Cyber Behavior and Personality Nexus: Clustering Around Security Attitudes, FoMO, Problematic Social Media Use, and Cognitive and Personality Traits?

Our research investigates whether different cyber behaviors can be classified based on a set of personality factors. The study involved 642 participants, comprising 314 from the UK and 328 from the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. By analyzing the personality factors of Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Need for Cognition (NFC) along with the cyber behaviors of Problematic Social Media Use (PSMU), Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), and Security Attitude (SA), the study identifies three clusters in each cultural context, which were largely similar in characteristics. The clusters were then transformed into personas to enhance ease of interpretation and practical use. The UK personas included “Methodical Achievers,” “Reactive Explorers,” and “Engaged Seekers,” while the Arabic personas included “Analytical Protectors,” “Reactive Explorers,” and “Hyper-Connected Defenders.” Creating these user profiles and presenting them as visual behavioral personas was a major goal of this research. The clusters revealed consistent relationships between cyber behaviors and personal factors. For example, high Need for Cognition and Conscientiousness correlated with stronger security attitudes and lower levels of PSMU and FoMO, while higher Neuroticism showed the opposite trend. Our findings highlight the potential of clustering approaches that consider multiple cyber behaviors and their relationship to personal factors, offering a foundation for personalized interventions that address cyber safety comprehensively rather than focusing on one behavior at a time.