The Relationship Between College Students’ Dark Triad And Cyberbullying: A Double-moderated Mediation Model

Cyberbullying is a new form of bullying that comes with the development of the Internet.It has some characteristics that traditional bullying does not have(e.g.,anonymity),but it can also cause serious harm to others(e.g.,depression).Contemporary college students are in contact with the Internet every day,so the cyberbullying existing in college students has gradually become a problem worthy of attention.Currently,in the context of western culture,some studies have found that the dark personality(i.e.,the dark triad)has an impact on cyberbullying.However,there are some contradictory views in the research,and few studies have explored the internal mechanism of the relationship between the dark triad and cyberbullying.In addition,it has not been verified whether the relationship between the two is different in Chinese culture characterized by collectivism.Therefore,this study has the following three research purposes: First,this study will explore the relationship between the dark triad and cyberbullying among Chinese college students;Second,this study will verify the previous contradictory views in the research and provide more evidence support;Three,this study will put personality(dark triad),cognition(moral disengagement,perspective taking)and psychological state(online disinhibition)variables together to explore the different influences on cyberbullying,and based on theories and previous studies,construct a double-moderated mediation model to explore the internal mechanism and boundary conditions of the relationship between dark triad and cyberbullying.This study adopts the method of questionnaire survey,and selects 762 college students in Henan Province for testing.After sorting out and analyzing the obtained data,it comes to the following conclusions:(1)The dark triad has a significant positive predictive effect on college students’ cyberbullying.Specifically,Machiavellism and psychopathy can significantly positively predict cyberbullying,while narcissism can not significantly predict cyberbullying.(2)Moral disengagement plays a partial mediating role between the dark triad and cyberbullying.Specifically,the mediating effect of moral disengagement is mainly through Machiavellianism → moral disengagement → cyberbullying and psychopathy → moral disengagement → cyberbullying.(3)The direct effect of the dark triad on cyberbullying and the mediating effect of moral disengagement are moderated by perspective taking.Compared with the individuals with low perspective taking,the direct effect and indirect effect are weaker in individuals with high perspective taking.(4)The direct effect of the dark triad on cyberbullying and the mediating effect of moral disengagement are also moderated by online disinhibition.Compared with the individuals with low online disinhibition,the direct effect and indirect effect are stronger in individuals with high online disinhibition.Finally,this study draws some enlightenment from the research conclusion and puts forward some suggestions to reduce cyberbullying among college students.