Are mindful people less involved in online trolling? A moderated mediation model of perceived social media fatigue and moral disengagement.

Publisher: Wiley-Liss Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 7502265 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1098-2337 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 0096140X NLM ISO Abbreviation: Aggress Behav Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: <2005-> : Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley-Liss
Original Publication: New York, Liss.

Mindfulness* ; Social Media*; Aggression ; Fatigue ; Humans ; Morals

Online trolling is aggressive online behavior that has severe consequences for the mental health of internet users. Online trolling can be influenced by personal factors and psychological states. Based on the General Aggression Model, moral disengagement was examined as a moderator of the direct and indirect relations between mindfulness and online trolling via social media fatigue. A total of 1123 college students completed questionnaires regarding their experience with online trolling, mindfulness, social media fatigue, and moral disengagement. The results showed that individuals with high mindfulness were less likely to troll others online, which was mediated by their social media fatigue. Furthermore, moral disengagement moderated the indirect relationship between mindfulness and online trolling. Specifically, the relationship between mindfulness and social media fatigue became weaker for individuals with high moral disengagement. The relationship between social media fatigue and online trolling became strengthened for individuals with high moral disengagement. These findings elucidate the role of personal factors and the present internal state in online trolling and suggest that comprehensive intervention programs may be promising for reducing online trolling.
(© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Allen, J. J., Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2018). The general aggression model. Current Opinion in Psychology, 19, 75-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.034.
Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G. V., & Pastorelli, C. (1996). Mechanisms of moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 364-374. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.71.2.364.
Barlett, C., Oliphant, H., Gregory, W., & Jones, D. (2016). Ego-depletion and aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior. 42(6), 533-541. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21648.
Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822-848. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.4.822.
Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., Andjelovic, T., & Paulhus, D. L. (2019). Internet trolling and everyday sadism parallel effects on pain perception and moral judgment. Journal of Personality, 87, 328-340. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12393.
Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Trolls just want to have fun. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 97-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.016.
Cao, X., Khan, A. N., Ali, A., & Khan, N. A. (2019). Consequences of cyberbullying and social overload while using SNSs: A study of users’ discontinuous usage behavior in SNSs. Information Systems Frontiers, 22(6), 1343-1356. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-019-09936-8.
Charoensukmongkol, P. (2016). Mindful facebooking: The moderating role of mindfulness on the relationship between social media use intensity at work and burnout. Journal of Health Psychology, 21(9), 1966-1980. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105315569096.
Cheng, J., Bernstein, M., Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, C., & Leskovec, J. (2017). Anyone can become a troll: Causes of trolling behavior in online discussions. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work and social computing, 1217-1230. https://doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998213.
Chiesa, A., Serretti, A., & Jakobsen, J. C. (2013). Mindfulness top-down or bottom-up emotion regulation strategy. Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 82-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2012.10.006.
China Internet Network Information Center (2021). The 47th China statistical report on Internet development. http://cnnic.cn/hlwfzyj/hlwxzbg/hlwtjbg/202102/P020210203334633480104.pdf.
Coles, B. A., & West, M. (2016). Trolling the trolls: Online forum users constructions of the nature and properties of trolling. Computers in Human Behavior, 60, 233-244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.02.070.
Deng, Y. Q., Li, S., Tang, Y. Y., Zhu, L. H., Ryan, R., & Brown, K. (2012). Psychometric properties of the Chinese translation of the mindful attention awareness scale (MAAS). Mindfulness, 3, 10-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-011-0074-1.
Dhir, A., Kaur, P., Chen, S., & Pallesen, S. (2019). Antecedents and consequences of social media fatigue. International Journal of Information Management, 48, 193-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.05.021.
Dhir, A., Yossatorn, Y., Kaur, P., & Chen, S. (2018). Online social media fatigue and psychological wellbeing: A study of compulsive use, fear of missing out, fatigue, anxiety and depression. International Journal of Information Management, 40, 141-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2018.01.012.
Eisenlohr-Moul, T. A., Peters, J. R., Pond, R. S., & DeWall, C. N. (2016). Both trait and state mindfulness predict lower aggressiveness via anger rumination: A multilevel mediation analysis. Mindfulness, 7(3), 713-726. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0508-x.
Emirtekin, E., Balta, S., Kircaburun, K., & Griffiths, M. D. (2020). Childhood emotional abuse and cyberbullying perpetration among adolescents the mediating role of mindfulness. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 18, 1548-1559. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-019-0055-5.
Garofalo, C., Gillespie, S. M., & Velotti, P. (2019). Emotion regulation mediates relationships between mindfulness facets and aggression dimensions. Aggressive Behavior, 46(1), 60-71. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21868.
Georgiou, S. N., Charalambous, K., & Stavrinides, P. (2019). Mindfulness, impulsivity, and moral disengagement as parameters of bullying and victimization at school. Aggressive Behavior, 46(1), 107-115. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21876.
Gillions, A., Cheang, R., & Duarte, R. (2019). The effect of mindfulness practice on aggression and violence levels in adults a systematic review. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 48, 104-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2019.08.012.
Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Hong, F.-Y., & Cheng, K.-T. (2018). Correlation between university students’ online trolling behavior and online trolling victimization forms, current conditions, and personality traits. Telematics and Informatics, 35(2), 397-405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2017.12.016.
Iacobucci, D. (2012). Mediation analysis and categorical variables: The final frontier. Journal of Consumer, 22(4), 582-594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2012.03.006.
Jones, S. M., Bodie, G. D., & Hughes, S. D. (2019). The impact of mindfulness on empathy, active listening, and perceived provisions of emotional support. Communication Research, 46(6), 838-865. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215626983.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 144-156. https://doi.org/10.1093/clipsy/bpg016.
Kowalski, R. M., Giumetti, G. W., Schroeder, A. N., & Lattanner, M. R. (2014). Bullying in the digital age: A critical review and meta-analysis of cyberbullying research among youth. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 1073-1137. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035618.
Kudesia, R. S., Pandey, A., & Reina, C. S. (2020). Doing more with less: Interactive effects of cognitive resources and mindfulness training in coping with mental fatigue from multitasking. Journal of Management, 140, 1073-1137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206320964570.
Kuo, F. E., & Sullivan, W. C. (2001). Aggression and violence in the inner city: Effects of environment via mental fatigue. Environment and Behavior, 33(4), 543-571. https://doi.org/10.1177/00139160121973124.
Lee, A. R., Son, S.-M., & Kim, K. K. (2016). Information and communication technology overload and social networking service fatigue: A stress perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 51-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.08.011.
Li, J. B., Nie, Y. G., Boardley, I. D., Situ, Q. M., & Dou, K. (2014). Moral disengagement moderates the predicted effect of trait self-control on self-reported aggression. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 17(4), 312-318. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12072.
Mackinnon, D. P., Fairchild, A. J., & Fritz, M. S. (2007). Mediation analysis. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 593-614. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085542.
March, E., Grieve, R., Marrington, J., & Jonason, P. K. (2017). Trolling on Tinder® (and other dating apps): Examining the role of the Dark Tetrad and impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 110, 139-143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.01.025.
March, E., & Marrington, J. (2019). A qualitative analysis of internet trolling. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 22(3), 192-197. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2018.0210.
van der Meulen, R. T., Valentin, S., Bögels, S. M., & de Bruin, E. I. (2021). Mindfulness and self-compassion as mediators of the mindful 2 work training on perceived stress and chronic fatigue. Mindfulness, 12, 936-946. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01557-6.
Moore, C. (2015). Moral disengagement. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 199-204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.07.018.
Moore, C., Detert, J. R., Klebe Trevin˜o, L., Baker, V. L., & Mayer, D. M. (2012). Why employees do bad things: Moral disengagement and unethical organizational behavior. Personnel Psychology, 65, 1-48. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01237.x.
Navarro-Carrillo, G., Torres-Marín, J., & Carretero-Dios, H. (2021). Do trolls just want to have fun? Assessing the role of humor-related traits in online trolling behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 114, 106551-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106551.
Ravindran, T., Kuan, A. C. Y., & Lian, D. G. H. (2014). Antecedents and effects of social network fatigue. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(11), 2306-2320. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23122.
Royuela-Colomer, E., Calvete, E., Ga'mez-Guadix, M., & Orue, I. (2018). The protective role of dispositional mindfulness against the perpetuation of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration among adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 21(11), 703-710. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.0685.
Runions, K. C., & Bak, M. (2015). Online moral disengagement, cyberbullying, and cyber-aggression. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 18(7), 400-405. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0670.
Samnani, A. K., Salamon, S. D., & Singh, P. (2014). Negative affect and counterproductive workplace behavior: The moderating role of moral disengagement and gender. Journal of business ethics, 119(2), 235-244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1635-0.
Sest, N., & March, E. (2017). Constructing the cyber-troll: Psychopathy, sadism, and empathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 119, 69-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.06.038.
Shokouyar, S., Siadat, S. H., & Razavi, M. K. (2018). How social influence and personality affect users’ social network fatigue and discontinuance behavior. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 119, 69-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-11-2017-0263.
Stucke, T. S., & Baumeister, R. F. (2006). Ego depletion and aggressive behavior: Is the inhibition of aggression a limited resource? European Journal of Social Psychology, 36(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.285.
Suárez-García, Z., Álvarez-García, D., García-Redondo, P., & Rodríguez, C. (2020). The effect of a mindfulness-based intervention on attention, self-control, and aggressiveness in primary school pupils. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(7), 2447-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17072447.
Suler, J. (2004). The online disinhibition effect. Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 7(3), 321-326.
Tao, S., Li, J., Zhang, M., Zheng, P., Lau, E. Y. H., Sun, J., & Zhu, Y. (2021). The effects of mindfulness-based interventions on child and adolescent aggression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Mindfulness, 7, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01570-9.
Wachs, S., Wright, M. F., & Vazsonyi, A. T. (2019). Understanding the overlap between cyberbullying and cyberhate perpetration: Moderating effects of toxic online disinhibition. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 29(3), 179-188. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.2116.
Wang, X., Lei, L., Yang, J., Gao, L., & Zhao, F. (2017). Moral disengagement as mediator and moderator of the relation between empathy and aggression among chinese male juvenile delinquents. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 48(2), 316-326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-016-0643-6.
Wang, X., Yang, J., Wang, P., & Lei, L. (2019). Childhood maltreatment, moral disengagement, and adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration: Fathers' and mothers' moral disengagement as moderators. Computers in Human Behavior, 95, 48-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.01.031.
Wang, X., Yang, L., Yang, J., Gao, L., Zhao, F., Xie, X., & Lei, L. (2018). Trait anger and aggression: A moderated mediation model of anger rumination and moral disengagement. Personality and Individual Differences, 125, 44-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.12.029.
Wen, Z., Marsh, H. W., & Hau, K. T. (2010). Structural equation models of latent interactions: An appropriate standardized solution and its scale-free properties. Structural Equation Modeling, 17(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510903438872.
Wolf, L. A., Perhats, C., Delao, A. M., & Clark, P. R. (2017). Workplace aggression as cause and effect: Emergency nurses' experiences of working fatigued. International Emergency Nursing, 33, 48-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2016.10.006.
Xiao, L., & Mou, J. (2019). Social media fatigue-Technological antecedents and the moderating roles of personality traits: The case of WeChat. Computers in Human Behavior, 101, 297-310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.08.001.
Yang, J., Li, W., Gao, L., & Wang, X. (2020). How is anger related to adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration? A moderated mediation analysis. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 101, 297-310. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520967129.
Yang, J., Li, W., Wang, W., Gao, L., & Wang, X. (2021). Anger rumination and adolescents’ cyberbullying perpetration: Moral disengagement and callous-unemotional traits as moderators. Journal of Affective Disorders, 278, 397-404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.08.090.
Yuan, G., & Liu, Z. (2019). Longitudinal cross-lagged analyses between cyberbullying perpetration, mindfulness and depression among Chinese high school students. Journal of Health Psychology, 278, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105319890395.
Zheng, H., & Ling, R. (2021). Drivers of social media fatigue: A systematic review. Telematics and Informatics, 157, 101696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2021.101696.
Zheng, X., Qin, X., Liu, X., & Liao, H. (2019). Will creative employees always make trouble investigating the roles of moral identity and moral disengagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 157, 653-672. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3683-3.

Keywords: mindfulness; moral disengagement; online trolling; social media fatigue

Date Created: 20211213 Date Completed: 20220413 Latest Revision: 20220614

20240829

10.1002/ab.22013

34897702