Social Media Use Correlates with Narcissism
A new statistical review revealed the positive relationship between narcissism and a range of social media behaviors. Interestingly, selfie postings and changing status updates are common social media behaviors that are associated with narcissism as based on the study.
According to University of Georgia psychology researchers, the two strains of narcissistic behavior – grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism – showed different relationships to social media use.
Grandiose narcissism, the more extroverted and the overwhelming need for admiration is positively related to time spent on social media, the frequency of updates, number of friends/followers, and the frequency of posting selfies.
Meanwhile, vulnerable narcissism, the shy or covert ones, did not show any relationship to social media, but there was relatively little research on this form of narcissism.
The study, “Narcissism and Social Media Use: A Meta-Analytic Review,” was published in the early online edition of Psychology of Popular Media Culture and is available online.
Narcissism in Social Media
The study is based on the 62 studies with over 13,000 individuals. The study has confirmed the notion that narcissism does exist in social media.
This is confirmed by Keith Campbell, the study’s senior author and a professor of psychology in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences who said, “The stories you have heard about grandiose narcissism on social media are probably true.”
Campbell, co-author of the best-selling “The Narcissism Epidemic,” notes that “when you engage with social media, you will be engaging with more narcissism than might really exist in the world. This might distort your view of the world as being more narcissistic than it is.”
Correlations Only
The researchers noted that the new findings are only correlated but they are not evidence that social media causes narcissism or vice versa. However, the researchers suspect that individuals with pre-existing narcissism are drawn to social media, but the present evidence only establishes that the two are related.
