The impacts of gender, educational level, and personality on the reaction to and use frequency of offensive words on social media by Chinese young adults

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between gender, educational level, and personality traits and the reaction to and use frequency of offensive words by Chinese young adults. The target group was 16 to 25 years old and binary gender. The educational level divided into two levels with university graduation as the cut-off point. Personality traits were measured using selected components of the Big Five personality, openness, extroversion, and neuroticism. Offensive words are categorized into vulgar, pornographic, and hateful language. Statistical methods adopted multiple linear regression, and factorial ANOVA was further conducted to explore the influence of educational level and personality traits after controlling for gender. The results suggested that gender and openness were significant predictors for negative reactions to offensive words, while extroversion and neuroticism significantly influence reaction to or frequency of use within a single gender. This research could help moral educators, web censors, and censorship managers anticipate the reaction and frequency of young Chinese adults and provide more focused instruction and judgments.