ماکیاولیسم، خودنظارتی خودارتقایی و خشونت رابطه ای در فیس بوک

Machiavellianism is a personality trait characterized by cynicism, emotional detachment and a willingness to manipulate others. Research investigating the behavior of Machiavellian men and women has focused on its influence in offline relationships. The popularity of social networking sites suggests that it is also important to consider the interactions of Machiavellian men and women in this context as well. Men (N = 54) and women (N = 189) completed questionnaires assessing Machiavellianism, self-monitoring, self-promotion and relational aggression. Analyses revealed that women who were high in Machiavellianism engaged in more dishonest self-promotion and relational aggression towards a close friend on Facebook whilst males with high levels of Machiavellianism engaged in more self-promoting behavior. In addition, both men and women high in Machiavellianism engaged in more self-monitoring. The findings demonstrate the importance of considering the influence of personality on online behavior and associated gender differences.

Machiavellianism is a personality trait characterized by emotional detachment, low empathy and a willingness to exploit others (Christie and Geis, 1970, Vecchio and Sussman, 1991, Wastell and Booth, 2003 and Wilson et al., 1998). Those with high levels of Machiavellianism demonstrate strategic planning, suspicion of others and protective self-monitoring and employ a range of strategies to influence their offline relationships (Christie and Geis, 1970, Rauthmann, 2011 and Jonason and Webster, 2012). These strategies include projecting intimacy, making the other person feel ashamed, embarrassed or guilty, selecting friends that may be easier to manipulate and regulating the amount or depth of personal information revealed (Austin et al., 2007, Blumstein, 1973, Brewer et al., in press and Jonason and Schmitt, 2010). However, whilst research has demonstrated the influence of Machiavellianism in offline interactions (e.g. Chen, 2010, Jonason and Kavanah, 2010 and Lyons and Aitken, 2010), little is known about Machiavellianism in the context of online relationships. Therefore, the current study investigates the influence of Machiavellianism on online behavior and interactions that take place on social networking sites. Social networking sites allow the user to create a profile, regulate connections with others, interact and monitor interactions between other users (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). The use of these sites is widespread. Over 50% of Internet users report using at least one social networking site and over 90% of these use Facebook, often as part of their daily routine (Boyd and Ellison, 2007 and Hampton et al., 2011). Although social networking sites support both the formation and maintenance of personal relationships (Murray & Weller, 2007), they also provide opportunities to artificially enhance individual reputation or manipulate relationships. The majority of Facebook users report that their profiles provide an accurate representation of the self (Stern & Taylor, 2007). However, research indicates that Facebook identities are socially desirable and difficult to obtain offline (Zhao, Grasmuck, & Martin, 2008), suggesting that the manipulation of information (e.g. self-monitoring and self-promotion) is a well-established strategy amongst Facebook users (Kramer and Winter, 2008, Nadkarni and Hofmann, 2012 and Pempek et al., 2009). In particular, controlling the amount and type of information posted (e.g. emphasising positive qualities) enables the user to create and enhance a particular image (Chen and Marcus, 2012, Kim and Lee, 2011, Schlenker and Pontari, 2000, Utz, 2010 and Zhang, 2010), which may encourage the trust or cooperation of other users. Indeed, though explicitly false information may be identified by familiar online and offline friends, online interactions provide more opportunities than offline interactions for the strategic impression management conducive to manipulation (Bibby, 2008, Buffardi and Campbell, 2008 and Kramer and Winter, 2008). Previous research indicates that a number of personality factors (e.g. neuroticism, narcissism, shyness, self-esteem and self-worth) influence the manner in which people engage in online interactions (Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012). For example, extraversion is associated with use of social networks (Correa et al., 2010, Wehrli, 2008 and Wilson et al., 2010), Facebook use (Gosling, Augustine, Vazire, Holtzman, & Gaddis, 2011), number of Facebook friends (Amichai-Hamburger and Vinitzky, 2010 and Ong et al., 2011), membership of Facebook groups (Ross et al., 2009), disclosure of information on Facebook (Bibby, 2008 and Chen and Marcus, 2012) and the use of Facebook to broadcast activities (Correa et al., 2010). Neuroticism is positively related to use of social media (Wehrli, 2008), conscientiousness is negatively related to time spent on social networking sites (Wilson et al., 2010) and openness is positively related to amount of time spent on Facebook and number of Facebook friends (Skues, Williams, & Wise, 2012). In addition, those using Facebook are more narcissistic i.e. self-absorbed, sensitive to slights from others and likely to bolster self-esteem through admiration from others (Luchner et al., 2008 and Wink, 1991) than non-Facebook users (Ryan & Xenos, 2011). Whilst a range of studies have demonstrated the relationship between personality and online behavior, there is a paucity of research investigating the importance of Machiavellianism in this context. Initial findings are consistent with the notion that Machiavellianism influences online behavior and that motivations for Facebook activity are self-centred rather than cooperative. In particular, Machiavellian Facebook users are more concerned with themselves than the ‘friend’ they are interacting with on Facebook and aggressive interactions provide Machiavellian men and women with opportunities to dominate and exploit other users (Li, 2007 and Rosenberg and Egbert, 2011). However, further research is required to investigate the influence of Machiavellianism on computer mediated interaction. The present study investigates whether Machiavellian men and women employ self-presentation tactics (i.e. self-monitoring and self-promotion) and how honest they are in their interactions on Facebook. Machiavellianism is more strongly related to behavior for men than women (McHoskey, 2001) and gender differences exist in Facebook behavior (e.g. McAndrew and Jeong, 2012 and Stefanone et al., 2011). Therefore the current study investigated the potential relationship between Machiavellianism and self-promotion, self-monitoring, dishonest self-promotion and relational aggression via Facebook separately for male and female participants.

Posting status updates was the most frequent Facebook activity reported by participants, followed by posting photographs, changing the profile picture, tagging pictures and updating profile information. Participants typically accessed Facebook, viewed the news feed and checked their friend’s activity between 2 and 4 times per day. Friend’s walls and status updates were typically viewed once or less per day. The majority of participants spent a relatively low proportion of their time viewing the status, wall or activity of their friends (i.e. 15 min or less per day option). Correlation analyses revealed significant positive relationships between Machiavellianism and self-monitoring for both men and women. For women, Machiavellianism was also positively associated with the use of dishonest self-promotion and relational aggression. For men, Machiavellianism was positively associated with self-promotion. In addition, self-monitoring was positively correlated with self-promotion, dishonest self-promotion and relational aggression in women, whilst self-promotion was negatively correlated with dishonest self-promotion and positively correlated with relational aggression. For men, self-monitoring was positively correlated with self-promotion and relational aggression was positively correlated with self-promotion and dishonest self-promotion. These data are presented in Table 1.