What is it about?
Sharing someone's intimate images without their permission is a form of image-based sexual abuse that can cause serious harm, including shame, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and thoughts of suicide. Despite these consequences, researchers know relatively little about why some people are more willing to engage in, enjoy, or approve of this behaviour. This study examined two possible explanations. First, it looked at personality traits linked to callousness, manipulation, impulsivity, and enjoyment of others' suffering (often called the "Dark Tetrad" traits). Second, it explored online disinhibition, which refers to the ways that online environments can make people feel psychologically distant from the effects of their actions. More than 200 adults completed questionnaires about their personality, their experiences of online communication, and their reactions to several fictional scenarios involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. What was found: - People who scored higher on dark personality traits were generally more likely to express support for, enjoyment of, or willingness to engage in image-sharing abuse. - Psychopathy was the strongest personality-related predictor of a willingness to engage in the behaviour. - The most consistent factor across all measures was a form of online disinhibition called dissociative imagination—the belief that one's online self is separate from one's offline self. People who felt a stronger separation between their online and offline selves were more likely to approve of, enjoy, or show some willingness to engage in non-consensual image sharing.
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Why is it important?
The findings suggest that harmful online behaviour is not only about having a "bad" personality. The structure of online communication may also play an important role. When people feel psychologically detached from their online actions, they may be less likely to think about the real-world impact on the person whose images are shared. For prevention efforts, this means that education should focus not only on consent and legal consequences, but also on helping people recognize that online actions have real effects on real people. Strategies that increase empathy, highlight the experiences of victims, and reduce the sense of separation between online and offline behaviour may help reduce support for this form of abuse.
Perspectives
So much research on image-based sexual abuse has focused on dark personality traits, yet it appears that a dissociative imagination may be more strongly related. This makes sense, as separating the online from the offline self allows one to act in ways online that aren't congruent with one's own self-evaluation without experiencing cognitive dissonance. That is, one can engage in antisocial behaviour online while still considering themselves to be a fundamentally good person. In effect, online disinhibition (and dissociative imagination in particular) can help overcome one's own moral objections to engaging in antisocial behaviour; one no longer needs to be callous to act callously.
Brandon Sparks
University of New Brunswick
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Nonconsensual dissemination of intimate images: The roles of dark personality traits and online disinhibition dissemination proclivity and attitudes., Psychology of Violence, June 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/vio0000699.
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