Saint or Satan? Moral Development and Dark Triad Influences on Cybercriminal Intent

TY - CHAP

T1 - Saint or Satan? Moral Development and Dark Triad Influences on Cybercriminal Intent

AU - Selzer, Nicole

AU - Oelrich, Sebastian

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Research into psychological characteristics of cybercrime offenders is scarce, especially concerning cyber-dependent crimes. We shed light on the issue by evaluating the connection of negative and positive personality traits on cybercriminal intent. Specifically, we focus on the so-called Dark Triad of personality---Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, as well as on moral development. We conduct a survey with students of a major German university who attended computer science/informatics courses or were enrolled in a major in informatics. Using the theory of planned behavior to measure cybercrime, we find that only higher Machiavellian and psychopathic tendencies coincide with higher cybercriminal intention, whereas there is no significant effect of narcissism on cybercriminal intention. On the other hand, moral development on a rule-abiding level has a deterrent effect. Contrary to intuition, stronger moral reasoning on a principled level might increase cybercriminal intention. We critically discuss our findings and future research directions.

AB - Research into psychological characteristics of cybercrime offenders is scarce, especially concerning cyber-dependent crimes. We shed light on the issue by evaluating the connection of negative and positive personality traits on cybercriminal intent. Specifically, we focus on the so-called Dark Triad of personality---Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy, as well as on moral development. We conduct a survey with students of a major German university who attended computer science/informatics courses or were enrolled in a major in informatics. Using the theory of planned behavior to measure cybercrime, we find that only higher Machiavellian and psychopathic tendencies coincide with higher cybercriminal intention, whereas there is no significant effect of narcissism on cybercriminal intention. On the other hand, moral development on a rule-abiding level has a deterrent effect. Contrary to intuition, stronger moral reasoning on a principled level might increase cybercriminal intention. We critically discuss our findings and future research directions.

KW - Cybercrime

KW - Moral development

KW - Machiavellianism

KW - Narcissism

KW - Psychopathy

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-60527-8_11

DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-60527-8_11

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-3-030-60527-8

SP - 175

EP - 194

BT - Cybercrime in Context: The human factor in victimization, offending, and policing

A2 - Weulen Kranenbarg, Marleen

A2 - Leukfeldt, Rutger

PB - Springer International Publishing

CY - Cham

ER -