The Relationship between Dark Triad Personality Traits and Sexting Behaviors among Adolescents and Young Adults across 11 Countries.

BACKGROUND: Sexting is an increasingly common phenomenon among adolescents and young adults. Some studies have investigated the role of personality traits in different sexting behaviors within mainstream personality taxonomies like Big Five and HEXACO. However, very few studies have investigated the role of maladaptive personality factors in sexting. Therefore, the present study investigated the relationship between Dark Triad Personality Traits and experimental (i.e., sharing own sexts), risky (i.e., sexting under substance use and with strangers), and aggravated sexting (i.e., non-consensual sexting and sexting under pressure) across 11 countries. METHODS: An online survey was completed by 6093 participants (Mage = 20.35; SDage = 3.63) from 11 different countries which covered four continents (Europe, Asia, Africa, and America). Participants completed the Sexting Behaviors Questionnaire and the 12-item Dark Triad Dirty Dozen scale. RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that sharing own sexts was positively predicted by Machiavellianism and Narcissism. Both risky and aggravated sexting were positively predicted by Machiavellianism and Psychopathy. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provided empirical evidence that different sexting behaviors were predicted by Dark Triad Personality Traits, showing a relevant role of Machiavellianism in all kinds of investigated sexting behaviors. Research, clinical, and education implications for prevention programs are discussed.

Interpretations of virtual reality.

University students were surveyed to learn what they know about virtual realities. The two studies were administered with a half-year interval in which the students (N=90, specializing either in mathematics and science, or in social science and humanities) were asked to name particular examples of virtual realities. The second, but not the first study, was administered after the participants had the chance to see the movie "Avatar" (no investigation was held into whether they really saw it). While the students in both studies widely believed that activities such as social networking and online gaming represent virtual realities, some other examples provided by the students in the two studies differ: in the second study the participants expressed a better understanding of the items related to virtual realities. At the same time, not a single participant reported particular psychological states (either regular or altered) as examples of virtual realities. Profound popularization efforts need to be done to acquaint the public, including college students, with virtual realities and let the public adequately understand how such systems work.

Flow-based model of computer hackers' motivation.

Hackers' psychology, widely discussed in the media, is almost entirely unexplored by psychologists. In this study, hackers' motivation is investigated, using the flow paradigm. Flow is likely to motivate hackers, according to views expressed by researchers and by hackers themselves. Taken as granted that hackers experience flow, it was hypothesized that flow increases with the increase of hackers' competence in IT use. Self-selected subjects were recruited on specialized web sources; 457 hackers filled out a web questionnaire. Competence in IT use, specific flow experience, and demographic data were questioned. An on-line research was administered within the Russian-speaking community (though one third of Ss are non-residents of Russian Federation); since hacking seems to be international, the belief is expressed that the results are universal. The hypothesis is not confirmed: flow motivation characterizes the least and the most competent hackers, and the members of an intermediate group, that is, averagely competent Ss report the "flow crisis"-no (or less) flow experience. Two differing strategies of task choice were self-reported by Ss: a step-by-step increase of the difficulty of choices leads to a match of challenges and skills (and to preserving the flow experience); putting choices irrespective of the likelihood of solution leads to a "flow crisis." The findings give productive hints on processes of hackers' motivational development. The flow-based model of computer hackers' motivation was developed. It combines both empirically confirmed and theoretically possible ways of hackers' "professional" growth.