A new study suggests that a person’s openness to forming online relationships is associated with their tendency to conceal personal information about themselves. The research has been published in the journal Personal Relationships.
“In general, I’m fascinated with personality and individual differences associated with concealing versus disclosing private information,” said study author Madeleine T. D’Agata, a scientist at Defence Research and Development Canada.
“This research, specifically, examined what types of people are more likely to disclose online, in a more anonymous context. It was conducted to better understand how future work can better promote community resilience against deception online, since disclosure can put individuals at a greater risk for being exploited online.”
D’Agata and her colleagues conducted two studies with 432 North American adults in total.
The researchers first developed a questionnaire to measure of the willingness to develop relationships with strangers online. The measure asked participants the extent to which they agreed with statements such as “I can very easily feel a closeness to people I have only met online” and “I find it more enjoyable to talk to people I do not know well online instead of in person.”
D’Agata and her colleagues then tested how the measure was related to people’s actual willingness to share personal information. Participants were asked to imagine they were chatting with a stranger on the internet as they wrote three topics: a time they felt embarrassed, something they had lied about, and something surprising about themselves that even their closest friends did not know. They then indicated how embarrassed they were, how serious the lie was, and how private the information was.
Participants with a greater openness to forming online relationships tended to disclose more serious lies. Surprisingly, however, these participants were also more likely to agree with statements such as “I have an important secret I haven’t shared with anyone” and “My secrets are too embarrassing to share with others” — indicating a higher level of self-concealment.
“The research found that certain individuals are less likely to withhold private information online. For instance, people who typically conceal private information in their day-to-day lives were actually more likely to disclose in our study,” D’Agata told PsyPost.
But why were participants with a greater tendency to conceal information about themselves more open to forming online relationships? “We suspect that this greater willingness to form online relationships is related to the role that self-concealment might play in impression management during online interactions,” the researchers explained. “Those who conceal negative information about themselves in their normal interactions with others may also do so in online contexts in order to take control of the image they portray, thereby enhancing their ability to form relationships online.”
The researchers also found that participants who scored high on a measure of dark personality traits (narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) were more likely to disclose lies of a more serious nature. “Individuals who are more manipulative and cynical were also less cautious and more likely to reveal private information,” D’Agata said.
But she also noted that “participants completed a hypothetical self-disclosure task in our study. It would be useful to understand if similar findings emerge when the disclosure is real, including having the potential for real-life consequences.”
The study, “Psychological factors related to self-disclosure and relationship formation in the online environment“, was authored by Madeleine T. D’Agata, Peter J. Kwantes, and Ronald R. Holden.