Study: Cryptocurrency Owners More Likely to Display Psychopathic Tendencies

Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Miami recently set out to answer the question: “How are cryptocurrency buyers different from those who do not purchase cryptocurrency?”

People who are really into cryptocurrency are more likely to display psychopathic tendencies, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Miami surveyed 2,001 American adults, asking them questions about themselves and their interest in cryptocurrency. They found that crypto’s core demographic is a bunch of maladjusted young men who believe everybody’s out to get them.

“The results presented here suggest that cryptocurrency ownership is associated with several nonnormative and arguably maladaptive characteristics,” the report says.

“Crypto ownership was associated with belief in conspiracy theories, ‘dark’ personality characteristics (e.g., the ‘Dark Tetrad’ of narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism), and more frequent use of alternative and fringe social media platforms,” it continues.

Of the people surveyed, only 30 percent said they had ever owned crypto. In breaking down this demographic further, researchers found that those people tended to be male, have more education, have higher income, and be more religious.

When it came to the crypto holders’ psychological makeup, the results weren’t great:

Crypto ownership is positively associated with several so-called “dark” personality characteristics including narcissism (r = .38, p < .001), Machiavellianism (r = .29, p < .001), psychopathy (r = .27, p < .001), and sadism (r = .27, p < .001). Relatedly, crypto owners also tend to score higher on measures of need for chaos (r = .35, p < .001), paranoia (r = .35, p < .001), schizotypal attributes (r = .35, p < .001), dogmatism (r = .23, p < .001), victimhood mentality (r = .18, p < .001), and psychological reactance (r = .11, p < .001).

What was most positively correlated with being a crypto owner was distrust of authority and belief in conspiracy theories.

Crypto owners were generally seen to have “greater receptivity to epistemically weak claims and unwarranted beliefs,” and to regularly get their information from “alternative/fringe social media,” researchers write.