Locus Of Control, Social Comparison And Propensity To Crime On Predisposition Towards Internet Fraud Among The Youths In Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
Keywords:
Locus of Control, Social Comparison, Propensity to Crime, Predisposition towards Internet FraudAbstract
On the basis of the believe that certain individual psychological characteristic could influence act of committing internet fraud, this study investigates the influence of locus of control, social comparison, and propensity to crime on the predisposition towards internet fraud among youths in some selected universities in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 400 undergraduates across five universities in Ibadan. Structured questionnaires were used to measure locus of control, social comparison, propensity to crime, and predisposition towards internet fraud. Findings revealed that locus of control (β = .26, t = 6.06, p < .001) and propensity to crime significantly influenced predisposition towards internet fraud (β = .38, t = 8.87, p < .001), with individuals exhibiting an external locus of control and higher criminal tendencies being more likely to engage in fraudulent activities. Social comparison, however, did not have a significant independent effect (β = .002, t = 0.05, p = >.05). However, the results indicate that locus of control, social comparison, and propensity to jointly influenced predisposition towards internet fraud (R = .49, R² = .24, F(3, 442) = 47.64, p < .001). Additionally, gender and age were significant predictors, with males and younger individuals showing a higher predisposition towards internet fraud (R = .19, R² = .04, F(2, 443) = 8.16, p < .001). The study concludes that fostering an internal locus of control, addressing criminal propensities, and reducing socio-economic pressures are crucial in mitigating the prevalence of internet fraud among youths.
References
Adamson, G. (2020). Migrants and Crime in Sweden in the Twenty-First Century. Society, 57(1), 9–21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-019-00436-8
Agbo, A. A., & Iwundu, E. I. (2016). Corruption as a Propensity: Personality and Motivational Determinants Among Nigerians. The Journal of Psychology, 150(4), 502–526. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2015.1107523
Apte, M., Palshikar, G. K., & Baskaran, S. (2019). Frauds in Online Social Networks: A Review. In T. Özyer, S. Bakshi, & R. Alhajj (Eds.), Social Networks and Surveillance for Society (pp. 1–18). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78256-0_1
Bai, W. (2023). Social comparison: Causes and effects. SHS Web of Conferences, 180, 03030. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202318003030
Baldwin, M., & Mussweiler, T. (2018). The culture of social comparison. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(39). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1721555115
Baron, S. W. (2019). Police Strain, Negative Emotions, Criminal Propensity, and Criminal Coping. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 44(6), 938–961. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-019-9471-0
Benson, J. (2019). White-Collar Crime in Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth-Century Britain (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429454134
Bergagna, E., & Tartaglia, S. (2018). Self-esteem, social comparison, and Facebook use. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 14(4), 831–845. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v14i4.1592
- Population Health, 25, 101566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101566
Buil-Gil, D., & Zeng, Y. (2022). Meeting you was a fake: Investigating the increase in romance fraud during COVID-19. Journal of Financial Crime, 29(2), 460–475. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFC-02-2021-0042/full/html
Caliendo, M., Cobb-Clark, D. A., Hennecke, J., & Uhlendorff, A. (2019). Locus of control and internal migration. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 79, 103468. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166046218301583
Chun, J. S. (2018). Social comparison in performance appraisal. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8612GQ6
Cobb-Clark, D. A. (2015). Locus of control and the labor market. IZA Journal of Labor Economics, 4(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40172-014-0017-x
Delcea, C., & Enache, A. (2021). Personality traits as predictor of crime. Rom J Leg Med, 29(2), 227–231. https://www.academia.edu/download/74544534/227_231.pdf
Diel, K., Grelle, S., & Hofmann, W. (2021). A motivational framework of social comparison. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(6), 1415–1430. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000204
Eck, J. E., & Clarke, R. V. (2019). Situational Crime Prevention: Theory, Practice and Evidence. In M. D. Krohn, N. Hendrix, G. Penly Hall, & A. J. Lizotte (Eds.), Handbook on Crime and Deviance (pp. 355–376). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20779-3_18
Epper, T., Fehr, E., Hvidberg, K. B., Kreiner, C. T., Leth-Petersen, S., & Nytoft Rasmussen, G. (2022). Preferences predict who commits crime among young men. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(6), e2112645119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2112645119
Festinger, L. (1954). A Theory of Social Comparison Processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117-140. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202 (Original work published 1954)
Findley, M. J., & Cooper, H. M. (1983). Locus of control and academic achievement: A literature review. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(2), 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.44.2.419
Francis, A. J. P. (2020). Locus of Control. In D. A. Leeming (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion (pp. 1369–1370). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_225
Gerber, J. P. (2020). Social Comparison Theory. In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences (pp. 5004–5011). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1182
Homer, E. M. (2019). Testing the fraud triangle: A systematic review. Journal of Financial Crime, 27(1), 172–187. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-12-2018-0136
Kemp, S. (2020). Fraud against individuals in the Internet era: Trends, victimisation, impact and reporting. https://dugi-doc.udg.edu/handle/10256/19360
Križan, Z., & Gibbons, F. X. (Eds.). (2014). Communal Functions of Social Comparison (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139035583
Lazarus, S., Button, M., & Adogame, A. (2022). Advantageous comparison: Using Twitter responses to understand similarities between cybercriminals (“Yahoo Boys”) and politicians (“Yahoo men”). Heliyon, 8(11). https://www.cell.com/heliyon/fulltext/S2405-8440(22)02430-6
Lewallen, J., & Behm-Morawitz, E. (2016). Pinterest or Thinterest?: Social Comparison and Body Image on Social Media. Social Media + Society, 2(1), 205630511664055. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116640559
Norris, G., Brookes, A., & Dowell, D. (2019). The psychology of internet fraud victimisation: A systematic review. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 34, 231–245. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11896-019-09334-5
Obodoechi, D., Urama, C., Ezema, D., Ukwueze, E., Eze, A., Mba, I., Amuka, J., Arazu, W.,
& Ibrahim, H. (2022). The Effect of Foreign Capital Inflows on Economic Growth in
Nigeria. Regional Economic Development Research. 253-266.
https://doi.org/10.37256/redr.3220221550.
Rotter, J. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of
reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80(1), 1–
28. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0092976
Sampson, R. J., & Smith, L. A. (2021). Rethinking Criminal Propensity and Character: Cohort Inequalities and the Power of Social Change. Crime and Justice, 50(1), 13–76. https://doi.org/10.1086/716005
Strickland, B. R. (2016). Internal Versus External Locus of Control. In J. W. Reich & F. J. Infurna (Eds.), Perceived Control (pp. 23–44). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190257040.003.0002
Teijón-Alcalá, M., & Birkbeck, C. (2019). Victimization, Crime Propensity, and Deviance: A Multinational Test of General Strain Theory. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 35(4), 410–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986219870941
Wikström, P.-O. H., & Kroneberg, C. (2022). Analytic Criminology: Mechanisms and Methods in the Explanation of Crime and its Causes. Annual Review of Criminology, 5(1), 179–203. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-030920-091320