My perfectionism drives me to be a cyborg: moderating role of internal locus of control on propensity towards memory implant

ABSTRACT

Intention to use memory implants for non-therapeutic purposes has recently received attention among researchers. The present study examined perfectionism with two dimensions namely personal standards (PS) and evaluative concerns (EC) as possible dispositional factors associated with the intent to use memory implants. This study also examined the moderating role of internal locus of control (LOC) on the relationship between the dimensions of perfectionism and the intention to use memory implants. Employing a cross-sectional design, this study collected data on PS, EC, internal LOC and intention to use memory implants from a purposive sample of 686 Spanish university students aged between 18 and 28 years old (M = 21.88, SD = 2.40, males = 361, females = 325). Results showed that both PS and EC perfectionism have positive relationships with the intent to use memory implants. Internal LOC is also found to be strengthening the relationship between PS and the intent to use memory implants. These findings yield implications for those pushing forward the acceptance of human–machine hybrid and for those concerned about the detrimental consequences of such artificially formulated changes in humankind.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyborg
• memory implants
• personal standards perfectionism
• evaluative concerns perfectionism
• internal locus of control

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

The protocol of the study (including the research procedure, the rights and safety of the participants, and the method of data collection) was approved by the Review Board of Xiamen University Malaysia to ensure the principles of research ethics (REC ref. no.: REC-2104.01).

Data availability

The raw data of the present study is available at https://osf.io/9meb5/?view_only = 43408a0cc2e749fdbea41e66e9983ac2

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Ashraf Sadat Ahadzadeh: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Funding acquisition. Shin Ling Wu: Formal analysis. Kam-Fong Lee: Writing – review & editing. Fon Sim Ong: Writing – review & editing. Ruolan Deng: Data collection.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Xiamen University Malaysia Research Fund Grant (XMUMRF/2022-C9/IART/0014)