Understanding Academic Fraud: The Role of Dark Triad Personality and Situational Factor

Academic fraud is a perennial problem, and the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated it with most universities moving to online learning. We conducted a survey with 259 students from three universities about their perceptions of academic fraud in online learning. This article examines whether individual factors drawing from the dark triad of personality and three situational factors: academic integrity culture, academic fraud ambiguity, and pressure, influence the intention to engage in academic fraud. Using partial least square-structural equation modeling, the results show that academic integrity culture, pressure, and the dark triad of personality significantly affect students' intention to engage in academic fraud. The implication of such findings is discussed. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Criminal Justice Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Social media skepticism and belief in conspiracy theories about COVID-19: the moderating role of the dark triad.

The prevalence of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 in the wide-open social media environment has raised considerable concerns about the adverse effects of believing such theories. The previous work showed that skepticism is negatively associated with acceptance of media content. However, this association has yet to be investigated between skepticism towards content on social media and conviction of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Furthermore, this association can be a function of social media users' dark triad traits comprising Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. A convenient sample of 439 Malaysian young adult social media users was recruited to complete the survey. Results showed that skepticism has a negative relationship with belief in conspiracy theories about COVID-19. However, the strength of the relationship is varied depending on respondents' Machiavellianism and narcissism levels. The negative association between skepticism and belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories is weaker for individuals with high scores on Machiavellianism. High and moderate scores on narcissism were also found to diminish the negative relationship of skepticism with COVID-19 conspiracy ideation. The results yield implications for enhancing healthy skepticism to mitigate belief in conspiracy theories promulgated on social media. Nonetheless, Machiavellianism and narcissism appeared to weaken the power of skepticism on conspiracy theories.

Tales from the Dark Side of Technology Acceptance: The Dark Triad and the Technology Acceptance Model

With the dramatic shifts in the workforce that have emerged in the post–COVID-19 world, workers' emotions have often presented very negatively, causing people to overtly display the dark aspects of their personality while at work. At the same time, organizations have been forced to adopt new technologies to fill the gaps in their desired outcomes and cope with changes in market demand. The ensuing clash between negative emotions and technological implementation may lead to intense conflicts and adverse work outcomes. This study hypothesizes a direct relationship between dark personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and technology acceptance. Using a multiple regression model with a sample of general workers from various industries (n = 396), the study found that narcissism and psychopathy significantly impacted technology acceptance, while Machiavellianism did not. The findings offer valuable theoretical, practical, and managerial insights. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Big Five, Dark Triad, and face masks: The role of personality in reducing the spread of COVID-19

Face masks are an effective method to reduce the spread of COVID-19, but many people are reluctant to wear them. Recent authors have called for studies of personality to determine which people may have particularly negative face mask perceptions and reduced face mask wearing. In the current article, we assess the relation of the Big Five and Dark Triad with face mask perceptions and wearing. We apply a four-wave longitudinal research design collected via MTurk (n = 209, Mage = 36.97 years, 50% female, 85% American), and we use the eight-dimension Face Mask Perceptions Scale to test mediating mechanisms between personality and behavior. When tested together, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism did not have notable relations with perceptions or wearing;openness and the Dark Triad had significant relations with face mask perceptions, and agreeableness had significant indirect effects on face mask wearing via perceptions. These results indicate that personality does relate to face mask perceptions and behaviors. We call on future research to conduct facet-level studies of personality with face mask perceptions and behaviors to ascertain the cause of these observed relations, further identify the importance of specific face mask perceptions, and integrate personality into models of health behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Who is impacted? Personality predicts individual differences in psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in people's private and public lives that are unprecedented in modern history. However, little is known about the differential psychological consequences of restrictions that have been imposed to fight the pandemic. In a large and diverse German sample (N = 1,320), we examined how individual differences in psychological consequences of the pandemic (perceived restrictiveness of government-supported measures, global pandemic-related appraisals, subjective well-being) were associated with a broad set of faceted personality traits (Big Five, Honesty-Humility, Dark Triad). Facets of Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness were among the strongest and most important predictors of psychological outcomes, even after controlling for basic sociodemographic variables (gender, age). These findings suggest that psychological consequences of the pandemic depend on personality and thus add to the growing literature on the importance of considering individual differences in crisis situations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

How Anti-Social Personality Traits and Anti-Establishment Views Promote Beliefs in Election Fraud, QAnon, and COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation

Conspiracy theories and misinformation (CTM) became a salient feature of the Trump era. However, traditional explanations of political attitudes and behaviors inadequately account for beliefs in CTM or the deleterious behaviors they are associated with. Here, we integrate disparate literatures to explain beliefs in CTM regarding COVID-19, QAnon, and voter fraud. We aim to provide a more holistic accounting, and to determine which political, psychological, and social factors are most associated with such beliefs. Using a unique national survey, we find that anti-social personality traits, anti-establishment orientations, and support for Donald Trump are more strongly related to beliefs in CTM than traditional left-right orientations or other frequently posited factors, such as education, science literacy, and social media use. Our findings encourage researchers to move beyond the traditional correlates of political behavior when examining beliefs that express anti-social tendencies or a deep skepticism of social and political institutions.

Do health beliefs link Dark Triad traits to COVID-19 behaviors? Replicating Nowak et al. (2020) in a Brazilian sample

The Dark Triad (DT) is comprised of a set of personality traits—Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism—related to low agreeableness and antisocial behavior. While emerging evidence links these traits to COVID-19 related behaviors, limited research has sought to identify the beliefs and attitudes that translate the former into the latter. To address this gap in the literature, Nowak et al. (2020) recently surveyed a polish Western sample (n = 755), finding initial evidence that health beliefs help explain the connection between Dark Triad traits and COVID-19 related preventive and hoarding behaviors. Our objective in the present study was to examine whether the findings reported by Nowak et al. could be replicated using data from a non-WEIRD population. Using structural equation modeling and data from a Brazilian sample (N = 406), we replicated most of Nowak et al.'s (2020) findings. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Masquerade of Polish Society-Psychological Determinants of COVID-19 Precautionary Behaviors.

The risk of contracting COVID-19 was a very specific situation of uncertainty and ambi-guity, and of course, cognitively interesting for psychologists studying the determinants of behaviors of different personality types. In this study, we set our sights on trying to find a correlation between adherence to wearing masks and receiving vaccinations and having certain character traits that we thought might influence preventive behavior or not. We focused on the Dark Triad-psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism-as well as social approval and the need for cognition closure, as these traits have previously been linked to heightened conspiracy mentalities. We recruited 159 subjects in the experiment, including 53 male and 106 female participants over the age of 18 to take part in an online survey investigating personality and COVID-19 information. The results confirmed our hypothesis that age, empathy, the need for social approval and other psychological traits are the factors that differentiates people who wear face masks from those who do not. However, it seems impossible to define one set of features that would predispose people to not wear face masks. In our study, the importance of psychological features differed depending on the category of public places. We discuss possible implications of these findings and provide direction for future research.

Authoritarianism, psychopathy, and resistance to wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic: A partial replication and extension of key findings.

Controversial recent research suggests Americans with more authoritarian tendencies showed less concern about COVID-19 and self-report less mask wearing. The present study set out to replicate this result with a larger sample. The study also sought to extend the original research by investigating how the Dark Triad traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism are related 1 COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors. Nine-hundred ninety-six United States high school graduates were asked 8 questions about their level of concern about the effects of the virus on health and finances, how frequently they wore masks, which authority figures they trusted, and whether China was responsible for the virus. Correlational and regression analyzes showed that authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy were all negatively related to self-reported mask wearing. An explanation is offered for an apparent contradiction between the presented results and studies that showed authoritarian support for lockdowns early during the outbreak.

Big Five, Dark Triad, and Face Masks The Role of Personality in Reducing the Spread of COVID-19

Face masks are an effective method to reduce the spread of COVID-19, but many people are reluctant to wear them. Recent authors have called for studies of personality to determine which people may have particularly negative face mask perceptions and reduced face mask wearing. In the current article, we assess the relation of the Big Five and Dark Triad with face mask perceptions and wearing. We apply a four-wave longitudinal research design collected via MTurk (n = 209, M-age = 36.97 years, 50% female, 85% American), and we use the eight-dimension Face Mask Perceptions Scale to test mediating mechanisms between personality and behavior. When tested together, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism did not have notable relations with perceptions or wearing;openness and the Dark Triad had significant relations with face mask perceptions, and agreeableness had significant indirect effects on face mask wearing via perceptions. These results indicate that personality does relate to face mask perceptions and behaviors. We call on future research to conduct facet-level studies of personality with face mask perceptions and behaviors to ascertain the cause of these observed relations, further identify the importance of specific face mask perceptions, and integrate personality into models of health behaviors.

COVID-19 prevention behaviour is differentially motivated by primary psychopathy, grandiose narcissism and vulnerable Dark Triad traits.

Dark Triad traits (psychopathy, narcissism) are associated with nonadherence to COVID-19 prevention measures such as social distancing and wearing face masks, although the psychological mechanisms underpinning this relationship remain unclear. In contrast, high threat-sensitivity may motivate compliance, and maybe seen in relation to vulnerable dark traits (secondary psychopathy, vulnerable narcissism and borderline personality disorder). The relationship between vulnerable dark traits and COVID-19 prevention behaviour has not been examined. During April 2021, participants (n = 263) completed an online psychometric study assessing engagement with COVID-19 prevention behaviour, traditional DT traits (primary psychopathy; grandiose narcissism) and vulnerable DT traits. Potential indirect effects were fear of COVID-19, perceived coronavirus severity, belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and altruism. Model of path analysis identified predictors of engagement in disease prevention behaviour. Primary psychopathy, grandiose narcissism, secondary psychopathy and BPD were associated with less COVID-19 prevention behaviour, with an indirect effect of reduced coronavirus severity. Grandiose narcissism and BPD were also motivated by COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and increased prevention behaviour when fear of COVID-19 was higher. No direct or indirect effects were observed for vulnerable narcissism. The current study is the first to elucidate psychological mechanisms linking vulnerable dark traits with COVID-19 prevention behaviour.

How Anti-Social Personality Traits and Anti-Establishment Views Promote Beliefs in Election Fraud, QAnon, and COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation

Conspiracy theories and misinformation (CTM) became a salient feature of the Trump era. However, traditional explanations of political attitudes and behaviors inadequately account for beliefs in CTM or the deleterious behaviors they are associated with. Here, we integrate disparate literatures to explain beliefs in CTM regarding COVID-19, QAnon, and voter fraud. We aim to provide a more holistic accounting, and to determine which political, psychological, and social factors are most associated with such beliefs. Using a unique national survey, we find that anti-social personality traits, anti-establishment orientations, and support for Donald Trump are more strongly related to beliefs in CTM than traditional left-right orientations or other frequently posited factors, such as education, science literacy, and social media use. Our findings encourage researchers to move beyond the traditional correlates of political behavior when examining beliefs that express anti-social tendencies or a deep skepticism of social and political institutions. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Do health beliefs link Dark Triad traits to COVID-19 behaviors? Replicating Nowak et al. (2020) in a Brazilian sample

The Dark Triad (DT) is comprised of a set of personality traits—Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism—related to low agreeableness and antisocial behavior. While emerging evidence links these traits to COVID-19 related behaviors, limited research has sought to identify the beliefs and attitudes that translate the former into the latter. To address this gap in the literature, Nowak et al. (2020) recently surveyed a polish Western sample (n = 755), finding initial evidence that health beliefs help explain the connection between Dark Triad traits and COVID-19 related preventive and hoarding behaviors. Our objective in the present study was to examine whether the findings reported by Nowak et al. could be replicated using data from a non-WEIRD population. Using structural equation modeling and data from a Brazilian sample (N = 406), we replicated most of Nowak et al.'s (2020) findings.

Identifying the Drivers Behind the Dissemination of Online Misinformation: A Study on Political Attitudes and Individual Characteristics in the Context of Engaging With Misinformation on Social Media

The increasing dissemination of online misinformation in recent years has raised the question which individuals interact with this kind of information and what role attitudinal congruence plays in this context. To answer these questions, we conduct surveys in six countries (BE, CH, DE, FR, UK, and US) and investigate the drivers of the dissemination of misinformation on three noncountry specific topics (immigration, climate change, and COVID-19). Our results show that besides issue attitudes and issue salience, political orientation, personality traits, and heavy social media use increase the willingness to disseminate misinformation online. We conclude that future research should not only consider individual's beliefs but also focus on specific user groups that are particularly susceptible to misinformation and possibly caught in social media "fringe bubbles."

Relationships between Dark Triad and negative emotions during COVID-19 lockdown: The chain mediating roles of negative coping and state boredom.

Personality is distal vulnerability of negative emotions and vital to mental health. Dark Triad was significantly correlated with negative emotions, whereas the mechanisms beneath the relationships were less clear. Based on life history strategy theory (LHS) and cognitive vulnerability-transactional stress model, the study explored the relationships between Dark Triad and negative emotions and investigated the roles of negative coping style and state boredom in the relationships aforementioned during the strict period of COVID-19 lockdown in China. 464 participants (M age = 36.78 years; SD = 10.53) finished a package of measurements online including Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Short Dark Triad (SD3), Multidimensional State Boredom Scale (MSBS), and Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ). The results showed there were positive relationships between Dark Triad and depression, anxiety and stress. Moreover, the relationships between Dark Triad and negative emotions were sequentially mediated by negative coping style and state boredom. The present study offered fascinating perspectives in the relationships between Dark Triad and negative emotions, and revealed how Dark Triad affected depression, anxiety and stress during the initial phase of COVID-19 pandemic and strict lockdown among Chinese population. The present results may provide important implications for the prevention and intervention of depression, anxiety and stress during COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. Specifically, the intervention strategies that focus on reducing Dark Triad, negative coping and boredom may help offset occurrence of negative emotional states.

Who thinks COVID-19 is a hoax? Psychological correlates of beliefs in conspiracy theories and attitudes towards anti-coronavirus measures at the end of the first lockdown in Germany

The reported dataset addresses potential correlates and predictors of beliefs in conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. Different psychological constructs (self-esteem, Dark Triad personality traits, collective narcissism, political attitude, individualism/collectivism), social status, and socio-demographic variables were assessed. Data from 746 participants from all parts of Germany who study part-time while working were collected between May 26 to July 5, 2020. We used a cross-sectional online survey comprising a total of 98 items. Preliminary analysis revealed sound psychometric properties of the measures. These data provide several opportunities for further use and can be utilized for research and educational purposes. For example, comparisons can be drawn between existing research on conspiracy theories to determine whether known factors determining beliefs in conspiracy theories are also relevant for COVID-19. All data and additional materials (e.g., codebook of all items, R code) are available at https://osf.io/p6q7w/. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Dark triad traits and panic buying

This study investigated possible connections between Paulus and Williams's (2002) dark triad traits and panic buying during the pandemic. The studies coincided with the Phase 2 lockdown enforced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan. In the first study, consumers scoring higher on a narcissism measure reported less panic buying, whereas people scoring higher on measures of Machiavellianism and psychopathy reported more panic buying under pandemic-induced scarcity conditions. Study two explored the potential mediating influence of psychological vulnerability to account for the disparate relationships between the dark triad traits and pandemic-fueled panic buying. Study 2 found support for the role of psychological vulnerability in mediating this set of relations.

Understanding Academic Fraud: The Role of Dark Triad Personality and Situational Factor

Academic fraud is a perennial problem, and the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated it with most universities moving to online learning. We conducted a survey with 259 students from three universities about their perceptions of academic fraud in online learning. This article examines whether individual factors drawing from the dark triad of personality and three situational factors: academic integrity culture, academic fraud ambiguity, and pressure, influence the intention to engage in academic fraud. Using partial least square-structural equation modeling, the results show that academic integrity culture, pressure, and the dark triad of personality significantly affect students’ intention to engage in academic fraud. The implication of such findings is discussed. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Criminal Justice Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The good, the bad, and the neutral: Vaccine hesitancy mediates the relations of Psychological Capital, the Dark Triad, and the Big Five with vaccination willingness and behaviors.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it apparent that many people are unwilling to be vaccinated, and certain types of people seem predisposed to support or oppose vaccines. We perform a multiple-wave survey study to determine whether the Big Five, Dark Triad, and Psychological Capital (PsyCap) indirectly relate via vaccine hesitancy to vaccination willingness, vaccination, and vaccine word-of-mouth. Our results show that conscientiousness, extraversion, narcissism, psychopathy, and PsyCap each influence our outcomes via dimensions of vaccine hesitancy. PsyCap had an additional direct effect beyond these mediators. The overall effects of extraversion and PsyCap were negative on vaccine hesitancy, positive on pro-vaccination outcomes, and negative on anti-vaccination outcomes. The overall effects of conscientiousness, narcissism, and psychopathy were positive on vaccine hesitancy, negative on pro-vaccination outcomes, and positive on anti-vaccination outcomes. To conclude, we identify theoretical frameworks that can provide further insights into these relations. We suggest that the effects of conscientiousness may be understood by integrating research on overconfidence; the effects of extraversion and PsyCap may be understood by applying the situation, trait, and outcome activation model; and the effects of narcissism and psychopathy may be understood with Life History Theory.