Individual Differences in Hacking Involvement: Self-Control and Personality Across Black-, Grey- and White-Hat Behaviours

Research on hacking has often contrasted “hackers” and “non-hackers”, while paying less attention to heterogeneity within hacking. Drawing on the General Theory of Crime and personality frameworks (Big Five and Dark Triad), this study examines (a) differences between individuals reporting any hacking involvement and those reporting none and (b) how individual differences relate to involvement across behavioural domains, distinguishing illicit/unauthorised black-hat behaviours from grey-hat and white-hat behaviours. Using an online survey of adults in Portugal ( N = 590) recruited through technology-related educational, professional and online communities, we assessed self-control, personality traits and self-reported hacking involvement. Compared with non-hackers, hackers reported lower self-control and agreeableness and higher neuroticism, machiavellianism and psychopathy. At the behavioural-domain level, black-hat (illicit/unauthorised) involvement was associated with lower self-control and higher psychopathy and machiavellianism. Grey-hat involvement was positively associated with machiavellianism and negatively with agreeableness, whereas white-hat involvement was positively associated with machiavellianism and negatively with openness to experience. Given the smaller number of hackers who reported detailed behaviours ( n = 84), the analyses across behavioural types are exploratory. These findings refine criminological accounts of cyber-offending by differentiating behavioural domains within hacking and suggest that prevention and intervention efforts may benefit from targeting risk profiles rather than treating hackers as a homogeneous group.