Can the ‘Dark Triad’ traits be a predictor of cyber hate speech?

Abstract

Antisocial behaviours have escalated to the cyberspace. Yet, the views on identification, mitigation and interventions relevant to minimising such behaviours lack consensus. Also, there are a multitude of antisocial behaviours studied in various online settings but not with clear demarcations between behaviours and their predictors. Hence, there is room for further research on cyber hate speech (a variant of online antisocial behaviour), particularly in Social Networking Sites (SNS). Hence, this article presents a brief review of literature exploring the triggers of antisocial behaviour, broadly identified as ‘cyber aggression’. Then, the question is raised whether cyber hate speech, a sub-set of cyber aggression is triggered by personality factors such as the ‘Dark Triad’ traits. Consequently, this paper contributes to knowledge by proposing to test personality traits as an important predictor of computer-mediated anti-social behaviour in SNS and provide directions for future research. ...