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Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

Introduction

The focus of our research is determined by the integration of three research areas, characterized

by the concepts of «the cyber socialization engagement», «the Dark Tetrad of personality» and «the

young university students».

In the modern world, young people, as in all times, assimilates the social experience accumulated

by previous generations, including ideas about social norms and rules, abilities and skills of a social

interaction, heterogeneous social relations, etc. Such processes in a generalized form are traditionally

called socialization.

At the same time, modern socialization has an important new component, which is called cyber

socialization and is associated with that part of socialization processes that are carried out using digital

technologies, i.e., in fact, through various interactions carried out in a specic part of the space of human

existence – cyberspace (see, e.g., Lenkov and Rubtsova, 2022). At the same time, the contribution of

cyber socialization to the total array of socialization processes has been rapidly increasing in recent years,

including under the inuence of such force majeure factors as the COVID-19 pandemic. According to

Easa and Bazzi (2021), the pandemic has caused a signicant lack of the socialization among university

students. At the same time, the authors have in mind traditional socialization, and not its specic cyber

component. Therefore, the results of their work, taking into account the sharp increase in the activity of

young people in cyberspace recorded in many studies during the pandemic, can be interpreted as another

signicant shift in the relationship between traditional socialization and cyber socialization in favor of the

Cyber Socialization Engagement and Dark Tetrad of Personality among

Young University Students

Sergey L. Lenkov

, Nadezhda E. Rubtsova

, Marina Yu. Elagina

, Elena S. Nizamova

Russian Academy of Education, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: new_psy@mail.ru

Russian New University, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: hope432810@yandex.ru

Don State Technical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, e-mail: kochevanchik@mail.ru

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: eslenkova@mail.ru

Abstract: The article considers the relationship between the cyber socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad of

personality (Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism). The cyber socialization engagement was understood,

according to the author’s concept, as having constructive and destructive components. The study purpose was to identify correlation

and deterministic relationships between indicators of the cyber socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad among young

university students. The sample included 424 students from Russian universities. For measurements, «The cyber socialization

engagement questionnaire» and «The Short Dark Tetrad Scale» were used. It has been established that the relationship between

the indicators of the cyber socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad has a qualitatively heterogeneous character – from

the complete absence of connections to mutual determination. The strongest mutual determination is associated with the

everyday sadism: it increases the destructive engagement in cyber socialization, explaining 12% of the total variance, and the

latter, in turn, increases the severity of sadism (10.5%). It is advisable to take into account the revealed connections between

the general cyber socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad of the personality when organizing psychological support for

the socialization of students in the context of expanding social interactions carried out in cyberspace.

Keywords: cyber socialization engagement, constructive engagement, destructive engagement, Dark Tetrad of personality,

young university students.

Original scientic paper

Received: September, 12.2022.

Revised: November, 19.2022.

Accepted: November, 24.2022.

UDK:

316.624-057.475:077.5(470)

159.923.2.072-057.475:077.5(470)

10.23947/2334-8496-2022-10-3-99-108

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Corresponding author: kochevanchik@mail.ru

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Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

latter.

Cyber socialization in one or another of its aspects has actually been studied for a long time.

However, two fundamental difculties stand in the way of such a study. The rst of them is theoretical,

related to the debatability of the central construct used to describe this phenomenon: along with the

concept of cyber socialization (see Lenkov and Rubtsova, 2019, 2022; Lenkov, Rubtsova and Efremova,

2019), many other competing concepts are used here, such as digital socialization (e.g., Kim, 2015),

virtual socialization (Saeed and Hassan, 2020), Internet socialization (Honnekeri et al., 2017), media

socialization (Milenkova, Peicheva and Marinov, 2018), and others. The second difculty is methodical,

associated with measuring tools for determining the severity of certain processes of cyber socialization,

their representation in the life of a particular person, i.e., what we call the cyber socialization engagement.

As a result, the cyber socialization engagement, including among university students, has so far

been studied mainly:

- in philosophical and theoretical perspectives (R. M. Aysina, S. Livingstone, V. A. Pleshakov, T.

Poell, G. U. Soldatova, A. E. Voiskunsky, B. Zizek, etc.);

- either using primary methods that do not have a reliable psychometric justication, such as

questioning (Honnekeri et al., 2017; Kim, 2015), structured interviews and focus groups (Milenkova,

Peicheva and Marinov, 2018), qualitative interviews (e.g., Smith, Hewitt and Skrbiš, 2015), etc.;

- either taking into account only certain, rather narrow aspects of the cyber socialization

engagement, such as motivation or the nature of the use of the Internet (e.g., Smith, Hewitt and Skrbiš,

2015), smartphones (Servidio, Grifths and Demetrovics, 2021), social networks (Casale, Musicò and

Spada, 2021; Kircaburun, Jonason and Grifths, 2018) and instant messengers (Casale, Musicò and

Spada, 2021; Honnekeri et al., 2017; Saeed and Hassan, 2020), such specic negative manifestations

of destructive cyber socialization as cyberbullying and cyberstalking (Kircaburun, Jonason and Grifths,

2018), cybervictimization (Shoib et al., 2022), various cyberaddictions (see, for example, (Casale, Musicò

and Spada, 2021; Siah et al., 2021), cyberloang (Metin-Orta and Demirtepe-Saygılı, 2021), etc.

Similar methods and directions of research are widely demanded today. At the same time, the

situation changed fundamentally after Lenkov, Rubtsova and Efremova (2019) developed a questionnaire

of the cyber socialization engagement, which underwent extensive psychometric testing. This questionnaire

does not replace or exclude other methods for studying the cyber socialization engagement, including

those mentioned above. However, it provides for the fulllment of two important requirements for taking

the appropriate research positions:

- approach the understanding of cyber socialization from a generalized view point, integrating

private manifestations of cyber socialization;

- operationalize this point of view, moving from philosophical and general theoretical reasoning to

quantitative analysis and the construction of specic empirically based psychological models.

The next important aspect of the eld of study is related to personality structures. Cyber socialization,

like traditional socialization, is associated with the formation of specic personal properties that reect the

assimilation of social experience by the individual. It is quite natural to try to identify the role and place of

such specic structures in the overall structure of the personality, in particular, to establish their relationship

with the well-known basic personality structures, of which we will focus on only one. This is the structure

known as the Dark Tetrad of personality and combines features of Machiavellianism, narcissism, primary

(non-clinical) psychopathy, and everyday sadism (Neumann, Jones and Paulhus, 2021; Paulhus et al.,

2021), where the addition of the feature of sadism is a relatively new extension of the more traditional

Dark Triad, which has been extensively studied for at least at least the last twenty years (see Kircaburun,

Jonason and Grifths, 2018; March and Marrington, 2021; Moor and Anderson, 2019; Siah et al., 2021).

It should also be noted that each of the four properties of the Dark Tetrad has been separately studied

in psychology for a much longer time, but it is the identication of their coordinated structure that is of

fundamental importance here.

Finally, another point specifying our eld of study is the selection of young university students as

subjects. This choice is due to the following reasons. Firstly, university students are to a signicant extent

involved in cyber socialization due to the very specics of the organization of the educational process,

especially in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, young students are already

representatives of the digital generations, for whom the rst acquaintance with computers and gadgets

occurs, as a rule, even at preschool age; this factor, accordingly, also increases their cyber socialization

engagement; therefore, we have limited the age of students to 35 years.

In relation to our research area as a whole, it can be stated that the relationship between the cyber

socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad (as well as the Triad) of the personality has been studied

to date only fragmentarily, taking into account certain aspects of the cyber socialization engagement.

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Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

This applies to studies performed both on samples of university students and on other samples. For

example, Servidio, Grifths and Demetrovics (2021) studied the relationship between the Dark Triad

and problematic smartphone use, on a sample of Italian smartphone users aged 18 to 38; Kircaburun,

Jonason and Grifths, 2018 on a sample of students from Turkish universities, we studied the relationship

between the traits of the Dark Tetrad, problematic use of social networks, cyberbullying and cyberstalking;

Wright et al. (2020) studied on a sample of adolescents the relationship between the traits of the Dark

Triad and cyberbullying, etc.

Thus, the relationship between the Dark Tetrad of personality and the general structure of the cyber

socialization engagement has not been sufciently studied to date, and this fact determines the relevance

of our study.

The purpose of the study was to identify the relationship between indicators of the cyber socialization

engagement and the Dark Tetrad of personality among young university students. Achieving this goal

meant getting answers to the following research questions:

- Are there any correlations between the indicators of the cyber socialization engagement and the

Dark Tetrad of personality?

- Do the factors of the Dark Tetrad of personality have a signicant inuence on the indicators of

the cyber socialization engagement?

- Do the factors of the cyber socialization engagement have a signicant inuence on the personality

traits of the Dark Tetrad?

- How can one generalize the links between the indicators of the cyber socialization engagement,

on the one hand, and the properties of the Dark Tetrad of personality, on the other?

Materials and Methods

The conceptual framework of the study forms concepts that operationalize the concepts of the

cyber socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad of personality.

The cyber socialization engagement was understood in accordance with the author’s concept,

in which cyber socialization is a specic component of the overall socialization process, determined

by interactions with actors of various nature (other people, computer programs, virtual immersive

environments, articial intelligence systems, etc.) carried out in cyberspace (Lenkov and Rubtsova,

2019); herewith the psychological structure of the cyber socialization engagement includes subsystems of

constructive and destructive engagement (Lenkov, Rubtsova and Efremova, 2019). For measurements,

we used «The cyber socialization engagement questionnaire», which includes 27 items and two scales:

1) a scale of the constructive engagement in cyber socialization (hereinafter referred to as Constructive

engagement), containing 21 items and including three subscales – constructive motivation (Motivation,

6 items), constructive personal position (Position, 7 items), and competence of the cyber socialization

(Competence, 8 items); 2) a scale of destructive engagement in cyber socialization (Destructive

engagement, 6 items) (Lenkov, Rubtsova and Efremova, 2019). The reliability of scales and subscales

for internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) was in the study sample (N=424): 0.798 for Constructive

engagement, 0.687 for Motivation, 0.733 for Position, 0.724 for Competence, 0.667 for Destructive

engagement.

The Dark Tetrad of personality was considered in accordance with the concept by Paulhus et al.,

operationalized using «The Short Dark Tetrad (SD4) questionnaire» (Neumann, Jones and Paulhus, 2021;

Paulhus et al., 2021), which we used in the Russian translation made in 2020 by the administration of

the PsyTests.org website (URL: https://psytests.org/darktriad/sd4r.html, last accessed 2022/03/15). This

questionnaire contains 28 items and 4 scales (9 items each) corresponding to the features of the Dark

Tetrad: 1) Machiavellianism, 2) narcissism, 3) psychopathy (primary, non-clinical), 4) sadism (domestic,

ordinary, everyday). The reliability of the scales was (N=424): 0.457 for Machiavellianism, 0.740 for

narcissism, 0.747 for psychopathy, 0.759 for sadism.

Sampling and data processing. The sample included 424 students representing 8 universities from

ve cities in Russia, aged 17 to 35 (M=22.39, SD=3.938), included: 275 females and 149 males, 252

bachelor students and 172 master students. According to the research procedure, students independently

completed Google forms or printed questionnaires. Data collection was carried out between September

2021 and March 2022.

Data analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows package (IBM Corp.,

Armonk, NY, USA). To identify inuences, we used one-way ANOVA and effect size η

(eta-square) (see

IBM Corp., 2021). The eta-square was also calculated for the results of the Mann-Whitney test according

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Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

to the method by Fritz, Morris and Richler (2012).

Results

Descriptive statistics of the cyber socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad of personality (Table

1) showed that for a number of scales, skewness and kurtosis indicators demonstrate deviations from the

normal distribution. In this regard, we used (for generality – for all scales) Spearman’s correlations (see

Table 2), and for pairwise intergroup comparisons – the Mann-Whitney test (see Table 3). At the same

time, in the analysis of inuences with the selection of three groups (see Table 4-5), we used analysis of

variance (one-way ANOVA), i.e., in fact, a parametric method, which, nevertheless, has a high resistance

to noted deviations from normality (see Blanca et al., 2017).

Signicant correlations were found between the Dark Tetrad and the cyber socialization engagement:

for Machiavellianism, positive correlations with Motivation, Constructive engagement, and Destructive

engagement; for narcissism, positive correlations with Motivation, Competence, and Constructive

engagement; for psychopathy, as well as for sadism, it is negatively correlated with Position but positively

correlated with Destructive engagement (see Table 2).

Table 1

Descriptive statistics (N=424)

Note. Standard error for skewness is equal 0.119, for kurtosis is equal 0.237.

Table 2

Spearman’s correlations (N=424)

Note. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01

As can be seen from Table 3, females and males did not differ statistically in terms of age and a

number of other indicators. At the same time, the expressiveness of a constructive personal position is

signicantly higher in women, and in men – the competence of cyber socialization, Machiavellianism

and sadism. However, these differences are not large: for them, the inuence of sex explains from

1.7% to 6.3% of the total variance (see Table 3). Therefore, further, when describing the verication of

deterministic relationships, we will present the results for the sample as a whole, noting the specics that

were encountered in the analysis for the male and female groups.

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Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

Table 3

Comparison of means for groups of females (n=275) and males (n=149)

Note. Values p < 0.05 are shown in bold.

An analysis of the inuence of the Dark Tetrad factors on the cyber socialization engagement on the

sample as a whole (see Table 4) and in groups showed that the narcissism factor does not have a signicant

effect. On the sample as a whole, the Machiavellian factor increases the constructive motivation, but at the

same time increases a fundamentally different, alternative indicator – destructive engagement. In groups

of females and males the inuence of Machiavellianism on constructive motivation was not signicant (for

females, F=2.910, p=0.056; for males, F=1.424, p=0.244), while the effect on destructive engagement

was conrmed (for females F=5.360, p=0.005, η

=0.038, for males F=4.176, p=0.017, η

=0.054).

The psychopathy factor on the sample as a whole increases destructive engagement, but in the

groups this effect was not signicant (for females, F=0.513, p=0.599; for males, F=3.028, p=0.051).

In addition, for males, in contrast to females and the sample as a whole, psychopathy reduced the

constructive personal position (F=3.821, p=0.024, η

=0.050). The sadism factor turned out to be the

most loaded in terms of the considered inuences: it reduces the constructive personal position and

constructive engagement, and also signicantly increases the destructive engagement.

Table 4

ANOVA for factors of the Dark Tetrad (N=424)

Notes. Multiple comparisons were performed according to the Games-Howell post hoc test (see IBM Corp., 2021).

The table shows only cases where a signicant effect was found (p<0.05). Values p<0.05 are shown in bold. No signicant

inuence was found: the Machiavellianism factor on Position (F=0.492, p=0.612), Competence (F=1.556, p=0.212), and

Constructive engagement (F=2.271, p=0.104); narcissism factor – on Motivation (F=2.669, p=0.070), Position (F=0.976,

p=0.378), Competence (F=2.192, p=0.113), Constructive engagement (F=2.682, p=0.070), and Destructive engagement

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Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

(F=1.151, p=0.317); psychopathy factor – on Motivation (F=0.183, p=0.833), Position (F=2.095, p=0.124), Competence

(F=0.018, p=0.982), and Constructive engagement (F=0.272, p=0.762); sadism factor – on Motivation (F=0.470, p=0.625),

and Competence (F=1.776, p=0.171).

Analysis of the inuence of the cyber socialization engagement on the features of the Dark Tetrad

on the sample as a whole (Table 5) and in groups showed that the factor of constructive motivation does

not have a signicant effect. The factor of a constructive personal position increases Machiavellianism, but

only when moving from low values of the position to medium ones; at the same time, this factor reduces

sadism, and also reduces psychopathy on the general sample and in the group of females (F=3.202,

p=0.042, η

=0.023), in contrast to the group of males, where such an effect was not signicant (F=2.161,

p=0.119). The cyber socialization competence factor on the general sample increases narcissism, but

only when moving from low to medium values of competence; at the same time, this effect was not

signicant in the groups (for females, F=2.071, p =0.128; for males, F=1.707, p=0.185).

The factor of constructive engagement on the general sample increases Machiavellianism and

narcissism, but in groups this effect was not signicant: on Machiavellianism for females F=2.288,

p=0.103; for males F=2.907, p=0.058; on narcissism for females F=2.275, p=0.078; for males F=3.004,

p=0.053. The factor of destructive engagement increases Machiavellianism in the general sample (see

Table 5) and in females (F=3.287, p=0.039, η

=0.024), in contrast to the group of males, where this

effect was not signicant (F=1.564, p=0.213). In addition, both in the general sample and in groups, the

factor of destructive engagement greatly increases psychopathy and sadism: on psychopathy for females

F=13.651, p=0.000, η

=0.091; for males F=11.116, p=0.000, η

=0.132; on sadism for females F=16.620,

p=0.000, η

=0.109; for males F=10.168, p=0.000, η

=0.122.

Table 5

ANOVA for factors of the cyber socialization engagement (N=424)

Notes as in Table 4, except for the list of cases of no signicant effect. No signicant inuence was found: the Motivation

factor – on Machiavellianism (F=2.687, p=0.069), narcissism (F=1.754, p=0.174), psychopathy (F=1.680, p=0.188), and

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Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

sadism (F=0.566, p=0.568); the Position factor on narcissism (F=0.491, p=0.612); the Competence factor on Machiavellianism

(F=1.977, p=0.140), psychopathy (F=0.395, p=0.674), and sadism (F=0.867, p=0.421); the Constructive engagement factor on

psychopathy (F=0.041, p=0.960) and sadism (F=1.303, p=0.273); the Destructive engagement factor on narcissism (F=1.262,

p=0.284).

Thus, numerous correlational and deterministic links were revealed between the indicators of the

cyber socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad of personality. At the same time, the inuence of a

number of factors turned out to be ambivalent, and the nature of the identied relationships shows their

qualitative heterogeneity.

Discussions

To discuss the results, it is advisable to arrange them, highlighting three qualitatively different types

of relationships between the cyber socialization engagement and the Dark Tetrad of personality. Firstly, for

a number of indicators, neither correlation nor deterministic relationships were found: Machiavellianism

and competence, narcissism and personal position, narcissism and destructive engagement, psychopathy

and constructive motivation, psychopathy and competence, psychopathy and destructive engagement,

sadism and constructive motivation, sadism and competence.

Secondly, in a number of cases, the presence of only one type of relationship, either correlational or

deterministic, was revealed. Thus, narcissism positively correlates with constructive motivation, but there

are no signicant inuences between them. Personal position has a positive effect on Machiavellianism

(explaining 2.5% of the variance), but the correlation between them is not signicant. Sadism has a

negative impact on constructive engagement (3.2%), but the correlation between them is not signicant.

Thirdly, for many cases, the presence of both correlation and deterministic relationships was

revealed. In the direction of determination, such cases are heterogeneous. In one case, the Dark Tetrad

determines the cyber socialization engagement: Machiavellianism and constructive motivation are

positively correlated, herewith Machiavellianism increases motivation (1.8%). In a number of cases,

the cyber socialization engagement determines the features of the Dark Tetrad: Machiavellianism and

destructive engagement correlate positively, while the engagement increases Machiavellianism (1.7%);

narcissism and the cyber socialization competence are positively correlated, herewith the competence

increasing narcissism (1.5%); narcissism and the constructive engagement are positively correlated,

herewith the engagement increasing narcissism (2.4%); psychopathy and the constructive personal

position are negatively correlated, herewith the position reduces psychopathy (2.4%). Finally, in a number

of cases, indicators of the cyber socialization engagement and the features of the Dark Tetrad are

mutually determined: Machiavellianism and destructive engagement correlate positively and have a weak

positive effect on each other; psychopathy and destructive engagement are positively correlated, herewith

psychopathy increasing such engagement (8.6%), and engagement, in turn, signicantly increasing

psychopathy (10.3%); sadism and a constructive personal position correlate negatively and have a

negative impact on each other (5-8%); sadism and destructive engagement are positively correlated,

herewith sadism signicantly increasing the destructive engagement (12%), which in turn signicantly

increases sadism (10.5%).

It is also advisable to order the obtained results in another way – according to the considered

features of the Dark Tetrad. So, Machiavellianism positively correlates in the general sample with

constructive motivation, constructive engagement, but, at the same time, with destructive engagement

(see Table 3). In terms of determination, Machiavellianism increases both constructive motivation (on

the sample as a whole) and destructive engagement (on the sample and in groups). Such ambivalence

shows the content complexity and heterogeneity of the construct «Machiavellianism». Perhaps, in the

operationalization used, the manifestations of Machiavellianism were mixed, related to the ability to

achieve one’s goals with the help of other people in a way that, on the one hand, is constructive, does not

harm them, is directed to their benet (as, for example, a good teacher, coach, psychotherapist), and on

the other – destructive, causing damage to other people, selshly ignoring their own interests. An indirect

conrmation of this is the determination on the part of the cyber socialization engagement (see Table 5):

the severity of Machiavellianism is increased by the factors of the constructive personal position (2.5%)

and the constructive involvement (1.7%), as well as the factor of the destructive involvement (2.1%).

Narcissism is positively correlated with constructive motivation, competence, and the constructive

engagement (see Table 3), which contradicts the fact that narcissism is a dark personality trait. However,

in terms of determination, narcissism does not have a signicant impact on the indicators of the cyber

socialization engagement (see Table 5). It is possible that narcissism and related indicators of cyber

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Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

socialization depend on factors common to them that have remained latent. The identication of such

factors constitutes another prospect for further research.

Unlike the previous one, psychopathy correlates negatively with a constructive position and

positively with destructive engagement (see Table 3), i.e., unequivocally justies its belonging to dark

personality traits. The same role was conrmed in terms of determination: psychopathy increases

destructive engagement (signicantly in the sample as a whole and almost signicantly in the group of

males, where p=0.051) and reduces the constructive personal position (only in the group of males).

Sadism has also conrmed its dark nature. Sadism correlates negatively with constructive attitude

and positively with destructive engagement (see Table 3). In terms of determination, sadism increases

destructive engagement and reduces constructive position, and, unlike psychopathy, both on the sample

as a whole and in groups.

A direct comparison of the above ndings with the results of other authors is difcult, because the

study of the connections between the Dark Tetrad and the general cyber socialization engagement in

was carried out, apparently, for the rst time. At the same time, one can directly compare, for example,

the results showing differences in the Dark Tetrad features between males and females. In our study

of young university students, males showed higher expression of only two features of the Dark Tetrad

– Machiavellianism and sadism. In turn, Paulhus et al. (2021), the authors of the SD4 questionnaire,

when developing it, found that the severity of all the features of the Dark Tetrad was higher in males on a

sample of students from the University of British Columbia (Canada) representing various ethnic groups

(European Heritage, East Asian, and other) (ibid , p. 212). Thus, our results only partly agree with these

results. The most likely reason for this seems to us to be cross-cultural differences.

There is also a view point that criticizes the existing Dark Tetrad/Triad questionnaires. For example,

Katz et al. (2022) prove that such questionnaires are not invariant with respect to sex, in connection with

which the authors propose an alternative approach to the operationalization of the Dark Triad features.

However, from our view point, similar claims can be made to any diagnostic tools that reveal differences

between males and females. The approach proposed in the cited article has the advantage of simplifying

the comparison of mixed samples, but its cost is too high, since the actual differences due to biological

sex and gender are lost.

Many of our results agree qualitatively with the results of other authors, but only indirectly, because

compared studies considered only particular manifestations of the cyber socialization engagement. We

restrict ourselves to only three examples.

Our study found that sadism and a destructive engagement in cyber socialization are interrelated

and mutually determined. This result is indirectly consistent with the ndings of Greitemeyer and Sagioglou

(2017) who, in a longitudinal study, found that sadism and preference for violent video games are

interdetermined: everyday sadists are more likely than others to play violent video games, and repeated

exposure to violent video games predicts everyday sadism over time.

Our study found that Machiavellianism positively correlates with destructive engagement in cyber

socialization and has a positive effect on it. Kircaburun, Jonason and Grifths (2018) obtained on a sample

of Turkish university students that Machiavellianism positively correlates with problematic social media

use, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and cybertrolling and has a positive effect on the last three indicators.

Moor and Anderson (2019) analyzed 26 different studies and concluded that of all the Dark Tetrad

traits, psychopathy is most closely associated with antisocial online behaviors, Machiavellianism and

everyday sadism are also associated with such behaviors, although to a lesser extent, and narcissism is

the least associated. Our study found that for young university students, Machiavellianism, psychopathy

and sadism are positively correlated with a destructive engagement in cyber socialization and have a

positive effect on it, while narcissism does not show such a connection or such an inuence. However,

in contrast to the study by Moor and Anderson (2019), the leader in the relationship with a destructive

engagement is not psychopathy, but sadism (for psychopathy, rho=0.336, η

=0.086; for sadism, rho=0.365,

=0.120). Thus, our results agree only partially with those of Moor and Anderson (2019).

We note also that some of these discrepancies may be due to cross-cultural differences that

have been repeatedly identied earlier for the connections between the dark side of the personality and

particular aspects of cyber socialization. For example, as Wright et al. (2020) found, cyberbullying is

associated with narcissism among Chinese and Indian adolescents, and Machiavellianism among Indian

adolescents.

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107

Lenkov et al. (2022). Cyber socialization engagement and dark tetrad of personality among young university students,

International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 10(3), 99-108.

Conclusions

The results obtained answered all the research questions posed and allow us to draw the following

general ndings:

1. For young university students, the structures of the general engagement in cyber socialization

and the Dark Tetrad of personality have a wide range of qualitatively heterogeneous relationships,

including three types:

1) complete lack of connections (psychopathy and a constructive motivation, sadism and the cyber

socialization competence, etc.);

2) the presence of connections of only one type: for example, sadism reduces a constructive

engagement in cyber socialization, although the correlation between them is not signicant;

3) the presence of both correlation and determination: for example, the strongest correlation, as

well as mutual determination (explaining more than 10% of the variance with inuence in each direction)

was found between sadism and the destructive engagement in cyber socialization.

2. The determining inuence on the cyber socialization engagement is exerted by all the features of

the Dark Tetrad, with the exception of narcissism: Machiavellianism increases the destructive engagement,

as well as a constructive motivation, which is paradoxical; psychopathy, like sadism, increases the

destructive engagement.

3. On the other hand, all indicators of the cyber socialization engagement have a determining

inuence on the Dark Tetrad features, with the exception of a constructive motivation: a constructive

personal position reduces psychopathy and sadism, but slightly increases Machiavellianism; the

competence of cyber socialization somewhat increases narcissism; a constructive engagement in cyber

socialization increases Machiavellianism and narcissism; a destructive engagement increases the severity

of Machiavellianism and, especially strongly, psychopathy and sadism.

4. A number of differences between males and females were revealed in the nature of the

relationship between the Dark Tetrad features and indicators of the cyber socialization engagement, as

well as in the severity of these features and indicators. For example, Machiavellianism, sadism, and the

cyber socialization competence are more pronounced in males, while females have higher constructive

personal position.

It is advisable to continue the study, rst of all, in the direction of clarifying a number of identied

contradictory points: for example, the specics of the results obtained in groups of males and females, the

ambivalent inuence of Machiavellianism and a constructive personal position, an unexpected increase in

Machiavellianism under the inuence of a constructive engagement in cyber socialization, etc.

The practical signicance of the study lies in the fact that its results substantiate the need for

joint monitoring and taking into account the Dark Tetrad features and indicators of engagement in cyber

socialization (both constructive and destructive), which are closely interconnected and can have a

signicant impact on socialization, personal and professional development of young university students.

In particular, the results obtained show that it is hardly effective to prevent the formation of dark personality

traits without taking into account the nature and degree of a student engagement in cyber socialization.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for assistance in organizing data collection to Dr. E. E. Mikhailova (Tver,

Russia), Dr. S. V. Mostikov (Yekaterinburg, Russia), Academician of the Russian Academy of Education

(RAO) Abakumova I. V. (Rostov-on-Don), Dr. O. A. Musatova (Moscow, Russia) and Dr. A. V. Chemyakina

(Yaroslavl, Russia). The authors are also grateful to Dr. A.V. Karpov (Yaroslavl, Russia), Dr. S. B. Malykh

(Moscow, Russia), and Dr. G. I. Efremova (Moscow, Russia) for many years of scientic support for our

research, including in the eld of the youth cyber socialization.

Conict of interests

The authors declare no conict of interest.

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