Problematic personality correlations associated with gist reading, financial pressure, and rejection fears

Amazon's MTurk is a popular source of data for personality researchers. However, recent papers suggests that Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad correlations are inflated within crowdsourcing samples. We argue that low pay exacerbates the need to get through a survey as quickly as possible. In combination with low pay, crowdsourced workers must also worry about their work being rejected if they appear incoherent. Consequently, participants are incentivized to rush through measures such as personality surveys while trying to maintain an image of cohesion. In two studies (N = 361), we found that gist reading in online surveys is common. Further, we found that fear of rejected work was highest on MTurk, and that MTurk samples showed higher psychopathy-Machiavellianism correlations than Prolific or student samples. Finally, when fear of rejection and gist reading were high, the relationship between Machiavellianism and psychopathy was inflated. In sum, we argue that researchers who pay low hourly wages and place workers under fear of rejected work may be creating an artificial inflation among correlations of overlapping but distinct personality assessments. Thus, gist reading may explain some of the variance with respect to the inflated correlations among related constructs, particularly in samples of MTurk workers.

Automated summary

Amazon's MTurk is a popular source for personality researchers, but recent studies suggest that correlations within crowdsourcing samples may be inflated. Low pay leads to a need for quick completion of surveys, and crowdworkers also have to worry about rejected work. Participants rush through surveys while maintaining an image of coherence. The studies found that gist reading is common in online surveys. Fear of rejected work is highest on MTurk, and MTurk samples show higher correlations between psychopathy and Machiavellianism than other samples.