The attentive and the careless: Examining the relationship between benevolent and malevolent personality traits with careless responding in online surveys

Careless responding, in which respondents put forth insufficient effort to properly complete a survey, is a problem for researchers hoping to obtain accurate data in online samples. Recent studies have indicated that Big Five personality traits (particularly agreeableness and conscientiousness) are systematically related to careless responding. We expand on this research by examining the relationship between careless responding and benevolent (i.e., HEXACO personality traits, self-esteem) and malevolent (i.e., psychopathy, Machiavellianism, right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and domain-specific risk taking) traits. Using a large sample of undergraduate students (N = 905), we found that both benevolent and malevolent traits were related to careless responding, with malevolent traits having a larger effect. These results show that careless responding is influenced by a participant's personality and self-interest motivation.