A study claiming that psychopaths and others with ‘Dark Tetrad’ personality traits are drawn to crypto has been criticized as “meaningless” for showing very weak correlativity by a psychology expert from The University of Otago.

Researchers with backgrounds predominately in marketing and advertising from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) surveyed 566 people on their attitudes toward crypto and correlated the results with four specific personality traits: narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and sadism.

The findings were first shared by The U.S. Sun, and were widely syndicated by the mainstream media, with the New York Post headline screaming “Bitcoin fans are psychopaths who don’t care about anyone,” and Salon asserting that “Impulsive psychopaths like crypto”.

Bitcoin fans are psychopaths who don’t care about anyone, study shows https://t.co/9WZQkzoIPX pic.twitter.com/YTGcULRCef

— New York Post (@nypost) April 12, 2022

But speaking to Cointelegraph, Professor Martin Sellbom from The University of Otago’s Psychology Department — an international expert on personality disorders and personality assessment — criticized the results of the study as essentially meaningless.

“The effects they report, for example, the strength of relationships between these so-called ‘dark tetrad’ traits and attitude and intention to buy cryptocurrency are very weak, pretty much meaningless, in my opinion.”

The widely used Short Dark Triad (SD-3) personality test which rates the traits of psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism out of a maximum score of 5 was used to assess participants’ personalities.

The results of the study show that participant’s scores for psychopathy and narcissism were below the average levels as determined by psychometric assessment group OpenPsychometrics. The participants scored 2% below the average for psychopathy and 16.7% below average for narcissism, however the scores for Machievellism were 3.6% higher.

But Professor Sellbom said that in any case this line of research is “uninformative about psychopathy and narcissism,” adding:

“The measurement devices used in this literature do not capture the full manifestations of these disorders.”

The authors expanded on their results in an article for The Conversation, stating that narcissists like crypto “because of their great faith in the future”, and because of a “confidence their own lives will improve”.

Related: Crypto critics: Can FUD ever be useful?

Psychopaths were drawn to crypto apparently, because they “fear missing out on investing rewards that others are experiencing,”and Machiavellians like crypto because “they distrust politicians and government agencies.”

Other traits, like positivity, and belief in conspiracy theories were also measured as traits that “might connect the dark tetrad judgements about crypto”.

Of those surveyed only 26% owned cryptocurrency, and of those who didn’t nearly 64% said they would be “interested” in investing.

Sellbom said the methodology to link traits such as FOMO to psychopathy was flawed as collecting a sample of both the level of interest in crypto and psychometric results at the same time, from the same person only once, is “pretty much uninformative”, adding the conclusions the researchers reached “cannot be supported in the simple way that they are presenting.”

“Looking at the same results, my interpretation would be the relationship between dark tetrad traits and attitudes towards and buying intention of cryptocurrency is weak, and it is unlikely that these traits will provide much understanding of those who do engage in purchasing cryptocurrency.”

It should be noted the researchers themselves stated in the report that they aren’t out to propose that Bitcoiners are psychopaths, in the way some media outlets were quick to declare.

“We are not suggesting all crypto buyers exhibit Dark Tetrad traits. Instead, we are studying a subset of people interested in crypto who do have these traits.”

Discussing the limitations of their work, the researchers said that whilst they gauged participant interest in investing in stocks, bonds or crypto, the study could have set a control variable by measuring their intention of engaging in those types of investments.

“Many experts on psychopathy and narcissism question this so-called dark personality literature,” said Professor Sellbom, “because the researchers are not really studying these personality disorders, which are far more complex than what the measures used would suggest.”

The authors of the study are Brett Martin, Professor of Marketing QUT; Dr. Di Wang, Senior Lecturer at the QUT School of Advertising and Marketing; Jun Yao, Senior Lecturer in Marketing Macquarie University; Carolyn Strong, Professor of Marketing and Strategy Cardiff University; and Polymeros Chrysochou, Professor of Marketing Aarhus University.

Given the authors’ background in marketing and advertising, it seems possible they would understand how to frame the results of a study in a way to appeal to the mass media.

In the last few months, the standoff between the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) and the country’s Ministry of Finance over crypto regulation has become the key regulatory plot for the Russian crypto community to follow. Simultaneously, however, another important legislative development has been unfolding somewhat under the radar: negotiations around tax code amendments that would make cryptocurrencies a taxable asset class. Here’s how it went down so far.

13% for individuals and 20% for companies

As the head of the State Duma’s (the lower chamber of Russian Parliament) financial markets committee, Anatoly Aksakov told local media on April 7 that the amendments to the federal tax code regarding crypto are expected to pass by the end of the summer parliamentary session.

The government-backed legislation includes a requirement to report digital asset transactions if their total exceeds 600,000 rubles, or around $8,000, per year and fines of up to 40% of the individual tax sum in case of non-reporting. The bill passed the first reading in February 2021, after which it got stuck in limbo for almost a year for reasons unknown.

Aksakov only mentioned the recent delay in the discussion around crypto tax amendments, pointing out Duma’s emergent task of crafting “anti-crisis policy” that has shelved the crypto regulation for a while.

The amendments awaited their fate as the broader discussion on the crypto regulatory framework between the CBR and the Finance Ministry ensued. While the central bank champions the idea of a direct ban on both crypto trading and mining, the ministry has offered its own vision to regulate rather than outlaw the industry. It seems that the CBR still stands by its restrictive position and the tax amendments won’t make an exception. A CBR spokesperson claimed that “digital assets are being used, among other things, to evade tax payments.”

Still, the estimates of potential federal tax revenue from crypto range from 10-15 billion rubles, or around $122-181 million, to 20 billion rubles, or around $244 million. The proposed tax would be imposed only on income — 13% on individuals’ personal income and 20% on legal entities’. Qualified investors would enjoy a tax deduction in the amount of 52,000 rubles or more per annum. The taxes are unlikely to apply to assets accumulated by 2021 but will hit Russian tax residents’ crypto transactions performed in any jurisdiction.

Starting somewhere

“This is an initiative of the Federal Tax Service, with support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and a number of officials and former officials from the Ministry of Finance,” said Aleksandr Podobnykh, chief information security officer of digital asset firm Security Intelligence Cryptocurrencies Platform (SICP), explained to Cointelegraph.

Alexander Bychkov is the CEO of global crypto debit card provider Embily and pays his taxes in Singapore. Bychkov said that the proposed tax amendments are part of a bigger picture of the regulatory clash between the CBR and the Ministry of Finance. He believes that the amendments will pass, opening “a lot of doors for developing products” in Russia.

The question remains whether Russian citizens holding digital assets — worth about $130 billion by the government’s own estimates — will be willing to get in line and whether the Federal Tax Service (FTS) will have the technical capacity to collect the taxes. Bychkov is not sure about the latter point but doesn’t see any other choice for the authorities but to start somewhere:

“My opinion is that the Russian system cannot be really ready, but it has no option but to build infrastructure step by step. As a Singapore taxpayer and resident, I can say that the tax legalization of crypto helps Singapore to be one of the most developed market economies, with one of the highest GDP per capita in the world.”

In the shadow of a larger fight

Podobnykh said that collecting crypto taxes is not a huge problem currently. He commented:

“Since December 2021, when filing a tax return, you can choose digital assets and indicate the profit from them. Another problem is the exchange of one crypto asset to another and the calculation of profits. Here, the solution is seen in revenue calculation services, possibly integrated with exchanges and auditable for interested parties.”

As both experts agree, the process of institutionalizing crypto taxation through the amendments to the tax code doesn’t bear any specific significance in the context of the standoff between the CBR and the Ministry of Finance over the fundamental approach to digital asset regulation. This is consistent with recent statements made by the finance minister, Anton Siluanov, who has underscored the secondary importance of the tax collection scheme in relation to a more general regulatory framework.