Study addiction and ‘dark’ personality traits: a cross-sectional survey study among emerging adults

Abstract

Background: Research has shown that personality traits can have an important role in the development and maintenance of behavioral addictions. However, the relationship between dark personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, sadism, spitefulness) and ‘study addiction’ has yet to be investigated. Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations of dark traits with study addiction among the total sample, males, and females separately, while adjusting for the Big Five personality traits (i.e., extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness). Methods: A total of 716 university students completed an online survey, including questions assessing the aforementioned variables. Results: Hierarchical regression analysis suggested that being female, neuroticism, conscientiousness, Machiavellianism, and sadism were positively associated with study addiction. However, dark personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, sadism) were significantly related to study addiction only in males but not in females. Conclusions: Findings of this preliminary study suggest that dark personality traits may be better at explaining male addictive studying patterns and that gender should be taken into account when investigating the role of personality in the development of study addiction.