NARCISSISM DRAWS NARCISSISM ON SOCIAL MEDIA, STUDY FINDS

VANITY ON PARADE.

There are plenty of examples of narcissism all over social media — a person posting comments and photos solely to promote themselves. Most of us aren’t exactly tolerant of that sort of behaviour, but one study decided to examine whether narcissists themselves accepted the same type of behaviour from someone else. Published in the journal ‘Computers in Human Behavior’, the study used Instagram as its platform and found that narcissistic users were quite favourable towards others posting selfies to gain popularity, liking and following compatriots with similar behaviour. It seems that the need to be popular is acceptable and encouraged amongst people who exhibit grandiose narcissism (ie, the extroverts who express admiration for their own physical attractiveness). Like attracts like, in this case. The study, however, didn’t look into what is called ‘vulnerable narcissism’, behaviour associated with insecurities and social anxiety.