• Beliefs underlying these proximal determinants are not taken into account
- Importance of studying proximal determinants
• Intervention messages should try to encounter or reconfirm these beliefs
Research Questions:
- Is the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) a good framework for explaining cyberbullying
perpetration?
- Which are the underlying beliefs of the attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral
control?
, Overview literature
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): people's intention to perform a certain behavior is the best
predictor of their actual behavior. Determined by 2 belief-based concepts:
1. Attitude (A) is a person's global affective evaluation of a behavior
2. The Subjective Norm (SN) is the perception of what other think of the behavior
3. The Perceived Behavioral Control (PCB) is defined as the perceived ease or difficulty of
performing the behavior.
The more favorable A and SN (to a behavior) & the greater PBS → the stronger an individual's
intention to perform the behavior under consideration.
Profiling perpetrators based on previous literature:
- Person's Attitude (A) is based on his or her behavioral beliefs:
• Each belief connects the behavior to a certain affective, normative or moral outcome
• Range of positive and negative outcome beliefs that might underlie adolescents'
attitude towards cyberbullying
• Values: more favorable attitude with regard to cyberbullying (e.g., enhances or
reconfirms status in the peer group)
• Negative: disapproval buy peers and punishments by parents
- Subjective Norms (NM) the perception of what others think of the behavior formed by:
• Normative beliefs: expectations about whether people approve the behavior (or not)
• E.g., that peers approve cyberbullying
• Related to social pressure (directly experienced social influence)
- Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the
behavior (based on control beliefs)
• Control beliefs: how likely a person feels that particular factors could make it easier or
more difficult to perform the behavior. Within cyberbullying:
• Lower risk perception - having less concerns about being caught and socially
punished (because of anonymity and lack of face-to-face contact)
• ICT skills to feel confident and easy to perform the behavior
Online aggression: "Intentional harm delivered by the use of electronic means to a person or a group
of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as offensive, derogatory, harmful or
unwanted" (Grigg, 2010)
(Cyber)bullying: "Bullying is an aggressive, intentional act or behavior that is carried out by a groups
or an individual repeatedly and overtime against a victim who cannot easily defend him-or herself
(Olweus, 1993
Article 1: Dark Triad personality traits and adolescent cyber-aggression
A lot remains uncovered about the motives and personality profiles of online aggressors. This study
emphasizes the importance of Dark Triad characteristics (Machiavellianism, and particularly
narcissism and psychopathy).
Cyber-aggression?
- Aggressive, intentional act
- Using electronic means
- To a person or a group of people irrespective of their age, who perceive(s) such acts as
offensive, derogatory, harmful or unwanted
Dark personalities: those characterized by socially offensive traits
- Machiavellianism = manipulative strategies of social conducts that are not correlated with
general intelligence, and that do not necessarily lead to success
• Associated with offline aggression among adolescents
- Narcissism = includes a sense of importance and uniqueness, fantasies of unlimited success,
requesting constant attention, expecting special favors, and being interpersonally exploitative
• Associated with offline aggression among adolescents
• Narcissists function well in online environment (e.g., due to the controllability of
online self-presentation)
• Narcissistic exploitativeness (exploitative of others, only your own interest in mind,
no moral compassion), a sub-construct of narcissism, is associated with cyber-
aggression among adolescents
- Psychopathy = an impulsive behavioral style, an arrogant, deceitful interpersonal style and a
deficient affective experience
• Associated with offline aggression among adolescents
• Associated with cyber-aggression among adolescents
The three components of the Dark Triad have been associated with both offline aggression and cyber-
aggression, however, mostly looking at one trait.
Traits are clustered, however, correlations among the traits are fairly modest
Each component may still be viewed as a distinct aspect of socially aversive behavior
First to study the association between Dark Triad traits (as a combined Dark Triad cluster) and cyber-
aggression among and adolescent population.
,Method
Sample: 324 adolescent (63% girls) aged 14 to 18 (M = 16.05, SD = 1.31)
- Having a Facebook profile
- Convenience sample recruited in schools, scouting organizations and sport clubs
Collection
- Online survey
- Study follows the APA Ethical Guidelines for Research with Human Subjects
Instruments
- The Short Dark Triad (27 items, 9 per personality trait) - Five point scale
- Facebook Cyber-Aggression scale - A list of 8 activities indicating the number of times they
engaged in the specific activities in the past three months
• E.g., "sending insulting Facebook messages/comments to someone (repeatedly)"
- Facebook Intensity scale - measures Facebook usage with 2 self-reported assessments:
• Indicating number of Facebook friends on a nine-point scale
• Indicating the amount of minutes spent on Facebook on a six-point scale
• Then follows a series of Likert-scale attitudinal questions to tap the extent to which
the participant is emotionally connected to Facebook and integrated into his/her daily
activities on a five-point scale
Results
Frequency
- One out of 3 respondents (35.8%, N = 116) engages at least once in the past three months in
one or more than one of the eight cyber-aggression activities
- "Saying things about someone to make the person a laughing stock" was the most used
activity (17.6% of the respondents at least once in the past three months, N = 57)
- Followed by "sending insulting Facebook messages or comments to someone repeatedly"
(15.1%, N = 49)
- Only psychopathy (not Machiavellianism and narcissism) are related to cyber-aggression on
Facebook.
- Mere intensity in social network use does not give a significant relation between narcissism
and cyber-aggression
,Implications
As personality traits are fairly stabilized in this age group, cyber-aggression may be used as an
indicator of Dark Triad personality traits in adolescent individuals
Prevention?
- Social perspective-taking skills have been proven successful in overcoming egocentrism and
antisocial behavior
- Include training of these skills in prevention programs
Limitations
- Short Dark Triad instrument did not allow to investigate sub-constructs of Machiavellianism,
Narcissism, and Psychopathy
- Self-reports: may be subject to response distortions (e.g., extreme or central tendency
responding, negative affectivity bias, socially desirable responding)
• Solution:
• Use reports from multiple informants (peers, teachers, and parents)
• Social desirability scale to have an indication of the extent to which the responses are
influence by impressions management
- Convenience sample (more girls than boys and six out of ten people were following a general
educational program) - so generalization should be taken with extreme caution
Article 2: Using the theory of planned behavior to understand cyberbullying
Focus of the study:
Studies have mostly focused on profiling cyberbullies in terms of sociodemographic characteristics
(e.g., age & gender), personality traits (e.g., narcissism), involvement with traditional bullying and
cyberbullying and ICT-use.
Focus is now shifting toward proximal determinants: determine the behavior more directly (perceived
norms and risk perception).
- Shortcomings
• Received few attention in previous research
• Studied in isolation from other proximal determinants
• Beliefs underlying these proximal determinants are not taken into account
- Importance of studying proximal determinants
• Intervention messages should try to encounter or reconfirm these beliefs
Research Questions:
- Is the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) a good framework for explaining cyberbullying
perpetration?
- Which are the underlying beliefs of the attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral
control?
, Overview literature
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB): people's intention to perform a certain behavior is the best
predictor of their actual behavior. Determined by 2 belief-based concepts:
1. Attitude (A) is a person's global affective evaluation of a behavior
2. The Subjective Norm (SN) is the perception of what other think of the behavior
3. The Perceived Behavioral Control (PCB) is defined as the perceived ease or difficulty of
performing the behavior.
The more favorable A and SN (to a behavior) & the greater PBS → the stronger an individual's
intention to perform the behavior under consideration.
Profiling perpetrators based on previous literature:
- Person's Attitude (A) is based on his or her behavioral beliefs:
• Each belief connects the behavior to a certain affective, normative or moral outcome
• Range of positive and negative outcome beliefs that might underlie adolescents'
attitude towards cyberbullying
• Values: more favorable attitude with regard to cyberbullying (e.g., enhances or
reconfirms status in the peer group)
• Negative: disapproval buy peers and punishments by parents
- Subjective Norms (NM) the perception of what others think of the behavior formed by:
• Normative beliefs: expectations about whether people approve the behavior (or not)
• E.g., that peers approve cyberbullying
• Related to social pressure (directly experienced social influence)
- Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) the perceived ease or difficulty of performing the
behavior (based on control beliefs)
• Control beliefs: how likely a person feels that particular factors could make it easier or
more difficult to perform the behavior. Within cyberbullying:
• Lower risk perception - having less concerns about being caught and socially
punished (because of anonymity and lack of face-to-face contact)
• ICT skills to feel confident and easy to perform the behavior
