A new study recently showed that "heightened jealousy, vulnerable narcissism, and secondary psychopathy" are forecasters of cyber dating abuse.
A ScienceDirect report specified that this new research offers new insight into people's psychological profiles, specifically those using technology to control, intimidate, coerce, threaten, or humiliate their romantic partners.
According to Molly Branson, the study author, the world of online behavior is continuously evolving, and that online communication is no longer regarded as a "novelty."
Progressively, the digital sphere is being utilized as yet another realm upon which relationships can advance or progress or turn out toxic.
Branson, a Ph.D. candidate at the Federation University of Australia, also said, cyber dating abuse reflexes this toxicity. Just as it takes place in offline contexts, the study author added, this form of intimate partner violence has saturated the world of online romantic relationships.
Cyber Dating Abuse
Despite the rising prevalence linked to the experience of cyber dating abuse, relatively small research had attempted to profile the abuser.
In the study, Dangerous dating in the digital age: Jealousy, hostility, narcissism, and psychopathy as predictors of Cyber Dating Abuse, published in Computers in Human Behavior, the researchers sought to examine which personality variables may increase or decrease the possibility of one executing abuse against an intimate partner in an online setting.
In the study, more than 800 participants accomplished an online questionnaire that examined jealousy, hostility, narcissism, psychopathy, and execution of cyber dating abuse.
A PsyPost report said cyber dating abuse comprises behaviors like threatening to spread humiliating information online, pretending to be someone else online to test a partner, sharing sexual content minus permission, controlling status updates of a partner on social networks, and writing a comment on social network with the intention of insulting or humiliating a partner.
Results of the Digital Behavior
The study authors discovered that those who have higher levels of jealousy, vulnerable narcissism, or secondary psychopathy were more possible to report involvement in cyber dating abuse.
Vulnerable narcissism is considered excessive self-absorption and insecurity. Secondary psychopathy, on the other hand, is described as "impulsivity and carelessness."
Nonetheless, grandiose narcissism and primary psychopathy were not identified to predict involvement in cyber dating abuse.
Grandiose narcissism, as explained by Psychology Today, contradicting its vulnerable counterpart, is characterized by an overstated sense of superiority, extroversion, and domineering behavior. Primary psychopathy, on the other hand, is described as callousness and fearless dominance.
Meanwhile, hostility was favorably linked to cyber dating abuse, as generally described in the National Library of Medicine, although its impact became insignificant after accounting for vulnerable narcissism and secondary psychopathy.
'Offline' Abusers
Commenting on their study findings, the researchers said they are particularly interesting, as the profile appears to contradict that of the offline abuser.
Even though offline abusers can impulsively be jealous and reactive, they can be proactive, instrumental, and outwardly hostile, too.
The differences in these profiles, the authors wrote in their study, suggest that the immediacy and convenience afforded by online communication incline to entice more quick-to-anger, insecure and impulsive perpetrators compared to offline intimate partner aggression.
According to Branson, cyber dating abuse is not likely to dispel any time soon. And, since a lot of people are increasingly playing out their relationships online and offline, continued the study author, there is a need to attain greater insight into the reason and manner things can become toxic, and in turn, result in online abuse.
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