Dark Triad and Social Media Addiction: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The Dark triad consists of three personality traits including narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. Social media addiction is defined as individuals’ losing control over social media use and thus experiencing negative reflections on academic, social, and emotional life. Dark triad personality traits can be considered to be positively associated with social media addiction. This study aims to investigate the association between the dark triad and social media addiction using meta-analysis method. The meta-analysis includes a total of 7064 participants in 15 studies. Results indicated a positive association between the dartk triad and social media addiction. The study also utilized meta-regression analysis to determine the moderator role of measures used for dark triad and social media addiction. The results showed that measures did not have a significant moderator role in the association between the dark triad and social media addiction. Analyses indicated high and significant heterogeneity. In conclusion, a medium-level, positive, and significant effect size was found in the association between the dark triad and social media addiction. The results of this study indicate the need to focus on personality factors for the prevention of and intervention for social media addiction.