Dark personality traits linked to problematic social media use via jealousy and cyberstalking

A recent study published in Current Psychology indicates that individuals with antagonistic personality traits tend to develop problematic social media habits driven by jealousy and a desire to monitor their romantic partners online. The research suggests that traits such as narcissism and psychopathy foster specific types of relationship insecurity. This insecurity can prompt individuals to engage in cyberstalking, which then escalates into broader patterns of social media addiction.

Problematic social media use involves a pattern of compulsive digital engagement that interferes with daily life and mental well-being. People struggling with this issue often use social platforms to regulate their mood and experience negative feelings when offline. They also tend to face interpersonal conflicts due to their excessive screen time. Past research points to personality as a major factor in how people interact with digital platforms.

The Dark Tetrad is a psychological framework that groups together four malevolent personality traits. Machiavellianism involves manipulativeness and the strategic exploitation of others. Psychopathy is characterized by impulsivity, a lack of empathy, and a constant search for stimulation. Narcissism centers on grandiosity, a sense of entitlement, and a desire for dominance. Sadism refers to the tendency to derive pleasure from inflicting suffering on others.

Marco Giancola, a researcher at the Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences at the University of L’Aquila, designed the present study along with his colleagues to explore the missing links between these traits and digital habits. “Previous research revealed that the Dark Tetrad, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, and sadism, is associated with problematic social media use and cyberstalking,” Giancola said. “However, we knew much less about the psychological processes that might link these traits to this pattern of problematic behavior.”

“We examined whether different forms of jealousy could help explain why individuals with higher levels of Dark Tetrad traits may engage in cyberstalking and, ultimately, develop more compulsive and unregulated patterns of social media use,” Giancola explained.

Free daily newsletter

Jealousy is a complex emotion triggered by a perceived threat to a valued relationship. Psychologists divide jealousy into three distinct categories. Emotional jealousy involves reactive feelings like fear or sadness in response to a threat. Cognitive jealousy involves intrusive thoughts, suspicions, and anxiety about potential infidelity. Behavioral jealousy includes overt actions taken to monitor a partner and verify those suspicions.

To explore these psychological pathways, scientists surveyed 300 adults between the ages of 18 and 65. The sample had an average age of roughly 36 years and was predominantly female, making up 80 percent of the participants. All participants were currently in a romantic relationship and used at least one social media platform daily. The participants completed an online questionnaire between October 2024 and February 2025.

The survey included established psychological scales to measure the traits in question. A 12-item questionnaire assessed Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism, while a separate 10-item scale evaluated tendencies toward sadistic behavior. The researchers also assessed intimate partner cyberstalking using a 21-item scale, asking participants if they engaged in specific online surveillance tactics.

Another 15-item scale measured the three dimensions of jealousy regarding the participant’s current romantic partner. Finally, the researchers measured problematic social media use with a six-item assessment. This scale asked how often participants felt an urge to use social media, used it to forget personal problems, or tried to cut down their use without success. During their statistical analyses, the researchers controlled for the participants’ age, sex, and years of education.

The data indicated a sequential psychological chain of events linking dark personality traits to excessive social media use. Individuals scoring higher in Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, or sadism also reported higher levels of both cognitive and behavioral jealousy. These participants experienced more intrusive suspicions about their partners and engaged in more active monitoring behaviors.

These cognitive and behavioral forms of jealousy, in turn, predicted higher engagement in intimate partner cyberstalking. Cyberstalking then predicted higher overall scores for problematic social media use. The authors observed a sequential path where antagonistic personality traits foster specific jealousy-related thoughts and actions. These thoughts and actions encourage cyberstalking, which then fuels a compulsive pattern of social media engagement.

“The overall statistical models explained approximately 33% to 35% of the variance in problematic social media use, which suggests that the combination of personality, jealousy, cyberstalking, and the demographic variables included in the analysis was meaningfully related to the outcome,” Giancola told PsyPost. “However, these findings should not be interpreted as indicating that personality alone determines how someone uses social media.”

Interestingly, emotional jealousy did not act as a bridge between the Dark Tetrad and cyberstalking. “The most interesting finding was that cognitive and behavioral jealousy played a role in the pathway, whereas emotional jealousy did not,” Giancola said. “In other words, merely experiencing an emotional reaction to a potential relational threat did not appear to be the central mechanism.”

Instead, the proactive thoughts and controlling behaviors characteristic of cognitive and behavioral jealousy fueled the cyberstalking. “The relevant processes were persistent suspicions, intrusive thoughts about possible infidelity, and overt attempts to verify or monitor a partner’s behavior,” Giancola said. “This distinction suggests that what individuals think and do in response to jealousy may be more important for cyberstalking and problematic social media use than the emotional intensity of jealousy itself.”

Cyberstalking requires a massive investment of time and attention. Perpetrators spend hours scrutinizing shared posts, analyzing their partner’s online presence, and monitoring interactions. This obsessive engagement can easily shift from a goal-directed surveillance behavior to a generalized, compulsive pattern of social media use. The initial desire to reassert control over a romantic partner morphs into an inability to regulate one’s digital habits.

“One important takeaway is that problematic social media use may sometimes be driven by very specific interpersonal motives, rather than simply by entertainment, habit, or the desire to remain connected,” Giancola said. “For some individuals, repeated social media use may be reinforced by suspicions about a romantic partner and by attempts to monitor or control that partner’s online behavior.”

“Our findings suggest a possible sequence: darker personality tendencies are associated with more suspicious thoughts and jealousy-related monitoring behaviors, which are then associated with cyberstalking and higher levels of problematic social media use,” Giancola noted. “In practical terms, repeatedly checking a partner’s profiles, messages, followers, or interactions may provide temporary reassurance, but it can also reinforce insecurity, surveillance, and compulsive engagement with social media.”

Giancola pointed out that the same platform used for communication or entertainment can easily become a tool for reassurance-seeking and interpersonal control. “I believe the findings highlight the importance of considering the relational context of problematic social media use,” he said. “From a prevention perspective, interventions may benefit from addressing not only the amount of time people spend online, but also the motives underlying their use.”

“Psychoeducation concerning healthy relationship boundaries, uncertainty tolerance, emotional regulation, and respectful digital behavior may help reduce both intrusive monitoring and compulsive social media engagement,” Giancola added.

The cross-sectional design of the survey means the data only capture a single moment in time. The findings indicate an association between these variables but cannot establish a definitive cause-and-effect relationship.

“The most important caveat is that our study was cross-sectional,” Giancola said. “Although we tested a theoretically informed sequential mediation model, we cannot establish causality. The study examined associations between continuously distributed psychological characteristics in a non-clinical sample, not fixed categories of people or clinical diagnoses.”

Additionally, approximately 80 percent of the sample was female, which limits the ability to generalize the findings to men. “An important next step will be to replicate the findings using longitudinal designs in which personality, jealousy, cyberstalking, and problematic social media use are assessed at different points in time,” Giancola said. “This would allow us to examine whether suspicious thoughts and monitoring behaviors predict cyberstalking and subsequent difficulties in regulating social media use.”

Future research could also incorporate more diverse samples and investigate how specific platform features facilitate digital surveillance within romantic relationships. “It would also be useful to examine more balanced and culturally different samples and to investigate how specific features of social media platforms, such as activity indicators, location sharing, follower lists, and visible interactions, may facilitate digital surveillance within romantic relationships,” Giancola said.

The study, “The sequential mediating role of jealousy and cyberstalking in the relationship between the dark tetrad and problematic social media use,” was authored by Marco Giancola, Elisa Galli, and Massimiliano Palmiero.