The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personality traits, gambling behaviour, and social media use. A total of 718 university students in Northern Cyprus completed a survey. Potential participants were screened to make sure they had access to both gambling venues and social media platforms. The survey asked participants questions that measured their personality traits based on the Five-Factor Model of personality. Participants also answered questions about their gambling behaviour, social media use, and demographics.
The findings showed that males were more likely to gamble than females. Participants who used social media heavily reported gambling more frequently. Participants with moderate to high levels of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience were more likely to gamble frequently. Finally, social media use helped to explain the relationship between gambling behaviour and many of the personality traits, including neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion. But social media use did not influence the relationship between agreeableness and gambling behaviour.
