Development and validation of a measure of online deception and intimacy

• We created two scales to assess behaviors related to online deception and intimacy.
• We present these scales as the Measures of Online Deception and Intimacy (MODI).
• Online Deception related negatively to agreeableness and conscientiousness.
• Online Deception also showed strong positive relations to measures of antagonism.
• Online Intimacy related positively to openness.

We aimed to establish the personality and psychopathology correlates of (1) misrepresenting oneself or deceiving others online and (2) seeking meaningful companionship through online relationships. In Study 1 (N = 300; community sample), we sought to determine (1) if we could differentiate these two dimensions and (2) whether they showed distinct correlates. Study 2 served as an opportunity to refine our assessment of these dimensions and to explicate their correlates in another community sample (N = 294). In Study 2, we created two scales, one which we labeled Online Deception (e.g., self-misrepresentation to others online) and the other Online Intimacy (e.g., turning to the internet for meaningful social interaction); we collectively titled these scales the Measures of Online Deception and Intimacy (MODI). Although Online Intimacy related weakly to most personality and psychopathology measures, Online Deception showed notable negative associations with conscientiousness and agreeableness and positive associations with neuroticism. Furthermore, it associated positively with both externalizing and internalizing symptoms. Our findings represent a first step toward understanding how individual differences in personality and psychopathology can be used to predict online deception and intimacy, and we hope that future research will explore the correlates of these dimensions further.