AutoModerator t1_j6z2tns wrote
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, personal anecdotes are allowed as responses to this comment. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will be removed and our normal comment rules apply to all other comments.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
chrisdh79 OP t1_j6z33r6 wrote
From the article: 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.
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments