A survey (N = 292) was conducted that measured self-promoting Facebook behaviors (e.g. posting status updates and photos of oneself, updating profile information) and several anti-social behaviors (e.g. seeking social support more than one provides it, getting angry when people do not comment on one’s status updates, retaliating against negative comments). The grandiose exhibitionism subscale of the narcissistic personality inventory was hypothesized to predict the self-promoting behaviors. The entitlement/exploitativeness subscale was hypothesized to predict the anti-social behaviors. Results were largely consistent with the hypothesis for the self-promoting behaviors but mixed concerning the anti-social behaviors. Trait self-esteem was also related in the opposite manner as the Narcissism scales to some Facebook behaviors.
Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world with over 600 million users (Ahmad, 2011). Those who use Facebook enjoy many benefits. Some college students use Facebook to seek and receive social support when they feel upset (Park et al., 2009 and Wright et al., 2007). Toma and Hancock’s (2011) recent experiments found when individuals are feeling distressed, they turn to Facebook to feel better. On the other hand, DeAndrea, Tong, and Walther (2011) argue that although online interaction provides opportunities for positive social interaction, some users abuse the affordances of social networking sites like Facebook to behave in anti-social ways. They argue that researchers need to move past seeking to determine if computer-mediated communication (CMC) has positive or negative effects as a whole but to determine why people use websites like Facebook in ways that promote or harm interpersonal relationships.
This study sought to take a step in that direction by examining one possible predictor of anti-social Facebook use: trait narcissism. The narcissistic personality type will first be briefly explicated. Then the existing research on the relationship between narcissism and Facebook use will be explored to develop hypotheses.
Investigating the relationship between narcissism and Facebook behavior is important because Facebook is becoming an increasingly important part of people’s lives. Several researchers have found a relationship between narcissism and frequency of using Facebook (Buffardi and Campbell, 2008, Mehdizadeh, 2010 and Ong et al., 2011). Other researchers found that narcissism is associated with the number of friends their participants have on Facebook (Bergman, Fearrington, Davenport, & Bergman, 2011). If these findings are accurate, it suggests that when people are interacting with others on Facebook, they are more likely to be interacting with individuals who are high in trait narcissism than in other contexts. If Facebook users are likely to be engaging in negative behaviors, the quality of the interpersonal interactions people experience on Facebook will be reduced. Furthermore, some research suggests that people are evaluated not just by their own profiles but by the comments others make on their profiles (Walther, Van Der Heide, Kim, Westerman, & Tong, 2008). The negative behavior of narcissists on Facebook may reflect poorly on the innocent friends of those narcissists. If the relationship between narcissism and various kinds of behaviors can be uncovered, perhaps interventions can be designed to improve the Facebook social skills of trait narcissists.
