In a new study published in the International Journal of Technoethics, researchers found that not enough people realize revenge porn is a real problem.Psychologists out of Kent University in the UK realized the need to better understand the personality characteristics of those who participate in or endorse revenge porn. Doing so, they wrote in their March 3 study, could help reduce the prevalence of this crime. According to a report that came out last year, one in 25 Americans say they've been a victim of revenge porn.
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Watch now: Inside the Torturous Fight to End Revenge PornBefore conducting their experiment, the team of researchers identified potential factors that might make a person more likely to engage in revenge porn. They hypothesized that having sexist beliefs; what's known as the Dark Triad of socially averse traits, which includes machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism; and sadistic tendencies would be significantly related to revenge porn proclivity.One hundred people who were 18 years old and older participated in the study. They first took a series of personality assessments. Afterward, they were given a test to measure their propensity to publish a nude photo of their partner online without their consent. This test involved reading five scenarios in which they were the central character, all of which concluded with an act of revenge porn; each participant was then asked how likely they'd be to do the same, on a scale of one (definitely would not do the same) to five (definitely would do the same). They also were asked if they felt excitement, control, blame, amusement, anger, and/or regret about the actions exhibited in the anecdotes.Only 28.6 percent of participants presented at least some proclivity to perpetrating revenge porn. But, the study's authors write, "[a] more staggering finding was that a majority of participants" expressed at least some enjoyment (87 percent) and approval (99 percent) of revenge porn. "This disparity suggests that whilst participants may be unlikely to commit an act of revenge porn themselves, they present an acceptance of this behavior we now know is frequently occurring online."Read more on Broadly.