The dark side of Facebook: Semantic representations of status updates predict the Dark Triad of personality

•Latent Semantic Analysis was used to quantify Facebook status updates.•Participants reported personality traits in the Dark Triad among others.•The semantic content of the status updates predicted Psychopathy and Narcissism.•The Dark Triad might be expressed in statuses as a social competition mechanism.

Using Latent Semantic Analysis, we quantified the semantic representations of Facebook status updates of 304 individuals in order to predict self-reported personality. We focused on, besides Neuroticism and Extraversion, the Dark Triad of personality: Psychopathy, Narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The semantic content of Facebook updates predicted Psychopathy and Narcissism. These updates had a more “odd” and negatively valanced content. Furthermore, Neuroticism, number of Facebook friends, and frequency of status updates were predictable from the status updates. Given that Facebook allows individuals to have major control in how they present themselves and draw benefits from these interactions, we conclude that the Dark Triad, involving socially malevolent behavior such as self-promotion, emotional coldness, duplicity, and aggressiveness, is manifested in Facebook status updates.