An online survey in Australia explored the links between “dark” personality traits and the perpetration of online “catfishing” (deceiving and exploiting another person). Results showed that people with higher levels of psychopathy, sadism and narcissism were more likely to perpetrate catfishing. The study was published in Computers in Human Behavior.
Catfishing is a form of online deception where someone steals or creates a fake identity to trick others into forming an online relationship, often with the goal of financial exploitation.
The word “catfishing” itself came from a 2010 documentary “Catfish”, telling a story about a young man starting a relationship with a young woman he met on Facebook, only to discover that most of the information about her was false. This popular documentary led many people to come forward and report going through similar experiences that included online scams, harassment, and stalking.
One avenue of research into the issue of catfishing is the study of personality traits of people who engage in such practices. The set of four personality traits called “the Dark Tetrad” is particularly important in this approach, as previous studies have linked all of these traits to proneness to deceptive and exploitative behaviors.
The Dark Tetrad consists of personality traits of Machiavellianism (characterized by superficial charm, cynicism, coldness, manipulativeness, opportunism, belief that ends justify the means), narcissism (characterized by vanity, grandiosity, dominance, superiority, and entitlement), psychopathy (characterized by thrill-seeking, aggressiveness, impulsivity, criminality, low fear and anxiety, callousness, and limited empathy), and sadism (characterized by experiencing feelings of pleasure in connection with inflicting verbal and/or physical harm to other people).
Aiming to explore the extent to which online catfishing (trying to exploit and deceive others online) is linked to the Dark Tetrad personality traits, study authors conducted an online survey of 664 English-speaking participants (29 years on average, 55.8% were men). Half of the participants reported residing in Australia, 29% in the United State, and 4% in Canada. Most (89%) of participants reported being heterosexual and a bit more than 60% were either married, dating, or in a long-term relationship.
Participants completed assessments of socially desirable responding as a control, of psychopathy (Levenson Self Report Psychopathy Scale), sadism (Short Sadistic Impulse Scale), Machiavellianism (the Two-Dimensional Machiavellianism Scale), narcissism (Narcissistic Personality Inventory), and of catfishing behavior using the Catfishing Questionnaire, developed by the study authors.
Men scored a bit higher than women on sadism, Machiavellianism, narcissism and catfishing, but there were no differences between genders in psychopathy or socially desirable responding.
Self-reported proneness to catfishing behavior had quite strong positive associations with all four dark traits (more pronounced dark traits – more catfishing behavior). The association with sadism was by far the strongest.
When associations among dark traits were controlled for, sadism showed the strongest association with catfishing behavior, followed by psychopathy and narcissism. In this analysis, the association with Machiavellianism disappeared as its association with catfishing had no unique part left after controlling for associations with the other three dark personality traits. The difference between genders in catfishing behavior also disappeared when dark traits were controlled for.
Results also showed that the difference between genders in catfishing behaviors existed only in persons with certain levels of dark personality traits. Namely, men’s catfishing scores were significantly higher than women’s at average and high, but not at low, levels of psychopathy. Men’s catfishing scores were also significantly higher than women’s at low and average, but not high, levels of narcissism.
“Results indicated that people with high sadism, psychopathy, and narcissism perpetrated more catfishing behaviors. These findings provide important information regarding the psychological profile of catfishers, indicating that the catfisher is one who is egotistical (i.e., narcissism), callous and deceptive (i.e., psychopathy), and enjoys causing psychological and physical harm (i.e., sadism), the researchers concluded.
They advise that this knowledge can be used to inform education programs designed to advise online users on why people catfish and what warning signs to look out for. “For example, someone with a tailored profile extolling their status and achievements (i.e., high narcissism) may be more likely to be a catfisher.”
The study sheds light on the psychological underpinnings of catfishing. However, it also has limitations that need to be taken into account. Namely, the study was based on self-reports, which might not be perfectly accurate reflections of real-world behaviors.
The study, “Catching the catfish: Exploring gender and the Dark Tetrad of personality as predictors of catfishing perpetration”, was authored by Cassandra Lauder and Evita March.