Social Media, Democracy and The Dark Triad
The debate about the effects of social media on democracy fails to distinguish sharply enough between different kinds of users and their behaviour. We often say, ‘people’ do this or ‘people’ do that, but there’s people and then there’s…people. While ‘people’ don’t vary much in aggregate, they do vary individually. This variance may seem subtle, but its cumulative effects can be profound. Failing to take this into account is what drives many inaccurate understandings of communication and social media.
The Dark Triad
The Dark Triad refers to three key personality traits: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy. While everyone possesses these characteristics in trace amounts, some people exhibit them to a much higher degree. These personality traits are related (hence why it’s a triad) but different.[1] Narcissists tend to believe that they are the center of the universe, that they are more skilled and popular than they are, and to demand unending attention. Psychopaths tend to be ‘dead inside’, lacking empathy and are often impulsive. Machiavellians tend to be highly ambitious and focused on callously manipulating others to get what they want.
To put it in a nutshell: a Machiavellian believes the world is against them, a narcissist that the world is them and a psychopath that the world is beneath them.
It is important to remember that the kind of people we are talking about here exhibit these behaviours to a degree that would be off the charts if psychiatrists hadn’t invented charts just for the purpose of capturing their otherwise bizarre internal life. People who exhibit, say narcissism or psychopathy on a clinical level (thought to be ca. 4% and 1% of the population respectively) are, in terms of their psychology, far beyond what is colloquially referred to as ‘narcissism’ or ‘psychopathy’.
A psychopath, for example, is not a person who is just a bit reckless. Instead, they might go so far as to commit murder out of curiosity, or freely admit to defrauding people, but blame their victims for being so ‘stupid’ as to be taken in by them. A ‘high-Mach’ (very Machiavellian) individual might authorize killing a rival for political gain (Frank Underwood in House of Cards and Littlefinger in Game of Thrones are archetype Machiavellians); while a narcissist might found a cult that encourages its members to give up their worldly possessions and worship the leader.
Many people have read Machiavelli’s book, The Prince, but this guy could have written it
Professionals often caution against viewing those who exhibit high levels of Dark Triad traits as virtually a different species.[2] This is because their attitude is so out of whack with our ideas of humanity that the temptation for the lay person to label them inhuman is nigh irresistible. Spend enough time dealing with Dark Triaders and you’ll start to question if there is a common humanity.
Equally important to remember, however, is that while on some psychological level this is the stuff of nightmares, it is also the stuff of everyday. Most psychopaths (even extreme, clinical ones) don’t become murderers; most narcissists don’t found cults; and most Machiavellians don’t become national dictators. But this is not because anything internal is really holding them back from doing these things.
And their internal mind-set, which is perfectly capable of accommodating such atrocities, also has an impact on more mundane activities. For example, many an unimaginative narcissist is perfectly happy to be the treasurer of a local community organization, where they can give themselves delusions of grandeur associated with this position. Thus, people high in Dark Triad traits exist all around us. Some of them possess these traits to a clinical degree and often inflict an immense amount of damage on the people around them, while others possess these traits to a still high but sub-clinical degree, a situation which is still destructive.
It is really these Dark Triad traits and not necessarily general misbehaviour that is so disturbing both in real life and on social media. Yes, people lose their cool sometimes, they may retweet things without really thinking about it, or they may take expressions very differently than they were meant. This can all create friction (as it does offline) although often of a rather limited variety.
Dark Triaders create friction on an entirely different scale, due to their tendency to relentlessly (overtly or covertly) attack anyone who threatens their interests. Such attacks are often misunderstood as being purely aggressive in nature. Although this is part of it, Dark Triaders are also manipulative, which means they excel at achieving their goals through deception and oblique manoeuvring. This makes them difficult to identify and deal with.
Some of the behaviour associated with Dark Triaders includes:
- continuous lying (including all the way up to fraud)
- sabotaging others (in particular with frivolous claims, intentional misunderstandings, or by spreading gossip about them)
- scapegoating (picking someone to blame for all ills and mistakes)
- projection (claiming others are doing what you are in fact doing) and
- playing the victim (a devastatingly effective tactic often used when they are finally caught engaging in any of the other behaviours).
A particular problem on social media is the ease with which many super-users claim that everyone must agree with them on some point or other, and that all those who do not agree must act from some form of bad faith. The mere act of not agreeing thus makes one a bad person (and thus a potential scapegoat).
Social Media – What It Does, What It Doesn’t
Blaming social media for abusive behaviour, as so many do, is itself typical Dark Triad projection. Dark Triaders love to claim that they aren’t the kind of person that their behaviour clearly indicates they are, and that they would not have behaved the way they did but for some external reason (in this case, the ease with which social media allowed them to abuse someone). The implication is that anyone would have behaved in the same manner as the Dark Triader under the circumstances.
This, typically convenient, excuse is untrue. Most people do not experience difficulty holding themselves back on social media or feel the need to endlessly update their status, constantly patrol their image, and continue feuds beyond mortal endurance. Even fewer people feel compelled to harass others for holding views contrary to their own, celebrate the deaths of those who oppose them, attempt to force people to cut contact with third parties, or demand that others ‘condemn’ a third party who has displeased them.
One of the reasons for this is that the vast majority of people do not score highly on Dark Triad traits. In fact, most people tilt towards the so-called Light Triad instead. In other words, the bulk of humanity is not merely neutral, but actually tipped towards this Light Triad, which consists of a strong belief in humanity, empathy, and a dislike of self-promotion.[3]
Some people, however, clearly do struggle with the aforementioned behaviours, and preliminary research indicates that these people may often be Dark Triaders. People who score highly in Dark Triad traits (as well as the possibly related traits of sadism and spitefulness) may disproportionately become addicted to social media.[4] In fact, those who score highly in Dark Triad traits may be predisposed to addiction of many kinds. For example, grandiose narcissism is disproportionately associated with gambling addiction,[5] and Dark Triaders, particularly narcissists and psychopaths, struggle with poor impulse control. Due to this impulsivity, it is likely that they quickly succumb to the temptation to use social media to try to fulfil their (destructive) psychological needs. Dark Triad behaviour on social media is thus often both compulsive and abusive. When some people say they 'couldn't help' but behave a certain way, there is a grain of truth to it.
Social media, however, does not, in itself, cause Dark Triad behaviour. If the internet ceased to exist, Dark Triaders would continue abusing other people as they did before. If anything, social media has been a positive development in that it has revealed the extent to which such behaviour exists and the problems that it causes.
That being said, well-run organizations tend to contain Dark Triad behaviour, while badly run organizations allow it to unfold with impunity. Many offline social organizations and companies become ‘toxic’ when those in positions of power score highly in Dark Triad traits and do nothing to prevent others from acting in similar fashion.
In this regard, some social media sites resemble badly managed offline organizations. We see this playing out particularly on Twitter (probably the most politicized of all social media platforms), where users typically tweet absolutist statements 'why this is the best thing'; 'why this is to be loved' 'why this is to be hated', and users are encouraged by others to put team-identifying symbols in their profiles (such as FBPE or a spider or a British flag in relation to Brexit). This in turn allows Dark Triaders to identify people who are not unequivocally on their side and thus fair game for abuse.
In this manner, Dark Triaders have succeeded to some extent in turning social media into what they would like it to be (a place where they can freely indulge their need to exercise power over others and to inflict pain and punishment on those who persist in denying them). This is similar to how they behave in workplace and family settings with the difference that on social media that are more likely to run into other Dark Triaders, a circumstance which seems only to infuriate them and drive them to new heights.
Social Media ‘Regulation’
The generic answer to Dark Triad bullying and lying (spreading ‘misinformation’) on social media is often that we should try to squelch all conflict. However, there are two things wrong with this approach: the first is that there really does need to be a certain level of conflict in any society or group in order to scrutinize issues, and the second is that Dark Triaders are extremely manipulative and prone to interpret any conflict as an attack on themselves. Their tendency is thus very much to regulate others into line with them. A group without any conflict is likely one with a member of the Dark Triad completely in control. Indeed, many of those who have called most vociferously for social media ‘regulation’ are those who behave most abusively on these platforms and who tolerate no views in opposition to their own.
In order to mitigate Dark Triad behaviour, the best course of action is not to censor everyone or impose other extreme rules (beyond basic limitations, like requiring people not to use swear words or post obscene images). It simply necessitates stopping the aspects of social media that are almost uniquely attractive to Dark Triad personalities.
1) End Hierarchy
Twitter’s blue check programme was originally supposed to serve the purpose of distinguishing real people from parody accounts (so that, for example, you would know when actual Barbra Streisand was tweeting, as opposed to someone parodying Barbra Streisand). Over time, however, these blue checks, which are given out according to no set criteria, have morphed into a kind of establishment seal of approval, and are seen, at least by many of those who possess them, as a sign of importance.
Dark Triaders are more likely to participate in groups where they can acquire such status. It is necessary, particularly to narcissists, that they be recognized as ‘more important’ than others and that they be able to conduct arguments, and preferably all interactions, from this vantage point.
Stripping this away and forcing them to communicate from a position of equality is not something that appeals to them. They are far less likely to turn up to this kind of forum and less likely to engage when they do. And this is precisely what we want.
2) Get Rid of Amplification
Dark Triaders, again particularly narcissists, are better than average users at collecting ‘friends’ and ‘followers’ on social media. Of course, anyone with a large following can use those followers to bully others. Say something that they take offence to and you not only face them but potentially a million other users.[6] Thus (from a Dark Triad prevention point of view), it is better to either require people to mutually ‘friend’ each other (which puts them on a foot of equality), only allow anonymous following (e.g you follow someone as you are interested in their updates, while they remain unaware of your identity), or simply end the concept of friends and followers completely. I highly doubt there would be a Dark Triader left on social media if the latter strategy were to be implemented, and if there were, the damage they could do would be seriously reduced.
3) Limit Interactions
Dark Triaders love to feel important and thus view it as necessary to continuously state their position on all matters, an action which, in their case, generally consists of either virtue-signalling or trolling. As many people quickly tire of this, Dark Triaders increasingly engage in such obsessive (if contentless) posting to each other while others tune out even more and feel that they are unable to find any useful information on the platform.
This can easily be resolved by limiting the number of posts anyone can make in each 24-hour period (and limiting accounts to one per person). Many people will still spend those posts virtue signalling or trolling, but the scale of such actions will be more limited. It is to be hoped that many Dark Triaders will become frustrated as this will limit the attention they receive and the manipulation they are able to conduct. This may lead them to cease engaging altogether.
Of course, none of this will happen on privately-owned social media and the reason for that is quite simple – Dark Triaders may be expert manipulators, but due to their out-of-control psychological needs they are also shockingly easy to manipulate. Average people are much less likely to become addicted to social media, consume ads and create controversy on the sites. Thus, they are ultimately less profitable (at least in the short-term – Dark Triaders destroy everything they touch eventually). However, it is still important to recognize that this is the problem and not ‘all people’ or the alleged ‘power’ of an app. It’s also important to realize that we can discourage Dark Triad behaviour and that designing systems of organization or democracy gives us the ability to do this without having to engage in censorship. We don’t need to accept the behaviour of severely disturbed individuals as ‘inevitable’ and we certainly do not need to feel that we are powerless to act against it.
[1] This concept was developed by Delroy L. Paulhus and Kevin M. Williams, see here: Delroy L. Paulhus & Kevin M. Williams, ‘The Dark Triad of Personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy’ Journal of Research and Personality (December 2002) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222828329_The_Dark_Triad_of_Personality_Narcissism_Machiavellianism_and_Psychopathy
[2] Scott Barry Kaufman, ‘The Light Triad vs Dark Triad of Personality’ Scientific American (19 March 2019) https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-light-triad-vs-dark-triad-of-personality/
[3] Kylie Andrews, ‘The Dark Triad sums up psychopaths, but the light triad defines saints’ ABC News (15 May 2019) https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-05-16/psychopaths-narcissm-the-dark-triad-fascinate-us-the-light-triad/11093104.
[4] For more information on this and on Dark Triad characteristics generally, see: Kagan Kircaburun & Mark D. Griffiths, ‘The dark side of internet: Preliminary evidence for the associations of dark personality traits with specific online activities and problematic internet use’, Journal of Behavioural Addictions (December 2018), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6376394/
[5] Guyonne Rogier & Patrizia Velotti, ‘Narcissistic Implications in Gambling Disorder: The Mediating Role of Emotion Dysregulation’ Journal of Gambling Studies (2018), https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10899-018-9759-x
[6] Such ‘followers’ actually have a name in psychological terms. When they work with narcissists they are known as ‘flying monkeys’ after the monkeys that the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz uses to attack others. While they are not necessarily narcissists themselves, they have essentially become tools of the narcissist.