Shocking research: Narcissists drawn to Facebook
A team of researchers from the University of Georgia has come to a conclusion that will undoubtedly turn the tech world on its side (ha): if you use Facebook to promote your lovely self, it shows through. Narcissists, or those psychologically defined as "excessively egotistical," will inflate their profiles on the social network with more photos, massive friends lists, and packed activity feeds.
As we used to say on the playground in third grade, duh.
"We found that people who are narcissistic use Facebook in a self-promoting way that can be identified by others," study leader and Ph.D. student Laura Buffardi said in a Live Science article about the study. Past research back in the dinosaur days of the Web had revealed similar conclusions about narcissists and personal Web pages. Imagine how hard it was to self-promote when you had to know how to use HTML to turn the background of your personal homepage pink!
In order to conduct the study, untrained observers were shown Facebook profiles and asked to identify which ones belonged to people who are classified as narcissists. The narcissists' profiles were easy to pick out, the researchers noted.
The report is published in October's issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin academic journal.
"Narcissists might initially be seen as charming, but they end up using people for their own advantage," study co-author W. Keith Campbell said to Live Science. "They hurt the people around them and they hurt themselves in the long run."
So it looks like now the prolific Internet chatter about oversharers, bloggy self-promoters, and "wantrepreneurs" now has some academic basis.
Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, is a downtown Manhattanite happily addicted to social-media tools and restaurant blogs. Her pre-CNET resume includes interning at an IT security firm and brewing cappuccinos. E-mail Caroline. 
You want narcissists, go visit http://z.iwethey.org/forums and try to disagree with any of them on any issue. They will go narcissistic on you and then say you are the true narcissist just for having a different opinion than they have.
Facebook is not self promotion, not all of it is searchable and limited to only "friends" can see your profile and the rest of the Internet cannot unless they register an account with Facebook and ask to join as a friend to your account. Whereas IWETHEY and other liberal narcissistic forums are 100% searchable via Google even if you don't have an account on there and they are the ones posting their personal info, opinions, photos, etc for all of Google and everyone to see.
Facebook profiles can only be seen by "friends" and some friends are set to only see a "limited" profile.
The reason why so many Facebook users expand their friends list is to play those Facebook video games that require you to expand your friends list to get more friends playing those games to give you a benefit in the game that someone without friends would never have. Just tell the game makers to stop forcing people to add in more friends just to play their game, and this behavior will stop.
Nicely done. We have a job for you in the Bush EPA.
although I joined facebook I do not have alo ego tripping site and do not plan to have one either.
You may not be able to deny the narcissist in you, but I can. My membership on Facebook and MySpace have NOTHING to do with being a narcissist and EVERYTHING to do with having constant contact with my family and friends in another state. My profiles are private to everyone other than those few people, and those old school friends that I have been lucky enough to find on these sites. If I were a narcissist, wouldn't I want EVERYONE on the 'Net to see my page?
So does this now mean that my bad self is not a narcissist, since I've never even considered signing up Facebook or MySpace let alone actually joining? Or does having 100% positive feedback on eBay still count towards my supposed narcissistic tendencies? Mortified minds want to know...
but what about someone like me, who uses facebook b/c she moved away from her hometown and it is a convenient way to stay in touch with friends, share gifts, pictures, and life from miles away.
University of Georgia...you are the Narcissist...ploying this article to make people question the validity and ethics behind facebook. Get a life.
Soon they'll be after MSN Messenger saying it promotes and enhances friendships between people.
"You may not be able to deny the narcissist in you, but I can."
I'm proud for you. Denial is the a step, albeit first of several, in the right direction to cope with illness such as this. hah.
Oh yeah, Facebook isn't about narcissism or voyeurism. It's all about keeping in touch and networking because email, instant messaging, skype, and cellular technology are just not sufficient to project ourselves out their to the ones we love and to be "in the know" about their lives.
Oh.
Wait.
- by sythara September 29, 2008 9:28 AM PDT
- I am so shocked at the results of this research...
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(16 Comments)not.
What is more shocking are the comments.