Chris Bjornsen presents results of current study of social media use and personality traits.

Chris Bjornsen presented a poster at the May 2018 meeting of the Association for Psychological Science in San Francisco on the results of this year’s study of social media use and personality traits. The study examined the psychometric properties of revised measures of positive social media use, creeping, catfishing, and gossiping/shaming, and a new measure of social media pressure. These constructs were also compared to well-studied positive (‘Big Five’) and negative (‘Dark Tetrad’) personality traits. Females (ages 18-29) scored higher than males on all social media use measures except gossiping/shaming, and higher levels of social media use were predicted more consistently by higher levels of negative personality traits, especially Machiavellianism (the tendency to deceive and manipulate others for self-benefit). The presentation, available on ResearchGate, was coauthored by a Longwood University student (Madison P. Lowry) and colleagues from two separate U.S. universities.

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