Cryptocurrency investors are more likely to self-report ‘Dark Tetrad’ personality traits, study shows

Proudly owning cryptocurrency could also be related to sure character and demographic traits in addition to a reliance on various or fringe social media sources, in response to a research revealed July 3, 2024 within the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Shane Littrell from the College of Toronto, Canada, together with colleagues from the College of Miami, U.S..

Nameless buying and selling and unregulated markets hallmark cryptocurrency’s distinctive subculture. Whereas some take into account the digital foreign money to be financially unreliable, lots of of tens of millions of worldwide buyers assume in any other case.

This research recognized numerous political, psychological, and social traits differentiating crypto buyers from those that abstain. Present research (which typically embrace smaller pattern sizes) profile crypto homeowners as psychologically non-normative and politically non-mainstream.

To check this, Littrell and colleagues polled 2,001 American adults in 2022, about 30% of whom responded “Sure” to proudly owning or having owned crypto. Members reported demographic info and different responses revealing their political, psychological, and social traits.

The researchers performed a number of bivariate (two-variable) correlational analyses, which measured how strongly crypto possession is related to different variables individually, in addition to a multivariate (multi-variable) regression analysis, which makes an attempt to determine the variables which can be most necessary for predicting cryptocurrency possession.

The correlational analyses confirmed that crypto possession is related to perception in conspiracy theories, help of political extremism, identification with non-left-right political orientations (e.g., Christian nationalism), and the “Darkish Tetrad” of character traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism).

The extra holistic evaluation revealed which self-reported qualities are almost definitely to foretell crypto possession, essentially the most strongly related issue being a reliance on fringe social media sources for information. Different strongly related traits included maleness, argumentativeness, increased revenue, and emotions of victimhood.

Throughout all survey data, crypto homeowners reported numerous political orientations and identities with a mixture of left and proper leanings.

The researchers acknowledge that the correlations they recognized are restricted by their pattern of members and the truth that they self-reported their traits, and can’t be interpreted as causal. Due to the sturdy correlation between social media and crypto possession, they encourage future analysis into the affect of particular media or rhetoric on crypto possession.

The authors add, “Although our outcomes actually don’t apply to each crypto person on the market, on common, we discovered that crypto funding and ownership tends to enchantment to people who find themselves extra argumentative, anti-authoritarian, and like to get their information from non-mainstream social media websites.

“There may be nonetheless a lot work to be carried out on this space, however we hope our research helps lay the groundwork for future analysis geared toward understanding the psychological, political, and behavioral elements related to this rising monetary motion.”