Social media has taken over the world and with it photos, especially selfies. It is already known that people with a tendency to narcissism prefer to post selfies on Instagram. Now it turns out that those who follow them or like their posts are also narcissists.
A team of researchers at Sejong University in Seoul, South Korea studied 276 adult Instagram users.
Research she assessed first narcissistic participants' tendencies by asking how much they agree with statements such as I like to be the center of attention. They found that adults who posted more selfies showed more signs of narcissism.
Respondents were also asked to rate level of narcissism in other Instagram users. They evaluated various statements, while also attributing personality characteristics to other users.
People who did not show signs of narcissism had a negative attitude towards posting selfies. It also turned out that they were more inclined to follow similar users. The same could be observed in narcissists following other narcissists.
In all of this, it is important to emphasize that the type of narcissism that is associated with extraversion and a good opinion of one's physical image was studied in the research. But the question is whether narcissists are born or made in social media. This is a question that will need further investigation.
More information:
sciencedirect.com
