These days, virtually everyone uses the internet. It has become a ubiquitous tool in the workplace and in schools, and it is convenient at home for ordering DoorDash, playing games and checking social media accounts, to name a few. Increasingly internet users are at risk for being harassed, stalked or having their personal information misused.
Lauren Hultquist, a first-year graduate student working on a Master of Arts in Psychology and a graduate certificate in gerontology, has been conducting research on how “dark personality traits” and anonymity impact aggressive behavior online.
“Everyone has a personality, and there are some personality traits that seem to be related to higher levels of aggressive behavior online, such as narcissism and spitefulness,” said Hultquist. “Research also shows that when people are anonymous, it makes it a little easier for them to do terrible things to other people.”
The first step of the research project included giving participants (more than 300 to date) a personality test to assess how they behave in their daily lives. From there, participants were split into two groups: those who identified themselves and those who remained anonymous.
An eight-round button-pressing competition measured aggressive behavior within the groups. The winner of each round was given the go ahead to “noise blast” their opponent, as loud as they wanted. The more deafening the noise, the more aggressive the person was perceived to be.
“Our study was the first that has actually observed people’s online behavior rather than just asking survey questions,” said Hultquist.
Findings
Hultquist and her research team discovered that when people are anonymous, they are more aggressive, and when people have dark personality traits, like narcissism, they also are more aggressive. In assessing the combination, they learned that when people have a higher dark personality trait, like narcissism, and they are anonymous, they are even more aggressive. The research also showed that narcissistic people do have some level of social awareness and know not to be as aggressive when identified.
“The only personality trait for which this didn’t hold true is spitefulness, said Hultquist.” Spiteful people do not seem to care about anonymity. They are very focused on revenge seeking and are willing to get back at people at all costs.”
Hultquist received the top award in the 2024 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition for her “Keyboard Warriors” research presentation sponsored by the Thomas L. Reynolds Center for Graduate Life held in the fall.
As the first-place winner, she will represent UNC Charlotte in the 3MT regional competition at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools meeting in March, in Dallas, Texas.
More about Hultquist
As the youngest of five children, Hultquist said her interest in research started at an early age, and she considers it “in her blood.” Her grandfather was a statistics professor at Penn State, where her grandmother served as a math professor. Her sister is a professor in New Zealand.
“I grew up getting told statistics, questions and problems,” said Hultquist, who completed an associate degree at South Piedmont Community College before earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and criminal justice from Wingate University.