Exploring the Impact of Personality Traits on Vicarious Traumatization in Chinese College Students: The Mediating Role of Recommendation System Usage

Continuous exposure to media coverage of catastrophic events is an important cause of vicarious traumatization among users. There is a lack of systematic and in-depth research on the impact of personality traits on vicarious traumatization and the role that recommendation systems (a key feature of today’s Internet) play in it. This study investigated the relationship between personality traits, recommendation system, and vicarious traumatization based on the China Eastern Airlines MU5735 plane crash. The partial least square structural equation modeling method was used to test the data collected through an online survey (1,497 valid samples of Chinese college students). The findings revealed that (1) Recommendation system significantly influences some college users to develop vicarious traumatization. (2) Users with high extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism are prone to vicarious traumatization. (3) Users high in extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness are prone to vicarious traumatization under the influence of recommendation system. (4) Users with high conscientiousness are not prone to vicarious traumatization. The study found recommendation system usage is an important factor contributing to vicarious traumatization in users. This paper offers several implications for psychological assistance.