Tales from the Dark Side of Technology Acceptance: The Direct Effects of the Dark Triad on TAM

Abstract

With a dramatic shift in the American workforce in the post-Covid-19 world, workers' emotions present very negatively, causing people to overtly display the dark aspects of their personality while at work. Additionally, organizations must use new technologies to fill the gaps in outcomes and changes in market demand. Sadly, an intense conflict exists between the current environment of workers' negative emotions and the need to implement new technology. Most people would perceive having learned a new technology to do their job as 'one more thing,' thus resulting in adverse work outcomes. We hypothesized that dark personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) individually would have a direct relationship with elements in the technology acceptance model. We tested our hypotheses using a sample of general workers from multiple industries. We found that narcissism alone was significant in technology acceptance among the tested variables. We conclude with a summary of our findings' theoretical and practical implications and managerial implications.