Date of Award
5-11-2025
Date Published
June 2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Media Studies
Advisor(s)
Brad Gorham
Keywords
Aggression;Cyberbully;Cybervictimization;Social Media
Subject Categories
Communication | Mass Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Cyberbullying and harassment are pervasive issues online. Certain personality characteristics may make some individuals more inclined to cyberbully than others. This study explores whether aggressive personality characteristics and factors like gender and social media habits are predictive of whether a person cyberbullies, and to what extent. Responses from an online survey of adults distributed via MTurk (n = 189) found a majority of participants (81.5%) report being ridiculed online to some extent in the past year, though most report low levels of cyberbullying. There is a positive relationship between cyberbullying and aggression among adults; physical aggression was by far the most predictive aggression subscale. The study finds a relationship between cyberbullying and being a victim of cyberbullying. Aggression was higher among cyberbully-victims (those who bully after getting bullied online) versus the general sample, and men had higher cyberbullying scores compared to women. Time spent on social media was also predictive of cyberbullying to some extent. Given that aggressive personality traits may correlate with online bullying, and that personality traits are relatively fixed for adults, it’s critical for social media companies to implement standards to prevent online harassment.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Burton, Joy R., "Logging on to act out: Understanding aggressive personality traits in cyberbullies and cyberbully-victims" (2025). Theses - ALL. 957.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/957
