Taking advantage

We had 273 employees complete an anonymous online survey measuring cyberloafing and everyday levels of “dark” personality traits.

These traits are considered to be a socially exploitative dark triad, characterised by callous and parasitic self-interest (psychopathy), manipulativeness (Machiavellianism), and arrogant superiority (narcissism), and are found in varying levels among the general population.

We expected that because of their willingness to pursue gains at the expense of others, among comparative feelings of entitlement, individuals with higher levels of dark triad traits would be more likely to engage in cyberloafing.

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We also examined the extent to which people believe they can get away with things at work (their perceived ability to deceive). Unsurprisingly, given the feelings of superiority associated with the dark triad, these individuals tend to feel very capable of outsmarting others.

Among our participants, we found that psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism were associated with cyberloafing behaviours through their relationships with perceived ability to deceive. In other words, higher levels of dark triad traits led to a greater belief in the ability to get away with things, which in turn was related to higher levels of cyberloafing.

Our findings suggest that individuals high in subclinical psychopathy will engage in some cyberloafing behaviours regardless of their perceived ability to deceive. This fits with the nature of psychopathy: individuals high in psychopathic traits tend to lack remorse and don’t feel guilty, and perhaps are not too concerned with getting caught.