{"id":295,"date":"2025-09-28T22:02:29","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T22:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/?p=295"},"modified":"2025-09-28T22:02:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T22:02:29","slug":"journal-5-9-28-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/2025\/09\/28\/journal-5-9-28-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Journal 5 9\/28\/ 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ol>\n<li>Impulsivity<br>Impulsivity ranks first because scammers often exploit urgency fabricating crises that push<br>victims to act without reflection. Victims\u2019 tendency to respond quickly and seek stimulating<br>experiences makes this explanation both practical and strongly supported by the study\u2019s findings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Addictive Disposition<br>This motive makes strong sense because romance scams resemble gambling cycles, with victims<br>experiencing \u201cnear win\u201d effects. The addictive pull of ongoing emotional investment explains<br>why victims struggle to disengage, even after red flags appear.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trust in Others<br>Trust is central to romance scams. Victims must believe in the scammer\u2019s sincerity for<br>manipulation to work. While the study shows trust is a factor, it is less predictive than<br>impulsivity or addiction, so it ranks third.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Education Level<br>Surprisingly, higher education was linked with greater vulnerability. This could be due to<br>overconfidence in one\u2019s ability to detect fraud or greater use of online dating platforms among<br>educated individuals. This unexpected but evidence-backed finding makes education rank in the<br>middle.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gender<br>Women were shown to be more likely than men to fall victim, which aligns with broader fraud<br>victimization reports. However, gender is more of a demographic correlation than a<br>psychological motive, so it ranks lower than traits like impulsivity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kindness<br>Interestingly, victims were found to be less kind, which contradicts initial hypotheses. While<br>kindness could play a role in some cases wanting to \u201chelp\u201d the scammer, the data shows it\u2019s not<br>strongly predictive. That makes this motive less convincing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Locus of Control<br>The study found little significant evidence that an external focus of control believing in fate or<br>luck predicted victimization. While plausible in theory, it didn\u2019t hold up empirically, so it ranks<br>near the bottom.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Greed<br>This is the least convincing motive for romance scams. While greed might explain financial<br>scams like lotteries, romance scams are more about emotional manipulation than promises of<br>wealth. Victims often lose money for love, not profit, so greed ranks last<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":31350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/robynbrown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}