Conducting negotiations online may help promote honesty, according to a new psychopathy study.
Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that traditionally successful manipulators are significantly less successful online and seem to lose their suave when sending online messages.
The latest study involved more than 200 Canadian university students. Researchers said that some of the students were identified as possessing traits on the Dark Triad spectrum: psychopathy, Machiavellianism and narcissism. Psychopaths were defined as antisocial individuals who lacked empathy. Narcissists were defined as those who tended to possess grandiosity and self-adoration, and Machiavellians were defined as being goal-oriented and calculated manipulators.
The latest study involved an experiment in which participants were divided into two different groups: face-to-face negotiation or computer-mediated communication. After being assigned as either buyer or seller, participants were asked to negotiate for concert tickets with the ultimate goal of making the most money for themselves.
"This study examined the influence of the Dark Triad (DT; psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) and communication condition (face-to-face versus computer-mediated communication) on success in negotiations. This is relevant considering the increased use of computer-mediated communication and the potentially differing nature of how individuals communicate online compared to face-to-face. For example, while individuals with dark personalities are known to exploit others in person, relatively little is known about their propensity to manipulate in online environments," researchers wrote in the study.
The study revealed that participants who ranked higher on the Dark Triad spectrum were very successful at face-to-face negotiations. However, people on the Dark Triad spectrum were 12.5 percent less successful than their more honest counterparts when it came to online negotiations
"The results of this study are pretty clear - once you remove non-verbal cues such as body language from the equation, the ability to smoke out narcissists and psychopaths becomes easier," said lead researcher Michael Woodworth, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, according to a university release. "We can also conclude that it is very likely that the qualities that allow these people to successfully charm, manipulate, intimidate or exploit others appear to require a live, in-person audience."
"While there has long been a fascination with DT personalities and how they can impact 'ordinary' people, little has been studied as to how these people behave online," added Woodworth.
"What this research tells us is that if you want to be confident in your ability not be taken in by these types of known manipulators, you're probably better off dealing with them online," he concluded.
The findings are published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
