# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Highlights

*

The study explored young men's and women's selfie engagement on social media.

*

Pathological narcissism was not a significant predictor of selfie-engagement.

*

Body surveillance predicted selfie-engagement, especially among women.

*

Positive selfie-expectancies predicted selfie-engagement, especially among women.

*

Men's and women's body-objectification played a pivotal role on selfie-engagement.

Abstract

The current use of social media platforms by active young users/creators of visual content provides an easy medium to achieve narcissistic goals of self-promotion and attention-seeking, and to socialize with self-objectification experiences. One of the most popular activities associated with social media use is selfie-sharing. Consequently, the global focus on online physical appearance approval could reinforce selfie-engagement as a specific body image-related behavior, potentially associated with selfie-marketing strategies for self-improvement, and problematic social media use. The present study evaluated the main direct effect of pathological narcissism, objectified body consciousness, and expectations toward selfies on young women's and men's selfie-engagement. A total of 570 young adults (66.8% females; mean age = 24.4 years, SD = 3.6) participated in an online survey study. Variables were assessed using the Pathological Narcissism Inventory (Fossati, Feeney, Pincus, Borroni, & Maffei, 2015), Objectified Body Consciousness Scale (Dakanalis et al., 2015), Selfie-expectancies Scale (Boursier & Manna, 2018), and a measure of selfie-engagement. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed on independent male and female subsamples. Results showed that body surveillance and positive selfie-expectancies are consistent selfie-behavior predictors, among both men (R ² = 0.227; p < .001) and women (R ² = 0.332; p < .001). Furthermore, findings confirm women's involvement in appearance concerns and body-image related practices, even though men's engagement in body-objectification deserve attention. The study provides novel findings in the field of self-objectification research as well as contributing to the ongoing debate concerning which psychological factors can be predictive of males' and females' selfie-engagement. The implications of these findings are also discussed in light of the debate on social media use and misuse.

View Abstract

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Selfie-engagement on social media: Pathological narcissism, positive expectation, and body objectification - Which is more influential?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The study explored young men's and women's selfie engagement on social media. * Pathological narcissism was not a significant predictor of selfie-engagement. * Body surveillance predicted selfie-engagement, especially among women. * Positive selfie-expectancies predicted selfie-engagement, especially among women. * Men's and women's body-objectification played a pivotal role on selfie-engagement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 14, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- You might think that taking lots of selfies is just another way of sharing, but a new study suggests you could be headed toward full-blown narcissism.

Researchers followed 74 people, aged 18 to 34, for four months. Those who posted a high number of images and selfies on social media had an average 25 percent increase in narcissistic traits such as exhibitionism, a sense of entitlement and exploitation of others.

This increase resulted in many of these people meeting the clinical definition of a narcissistic personality disorder, the British study authors said.

"There have been suggestions of links between narcissism and the use of visual postings on social media, such as Facebook, but until this study it was not known if narcissists use this form of social media more, or whether using such platforms is associated with the subsequent growth in narcissism," said study leader Phil Reed, who's with the department of psychology at Swansea University.

"The results of this study suggest that both occur, but show that posting selfies can increase narcissism," he said in a university news release.

But the study could not prove that posting lots of selfies is linked to narcissism.

Still, "taking our sample as representative of the population, which there is no reason to doubt, this means that about 20 percent of people may be at risk of developing such narcissistic traits associated with their excessive visual social media use," Reed concluded.

Interestingly, his team also found that people who mainly posted written messages on social media did not have an increase in narcissism.

The study was published online recently in the Open Psychology Journal.

WebMD News from HealthDay

Sources

SOURCE: Swansea University, news release, Nov. 9, 2018

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Yet Another Selfie? You Might Be a Narcissist

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In a small new study, the people who posted a high number of images and selfies on social media had an average 25 percent increase in narcissistic traits such as exhibitionism, a sense of entitlement and exploitation of others, researchers say.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health? | Bailey Parnell | TEDxRyersonU

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The relationship between aggression, narcissism, and self-esteem in Asian children and adolescents

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The relationship between aggression, narcissism, and self-esteem in Asian children and adolescents | Rebecca P. Ang; Noradlin Yusof | download | BookSC. Download books for free. Find books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Differential correlates of reactive and proactive aggression in Asian adolescents: relations to narcissism, anxiety, schizotypal traits, and peer relations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Differential correlates of reactive and proactive aggression in Asian adolescents: relations to narcissism, anxiety, schizotypal traits, and peer relations | Suzanne L. Seah; Rebecca P. Ang | download | BookSC. Download books for free. Find books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Differential relations of grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism to emotion dysregulation: Self-esteem matters

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Differential relations of grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism to emotion dysregulation: Self-esteem matters | Zhang, Hui; Luo, Yun; Zhao, Yimeng; Zhang, Runzhu; Wang, Zhenhong | download | BookSC. Download books for free. Find books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Young Women, Narcissism and the Selfie Phenomenon | Mary McGill | TEDxGalway

# data[].attributes.headline
link between narcissism and social media

# data[].attributes.subject
link between narcissism and social media

# data[].attributes.body
"getting ahead"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Shamed into Self-Love: Dynamics, Roots, and Functions of Narcissism

Richard W. Robins, Jessica L. Tracy and Phillip R. Shaver

Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Psychological Inquiry is an international forum for the discussion of theory and meta-theory. The journal strives to publish articles that represent broad, provocative, and debatable theoretical ideas primarily in the areas of social psychology and personality. We discourage submission of purely empirical, applied, or review articles. Each issue typically includes a target article followed by peer commentaries and a response from the target author. Manuscripts for the target articles can be invited or submitted. Manuscripts for the commentaries are always invited. Authors for the commentaries are chosen by the editors with input from the target authors.

Building on two centuries' experience, Taylor & Francis has grown rapidlyover the last two decades to become a leading international academic publisher.The Group publishes over 800 journals and over 1,800 new books each year, coveringa wide variety of subject areas and incorporating the journal imprints of Routledge,Carfax, Spon Press, Psychology Press, Martin Dunitz, and Taylor & Francis.Taylor & Francis is fully committed to the publication and dissemination of scholarly information of the highest quality, and today this remains the primary goal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shamed into Self-Love: Dynamics, Roots, and Functions of Narcissism on JSTOR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shamed into Self-Love: Dynamics, Roots, and Functions of Narcissism Richard W. Robins, Jessica L. Tracy and Phillip R. Shaver Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Psychological Inquiry is an international forum for the discussion of theory and meta-theory. The journal strives to publish articles that represent broad, provocative, and debatable theoretical ideas primarily in the areas of social psychology and personality.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The role of narcissism in self-promotion on Instagram

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The role of narcissism in self-promotion on Instagram | Moon, Jang Ho; Lee, Eunji; Lee, Jung-Ah; Choi, Tae Rang; Sung, Yongjun | download | BookSC. Download books for free. Find books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Explaining Privacy Control on Instagram and Twitter: The Roles of Narcissism and Self-Esteem

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Explaining Privacy Control on Instagram and Twitter: The Roles of Narcissism and Self-Esteem | Nardis, Yioryos; Panek, Elliot | download | BookSC. Download books for free. Find books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lying or longing for likes? Narcissism, peer belonging, loneliness and normative versus deceptive like-seeking on Instagram in emerging adulthood

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lying or longing for likes? Narcissism, peer belonging, loneliness and normative versus deceptive like-seeking on Instagram in emerging adulthood | Dumas, Tara M.; Maxwell-Smith, Matthew; Davis, Jordan P.; Giulietti, Paul A. | download | BookSC. Download books for free. Find books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Narcissistic Millennial Generation: A Study of Personality Traits and Online Behavior on Facebook

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Narcissistic Millennial Generation: A Study of Personality Traits and Online Behavior on Facebook | Brailovskaia, Julia; Bierhoff, Hans-Werner | download | BookSC. Download books for free. Find books

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"I'm just a very spiritual person, you know? Other people have auras which I sense very strongly and I just find dealing with them draining." This statement was followed up primly with a gobful of quinoa, and I listened, staring into my bowl of soup, wondering not for the first time whether I was living in a simulation. The offending statement was uttered by an international Instagram influencer (what a phrase) whom I met on a press trip with a beauty brand.

I don't know any other beauty writers whose day job is academic philosophy, but I'm sure I am not the only one. I write a beauty column in The Irish Times Magazine on Saturdays, and frankly there is no more thrilling, enjoyable job that a person could do. It is also rich in astonishingly wonderful perks - getting to travel, to try almost every new product before it becomes commercially available, to share what actually works with readers who are interested, and to meet creative people within the industry who I spent my teen years reading about (along with philosophers, novelists and a variety of other people and work, who I don't usually get to meet at beauty events, but you never know).

When you consider "a philosopher", the image that springs to mind, if you don't imagine Socrates, squat with stout, goatish features and obscenely dirty feet, is that of a distinguished older white gentleman. Elbow patches, round spectacles, maybe an avuncular demeanour. This description is in some sense realistic - some philosophers do look like this. Most, these days, just look a bit scruffy and generally anxious (a countenance common to any academic within the humanities). There is no real pattern that philosophers ascribe to, at least on the outside, though most of them are still male and most of them don't write about make-up, even sometimes, even for fun.

There exists an idea not simply within academia - it is a far more fundamental human trait than could be unique to any one profession - that discussion of "non-serious" things indicates that a person is insufficiently knowledgeable or expert in "serious" things. Evidently, this presupposes that academic work is inherently serious or important, when in most cases this is far from true, depending on your definition of important.

If "important" has any link to measurable human advancement, to social function or cohesion, or to the shared betterment of our species, then the overwhelming majority of academic work is not important. A dissertation on an incredibly obscure micro-aspect of Husserlian descriptive phenomenology, is (hopefully) interesting to the handful of people on the planet who are expert in such topics, but completely inconsequential to everyone else. No change comes about as a result of it - no pragmatic impact is made. This of course does not make the work less worth doing, necessarily.

Other people's auras

Certainly, philosophers are less likely to talk about being drained by other people's auras, but there was something to what the influencer was saying. It is not that she is particularly spiritual (what a vague, overmasticated word) and that other people's "auras" are exhausting. It is that the tension of giving a performance as one's "public self" in a group of unfamiliar people can feel a bit tiring - for everyone except the most confident and extroverted of us.

This particular influencer, being uncannily physically beautiful and one of the most insufferable, whining narcissists I've ever encountered, merely made the error of considering this experience to be unique to her because she appeared to feel her own existence so much more palpably than anyone else's.

I was reminded of a conference I attended a few years ago, where I witnessed a senior philosopher berate a young graduate student's work solely through an obscure reference to Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, with the clear aim (just for the sake of it) of forcing the junior person to admit in front of a crowd that they had not read it. The look of withering smugness on the face of the older, more experienced person was almost identical to the one on the face of the influencer when she described her special ennui over quinoa. Those who do "deep" work can be shallow, and vice versa. We are all human, after all.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Influencer? More like one of the most awful narcissists I've met

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"I'm just a very spiritual person, you know? Other people have auras which I sense very strongly and I just find dealing with them draining." This statement was followed up primly with a gobful of quinoa, and I listened, staring into my bowl of soup, wondering not for the first time whether I was living in a simulation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ella, I know it's not the point, but where is your jumper from?" This was a reply to a post I put up on Instagram about the horrors of antidepressant withdrawal. I respond with the details, mildly flattered, but slightly despairing. After decades of not talking about my mental health issues, I started an Instagram account (@mackie_bella) hoping to talk more honestly about them, but maybe when everyone has their own struggles they don't want to be burdened with yours. Why would you want to watch someone else moan on the morning commute when you could gaze at a lovely fluffy jumper to cheer yourself up? I would choose the jumper myself most days.

I have become somewhat well followed on Instagram at a time when the platform is being hugely criticised. Social media influencers are widely scorned for showing off unattainable lifestyles, promoting irresponsible products, such as slimming teas, and being disingenuous about what's real and what's staged for effect. Websites have sprung up where those who are fed up with the polished images can call them out, sometimes brutally.

Like everyone else who uses social media, I have a complicated relationship with it. It's become common to complain about our online spaces, we all try to articulate the myriad ways in which we find it draining, toxic and unnatural. We scroll and swipe and get angry with ourselves for wasting time staring down at our phones when we could be doing something worthwhile. But, equally, social media is now one of the main ways people communicate with each other in the modern world. To ignore it is to miss out.

Four-legged friends: 'At first my husband Greg (who is very funny online) directed people to my sparse new account.' Photograph: @bellamackie

Most will vaguely recognise the term "influencer", which, roughly, describes a person who uses social media to promote a lifestyle or aesthetic. In other words, someone who tells others what stuff they should buy. Like a lot of people, I've felt uneasy about this growing phenomenon. Impossibly pretty (and usually white) women giving you a tiny glimpse of their carefully curated lives while simultaneously offering you 15% off the boots they're wearing. It's an exercise in aspiration - buy these boots and be happy like me.

Despite my unease, I have acquired 130,000 followers on Instagram, so now I'm trying to walk a line between flogging teeth-whitening kits and using the platform solely to preach about mental health. Can you be an influencer and not become a bit of a monster? The line between the two seems fairly direct.

I really love Instagram. I loved it from the moment I signed up - a place to show off photos that meant something to me. A gallery of my life, but with strictly controlled privacy settings. After a rough experience with a stalker, I didn't understand those who felt comfortable showing off their lives to strangers.

All of that changed when my first book, , a memoir about mental illness, was about to be published. It was suggested that I create an account to share book news, so I duly did, thinking it would be a temporary space to throw promo into the world before retreating back to my private account.

Except, and I should have known this, you have no idea what will happen on social media. My husband Greg James (a presenter on Radio 1) directed people to my sparse new account. Suddenly I had a few thousand followers - and the book wasn't even out for another fortnight. Those numbers have continued to rise over the past year and I've come to realise how Instagram could become a full time occupation.

Mirror, mirror: 'I constantly wonder how authentic I'm being.' Photograph: @bellamackie

People make millions from influencing. It's a job now; you can't hold back that tide. But while there are a million posts to roll your eyes at, I've learned that there are wonderful communities, too. So many people use social media to promote specific causes or to grow their interests. Politicians bypass traditional media and go to Instagram to speak directly to their supporters - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, has 4m followers.

I wasn't using social media to run for office. Neither was I part of Gen Z, who've grown up online, and are savvy about the worth of their "personal brand". I fell into this by accident, which might well be the best way to do it. Along the way, here's a few things I've learned.

It will envelop you unless you're careful

Spend too much time on social media and you enter a weird realm where you're speaking to strangers more than your actual friends. Within a week of the book coming out, thousands of people had got in touch to talk to me about their own experiences. They wanted to tell me their own stories of panic, sexual assault, grief and pain. I responded to every one, trying to show sympathy and support. I felt an enormous weight of responsibility when a new message pinged up on my screen. How could I ignore a person sharing their biggest problems? And this made my own mental health plummet. Instead of celebrating the book's release, I spent most of my time crying, trying to push back against an onslaught of intrusive thoughts and a looming sense of doom.

But it's no use having a public Instagram account and choosing not to engage with the people who follow you. The internet has demolished any lingering notion that you can create something, release it into the world and walk away. The trick is knowing where to draw the line, so that you can maintain your own equilibrium.

Boundaries on social media don't exist. I will talk to as many people as possible about mental health (it's usually hundreds a week). But I can't answer people who need relationship advice, and won't answer those who ask me whether I'm going to have children. I shouldn't have to tell you where to find the perfect profiterole when Google exists. It might all be coming from a good place, but the internet makes people feel entitled to ask the most personal of questions, and it can get overwhelming.

It always comes back to numbers

Instagram has always been ruled by the number of likes a photo amasses. I've learned that I cannot control what people want to look at. My plan was to post mental health information only. But I once posted a photo of myself clad in bright colours, explaining that, when in a hole, I try to dress in a hopeful way. It was an attempt at conveying that I was feeling very anxious and was worried about appearing vain or vapid. And indeed one person told me off for using my account in the "wrong" way and promptly unfollowed me. But otherwise, the reaction was fairly positive.

I described my approach to dressing as "always be jazzy", and added the abbreviation ABJ. Things take on a life of their own on social media. I now get sent photos from women who have bought leopard print shoes or sequinned headbands, asking me if they're ABJ enough. It's ludicrous. But the idea that I might have made a few people feel more confident is a lovely thing. Even if it means that posts about my clothes will always trump anything I put up about politics. Like I said, sometimes you just want to see a fluffy jumper.

You can build a community around anything

When I started my account I made the decision not to follow anyone who might make me feel bad about myself. So I followed runners, farmers, mental health experts and book obsessives. I muted all suggestions on the homepage for accounts that showed off impossibly perfect people or lifestyles. And in that spirit, I think hard about whether I'm being too glossy myself.

Clinical psychologist Dr Emma Hepburn, who posts under the handle @thepsychologymum, is smart about this. "It's important to recognise whether what you are consuming is having a positive or negative influence on you," she says, "and you need to actively manage this if it is having a detrimental impact. For example, limiting time on social media, or taking control of the types of account or content you are viewing, and ensuring any advice you are following is provided by someone who's actually qualified to give it."

Unto those that have, more shall be given

I once mentioned that I keep oatcakes in my purse in case I get anxious and I got sent a Brexit-stockpile worth of them. I posted a photo of my lawn and was offered a free mower. I've been asked to go to the launch of a new soap, offered a portrait of my dog. One company tried to get me to accept a free ear piercing if I filmed it live. Very much opening-of-an-envelope stuff, but some people must accept it. While it feels nice initially to be offered free things, everything is a quid pro quo. Accept a complimentary thong made of gummy bears and the expectation is that you'll post a photo of your arse in it. The quid isn't normally worth the quo.

I've accepted one paid-for posting in the year I've been using the account. It was a dilemma, even though it was for a store I've loved for years. Maybe it knocks me off my high horse a bit to accept the influencer dollar. Perhaps if I had a full time job I'd never have considered it, but I'm a freelancer and paid irregularly. I ended up being at ease with it since it allowed me to spend time writing about mental health on Instagram without feeling horrendously guilty that it was eating into time spent doing paid work. We live at a time when being self-employed is on the rise, and I find it hard to understand the level of animosity directed at women who earn money on social media. Again, there's always a line. I've seen people promote products they'd never use, and that disconnect ends up showing. You see a celebrity gushing about cheap sunglasses and begin to wonder about their intentions. Which brings me neatly to my next point...

None of it is completely real

The search for authenticity on social media is constant, but futile. After years of heavily curated feeds and aspirational content, there is now a trend where popular women on Instagram (52% of users are female) take off their makeup and confess that their previous photos were all just a veneer. But then, as New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino noted in her book Trick Mirror, such a woman "will take a week long break and then, almost always, she will go on exactly as before". The act will inevitably be called brave by some who don't realise that this show of authenticity is no more real than the previous images.

I constantly wonder how authentic I'm being, how much of my real self I'm showing. I'm more cynical in real life than I am on Instagram, and definitely not as outgoing. I don't post photos of my family or friends. Does that make me fraudulent, or is it impossible to really be yourself through a filter? And equally, why should you try to be the most accurate version of yourself for a bunch of strangers? The disconnect shouldn't be jarring, but you're entitled to hold some of yourself back, or enjoy being bolder online than you might be usually. Not everything that can be shown needs to be.

People want to be nice

The most surprising thing I've found from a year of minor Instagram popularity is that people can be wonderful online. I'm well aware this isn't the case for everyone, but it gives me hope that the relatively new world of influencers might be a more positive place than people fear. I've spoken to thousands of people I'd never have encountered, talking about mental illness, getting and giving tips for when anxiety ramps up. I've had people send me recipes, poetry and in one case, a glittery bowtie for my dog. The best books I read last year were ones I found through Instagram. In return, I've sent strangers books, signposted articles I think are important, spent hours talking to people with anxiety, and highlighted campaigns that need more attention.

It's a choice whether to entertain or exploit. I've enjoyed learning what feels good and what feels grubby. Sometimes I've tipped into shallow waters with fashion posts, then spent days talking about sexual harassment. Despite finding it tricky to walk the line I've set, it's made me more confident about my voice. I'll happily talk about my own intrusive thoughts on live video, but a few years ago I couldn't have told my mum about them. I often feel vain and silly fiddling about online, and I've had sneery comments from acquaintances about it. I understand that reaction - the narcissism of Instagram can't be denied. But when someone tells me that a mental health post made them finally seek help, I think I'm doing something worthwhile. My private account has been neglected for months. The audience I have might get bored and move on, or I might retreat from it one day. But for now, I'm enjoying the absurdity of it all, the lovely nonsense. Hopefully, as long as I remember that, I won't become too monstrous in the process.
Order a copy of Bella Mackie's book Jog On (Harper Collins, £8.99) from guardianbookshop.com for £7.91

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ella, I know it's not the point, but where is your jumper from?" This was a reply to a post I put up on Instagram about the horrors of antidepressant withdrawal. I respond with the details, mildly flattered, but slightly despairing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Once upon a time, Love Island contestant Adam Collard would simply have been called a player. His knack for pitting young women against each other, which provided much of the drama on this year's series of the dating reality show, might well have been controversial; he might conceivably have been accused of vanity, for flashing his six-pack. But what was new and striking this summer was the furious debate among viewers over whether he could fairly be called a narcissist.

A century after Freud wrote his essay On Narcissism, identifying a form of self-adoration prompted by viewing oneself as an object of sexual desire, the term has filtered right down from psychology textbooks into casual everyday conversation. Like "gaslighting" - which evolved from a reference to a George Cukor film, to a form of emotional abuse identified by domestic violence specialists, to a word flung around with pretty wild abandon - its meaning has stretched sometimes to breaking point along the way. But it clearly fills a contemporary need.

Narcissists basically behave like four-year-olds. It's all about them

"It's a buzzword," says Marianne Vicelich, author of the self-help book Destruction: Free Yourself From the Narcissist. "Every time you have dinner with a few girlfriends someone uses the term - their boss is a narcissist, or their husband, or their ex, or their mother."

The Facebook group Knowing a Narcissist has built up a staggering 400,000 likes, with followers endlessly posting about the strains of dealing with a self-obsessed parent or partner. In her autobiography My Thoughts Exactly, Lily Allen describes her comedian father Keith as "cold and narcissistic", too wrapped up in his own hedonistic life to spend much time with her.

Vicelich, a prolific author of self-help books, thinks that's where young women are picking up the term. "Women are becoming a lot more educated when it comes to relationships," she says. But it might also have something to do with psychologists openly speculating that Donald Trump might have narcissistic personality disorder, a clinical condition involving grandiose behaviour, fantasies about one's own power and attractiveness, craving for admiration, and unwillingness to empathise with others (other presumed sufferers include Saddam Hussein).

The term is also increasingly being used against young women, accused of overindulging in all kinds of navel-gazing, from the cult of "self-care" (taking time out to cosset yourself) to compulsive posting of selfies. According to the American psychologists Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell in their book The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement, social media along with other factors, from indulgent parenting to a highly individualistic culture, risks creating a generation excessively wrapped up in itself. But is this really a new phenomenon, or merely the latest expression of a phenomenon as old as human nature?

The original myth of Narcissus, the beautiful young man whose punishment from the gods was to fall so in love with his own reflection in a pool of water that he couldn't bear to leave it, is on one level a warning against vanity; but it's also a cautionary tale about isolation, because the cruelty of Narcissus's punishment is that it cuts him off completely from other living human beings.

In small doses, narcissism can be a good thing; or at least, better than a crippling lack of self-esteem. Research at Queen's University Belfast suggests narcissists score better in exams than other measures of their intelligence would suggest they should. In careers requiring confident judgement under pressure, such as finance or politics, a strong sense of self-belief could well be advantageous. But it becomes counter-productive when not tempered by respect for the views of others, and it's this inability to feel compassion, empathy, or even much curiosity about others that distinguishes the truly narcissistic from the merely vain.

As Vicelich writes in her book, for narcissists "everything is about them and belongs to them". They don't recognise personal boundaries, hog conversations, crave constant validation and take criticism extremely badly. "They basically behave like four-year-olds: it's all about them," she says. "They want your attention, they need things right now - it's all about instant gratification - and they really have an undeveloped sense of self." They can be charming, flirtatious company. But they typically see others largely as extensions of themselves and can be controlling, cruel or critical of anyone they feel reflects badly on them. Loved ones willing to feed their egos are known in self-help lexicon as their "supply" - attention is to narcissists as drugs are to addicts - and that supply needs constant replenishing. What's changed in a decade is the ease of getting a fix.

If you attack them, you wound their fragile egos and that's not good

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter all supply attention-seekers with oodles of what they crave, in the satisfyingly measurable form of likes and shares. With its heavily filtered images of perfect abs and perfect lives, Insta is most often accused of harbouring narcissists, but it's striking how many Twitter trolls would also fit the definition of a craving to be noticed plus indifference to pain caused. ( Katie Hopkins once admitted that she'd considered whether she might be a psychopath, narcissist or autistic but decided none of the labels fitted.)

In their book, Twenge and Campbell use questionnaires filled out by generations of college students to show a marked rise in scores on the so-called Narcissistic Personality Index since the 1980s, especially in women. It's a contested area, with some questioning whether narcissism is even a recognisable condition given how loosely it's defined, and middle-aged complaints about the young being selfish are certainly not new (back in the 1970s it was baby boomers who were being dismissed as "Generation Me").

But if each of us lies somewhere on a spectrum between humble self-effacement and monstrous egotism, then we can be shifted slightly towards one end or another by changes in what's considered socially acceptable behaviour, says Agnieszka Golec de Zavala, senior lecturer in psychology at Goldsmiths. "It's possible that we have a norm, a permissive norm towards narcissism now, and that's why this trait is more visible. That means societies are more narcissistic because people feel freer [to express it]." Social media or reality TV might, in other words, have simply provided new outlets for something that was always there, legitimising the idea that we're all special enough to document our every waking minute or that the world urgently needs our take on the final episode of The Bodyguard. Yet for a supposedly self-absorbed generation, it's striking how ambivalent millennials are becoming about social media.

Jamie Jewitt is a former model who was one half of Love Island 's runner-up couple last year, with his girlfriend Camilla Thurlow. He has more than 831,000 followers on Instagram and 128,000 on Twitter, and since leaving the show has filmed documentaries for the BBC and recorded a TED talk. He has all the attention any self-respecting millennial could desire, yet is about to start giving talks in schools about the perils of overdoing social media. If tomorrow he was told that he could no longer use it, how would he feel? "For me, I know it would be a huge relief," he admits. "The annoying thing is that it's necessary at the moment. It's a huge avenue to get publicity for the work that we are doing and it's always going to be a very handy tool for that, but it's a bittersweet thing. It's a necessary evil, put it like that."

Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Big baby: does Donald Trump have a narcissistic personality disorder? Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP

Jewitt dates his discomfort back to his modelling days, when he was expected to upload a steady flow of unrealistically flattering pictures on Instagram as a showcase for prospective clients. "All of my model friends were doing what they were told, posting these images, becoming a bit self-absorbed and going down the rabbit hole. I refused to do it and I ended up losing out on work, but I had such conflicting feelings about it," he says.

After Love Island, he was determined not to go back into that world; instead he and Camilla volunteered in a Greek refugee camp (she had been working for a mine-clearing charity before going on the show), and made a documentary about it. "I didn't want to come out and end up living a life that was just a version of what I'd done before with modelling. It became such a fundamental thing, to have Insta and self-promote, and it was a dishonest way of living - you had to take pictures of yourself looking your best, just so the clients would see you as a viable tool to use to sell their products. It's not real and it's not healthy."

Although 28-year-old Jewitt might not be your average reality TV contestant, his reservations about social media are fairly typical of his generation. A third of Generation Z have deleted accounts in the past year, with a fifth saying they wanted more privacy and couldn't cope with the pressure to get attention, according to research by Origin, a Boston-based market research company. Private messaging circles like Snapchat and WhatsApp are overtaking public-facing platforms like Facebook and Twitter among the young. But if the generation raised on social media is increasingly wary of its impact on them, the generation who discovered it later in life is a different matter.

"Make America great again." "Take back control." "The people have had enough of experts." What's striking about the slogans adopted by Trump in the US and the Leave campaign in Britain is that they flatter the movement's supporters as much as its leaders. They imply that the people are invariably smarter than anyone disagreeing with them, that they deserve to be in charge, that their natural greatness is being unfairly suppressed.

And whether deliberately or not, it's a siren call to what's known as collective narcissism, or an exaggerated love not of oneself but of one's group. Collective narcissists aren't personally grandiose - if anything they may feel individually powerless - but can be cultlike in their devotion to a national, religious or ideological identity with which they identify.

"Collective narcissists feel their group is threatened all the time, that others are after it. They're prone to conspiratorial thinking," explains Golec de Zavala, who specialises in researching the phenomenon. "Whenever they feel their group status is threatened, if they had it in their power, they would aggress against those who threaten it. Things that other people would not even notice or imagine are insulting, they would be hostile towards."

On social media, de Zavala says, they tend to come across as "zealous" and persevere with arguments well after others have given up. And while her research shows they're disproportionately likely to have voted for Trump in the US or Brexit in the UK, "it could be that on the left there are collective narcissists, too." The cap is certainly a good fit not just for Brexiteers hellbent on crushing imagined saboteurs, or white men furiously objecting to Black History Month on the grounds that it doesn't seem to be about them, but also perhaps for the posters of memes comparing Jeremy Corbyn to a persecuted Jesus. More disturbingly, the collective narcissist's extreme intolerance for dissent might help explain why politicians in all parties now routinely face death threats over ideological stances taken.

In small doses, collective narcissism can foster a healthy sense of patriotism or pride. But it can turn ugly when supporters are encouraged to believe that their own group's innate specialness isn't being properly recognised and that rival groups are getting what's rightfully theirs. What differentiates them from other protest movements, says de Zavala, is that they don't just want equality but "special privilege", or supremacy over everyone else.

"What I think is happening to us now worldwide is that this collective narcissistic construction of national identity became the norm," she says. "It's something that was marginalised and now is becoming mainstream and if you look at our research on collective narcissism, that's a bad sign."

The concept originates from the 1930s, when it was used to explain why people who lost their personal sense of self-worth in the depression began investing heavily in group identities instead, and the parallels with the 2008 crash are all too alarming. De Zavala started researching collective narcissism in part because she wondered if there was a way of curbing it early, bearing in mind where it ultimately led in the 1930s. One option, she thinks, might be channelling collective narcissists' energies into constructive ways of boosting their group, such as voluntary work in their communities - essentially a twist on John F Kennedy's "Ask not what your country can do for you" approach. But her research points towards tackling the fact that collective narcissists are generally dissatisfied with their lives. "If you make people experience self-transcendent emotions - such as gratitude or something that diminishes the importance of ego - we had experimental studies which showed that, especially among collective narcissists, it reduces prejudice." In other words, the ability to focus on something bigger than yourself might have more profound social effects than we realise.

Taming the individual narcissist in your life, or indeed your Oval Office, may be harder given their indifference to others' distress and their inability to take criticism. "If you attack them, that's wounding their fragile egos, so that's no good - in a relationship you just have to work around them," says Marianne Vicelich. It is hard not to be reminded of how the White House insiders are described in Bob Woodward's new book Fear: Trump in the White House, creeping around removing papers from Trump's desk to stop him signing them rather than confronting him directly.

And if you can't avoid dealing with a narcissistic parent or boss? Stand up for yourself, Vicelich says, remembering that their bombastic exteriors are often a defence against deep insecurity. "They're not happy people. Once you realise their egos are so fragile and that what they're saying is no reflection on you, you can start setting boundaries."

The original Narcissus, it's worth remembering, eventually died of sorrow at his lonely predicament. Perhaps the most underrated act of self-care in the modern world is the ability, just occasionally, to get over yourself.

* This article was amended on 9 October 2018 to correct a reference to the film Gaslight: George Cukor directed it, not Alfred Hitchcock.
Topics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Once upon a time, Love Island contestant Adam Collard would simply have been called a player. His knack for pitting young women against each other, which provided much of the drama on this year's series of the dating reality show, might well have been controversial; he might conceivably have been accused of vanity, for flashing his six-pack.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Highlights

*

Instagram users higher in narcissism tend to

*

Post more selfies and self-presented photos

*

Update their profile picture more often and spend more time

*

Rate their profile pictures as more physically attractive

*

GE is a positive and LA is a negative predictor of self-promotion behaviors

Abstract

Instagram, the rising photo-sharing social networking site, has gained an enormous amount of global popularity. This study examined the relationship between narcissism and Instagram users' self-promoting behavior. A total of 212 active Instagram users in Korea completed an online survey. The results showed that individuals higher in narcissism tended to post selfies and self-presented photos, update their profile picture more often, and spend more time on Instagram, as compared to their counterparts. They also rated their Instagram profile pictures as more physically attractive. Additionally, the results showed that Grandiose Exhibitionism positively predicted and Leadership/Authority negatively predicted the frequency of selfie postings and profile picture updates, as well as profile picture evaluations. However, Entitlement/Exploitativeness exhibited no effect on any of the self-promotion behaviors on Instagram.

View full text

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The role of narcissism in self-promotion on Instagram

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Instagram users higher in narcissism tend to * Post more selfies and self-presented photos * Update their profile picture more often and spend more time * Rate their profile pictures as more physically attractive * GE is a positive and LA is a negative predictor of self-promotion behaviors Instagram, the rising photo-sharing social networking site, has gained an enormous amount of global popularity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A body of recent psychology research demonstrates a relationship between self-promotional social media behavior and narcissistic traits. Users scoring high on narcissism scales tend to post more about their accomplishments, post and share more selfies, and edit the photos they post of themselves more often. They use social media to garner attention from a public audience, and they get angry when others in their network don't "like" or comment on their posts.

In short, narcissists behave online the same way that they behave offline, as one researcher who has studied the link put it.

But among young people, frequent posting on Facebook and other platforms might not indicate narcissism, researchers say.

Social media is a primary mode of communication for a new generation of children who are growing up connected. For these users, the line between normal and narcissistic behavior, as defined by their behavior on social media, is not as clearly defined, researchers say.

Recent news stories have examined the relationship between social media use and narcissism, and researchers continue to investigate how the connection manifests across rapidly evolving social media platforms.

While there is no direct evidence that social media use can cause narcissism, social media can give narcissists a platform for their behavior, said Larry Rosen, Professor Emeritus of California State University, Dominguez Hills and co-author of The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World.

"Narcissists like a large audience for self-adulation, and what better audience than all your friends-or fake friends-on Facebook," he said. "The key is that all of this is done behind a screen, so there's a feeling of safety and anonymity which feeds into and fuels the narcissistic characteristics."

But there is some evidence that for millennial users, the relationship between narcissism and the use of one social media platform, Facebook, may be changing. A 2014 study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior found that while posting more Facebook status updates is linked to narcissistic traits in adult users, there is no relationship between status updates and narcissism among college students. The researchers did find a relationship on Twitter: The more frequently millennials tweeted, the more likely they were to score high on narcissistic traits.

This generational difference across platforms could reflect ongoing changes in the way younger users communicate online, the study's authors explained in the article.

"Our findings might reflect the fact that Millennials grew up using Facebook as a part of their lives, as a means of communicating with others just as previous generations might have used a telephone," they explained.

"The social media platforms just change so fast," said Shawn Bergman, an associate professor of psychology at Appalachian State University, and one of the study's authors. "Now people use Twitter almost like they use text messaging, when they're talking back and forth to people publicly. When [Twitter] originally came out, that's not how people were using it."

A Tool for Communication

In some contexts, even selfie-taking may be just another form of communication, rather than a telltale sign of self-absorption, according to a 2016 study. That research, also published in Computers in Human Behavior, examined the Snapchat use patterns of first year college students. The majority of users sent selfies, but the study's authors did not associate this behavior with narcissism.

Snapchat, the researchers explained, is used to form a small network of close friends. Users communicate with each other in "conversation-like" picture exchanges. As a result, Snapchat use is associated with bonding, the researchers found. They hypothesized that the platform's "high intimacy level" could imply different motivations for selfie-sharing than Facebook.

More and more, younger users engage with social media platforms for communication-not self-promotion, said Rosen.

There is a generational distinction within the group often referred to as "Millennials," he added. Young adults born in the 1990s, he says, are part of the iGeneration. Named in reference to the line of Apple products including the iPod and iPhone, this generation is fluent in these technologies that entered the market in their early teenage years. By contrast, children born after 2000-Generation C, for "connected"-have been exposed to these technologies since birth, said Rosen.

"They see social media as simply a means to communicate with other people, whereas iGeneration young adults see social media as a way to display themselves."

Art Spencer, a librarian at Arthur Jacobsen Elementary School in Auburn, Washington, said he doesn't see a direct relationship between self-promotional behaviors and media use in students in grades 3-5 he teaches.

Spencer said that although the students who can be self-involved in the classroom sometimes post more online, he has also seen internet communication boost confidence in a positive way.

"The kids who are more reserved really blossom online," he said. "They communicate in ways they would not feel comfortable in a classroom setting."
'Figuring Out Who They Are'
"When adolescent students are active online users,a certain amount of self-focused behavior can be expected, explained Yalda T. Uhls, youth development expert with Common Sense Media, assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and author of Media Moms and Digital Dads. When teenagers engage with social media, she said, they're trying to develop their identity and negotiate social status.

"They're figuring out who they are," Uhls said. "Their social cognition turns on. They're very attuned to peers. All of that is normal developmental behavior."

Schools have a role to play in helping students have healthy and thoughtful interactions online. For schools looking to identify narcissistic online behavior, there is no definitive checklist, said Rosen. To address self-centered behavior, he suggests teaching empathy.

Students who are taught to reflect before they post, he said, are able to make more intentional choices online. Narcissistic patterns are subtle, but a strong reaction to criticism can indicate narcissistic tendencies.

"You really want to look not at what they post," he said, "but how they react back when somebody dismisses them, makes fun of them, says their post is silly."
See also:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Link Between Social Media and Narcissism? Not Always for Younger Generation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A body of recent psychology research demonstrates a relationship between self-promotional social media behavior and narcissistic traits. Users scoring high on narcissism scales tend to post more about their accomplishments, post and share more selfies, and edit the photos they post of themselves more often.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
the NEED for Acceptance Will Make You INVISIBLE - Jim Carrey

# data[].attributes.body
the social dilema
spec. instagram
downfault of  influencers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Simone Hoermann, Ph.D., is a Psychologist in private practice in New York City. She specializes in providing psychotherapy for Personality Disorders, Anxiety, and Depression...Read More

Last week, I wrote a blog post about a conversation with Dr. Frank Yeomans on the fragile sense of self worth that is underneath some narcissistic behaviors. In my conversation with Dr. Frank Yeomans, who is a leading expert on narcissism, we also touched upon another significant characteristic that is frequently found in people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder: One of the DSM IV criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is an excessive need for admiration. If you've ever been around a narcissist, you might have realized how exhausting it can be to constantly feed their ego and reassure their fragile sense of self-worth. Narcissists will try to elicit admiration from those around them by exuding a sense of superiority and an air of being special, unique, and powerful. And they can get quite upset when that feeling of admiration is not forthcoming. So, what's that all about?

"Everyone wants to feel special," explains Dr. Yeomans, "and most of us achieve this through our relationships. The relationships with our friends, family, romantic partners, that's what usually makes us feel special. We tend to feel special when we feel loved. The problem for narcissists, though, is that they don't trust that they are really loved. Most of them have never felt loved in their lives, and so they doubt that they can actually be loved."

As I mentioned in a previous blog, narcissists tend to be high achievers and very driven, because they believe that they need to be special and superior. Underneath it all, they feel empty and worthless inside. Part of this need to be special is driven by their insatiable need for admiration: Achieving high goals, being particularly successful and powerful, is an attempt to feel better about themselves. The admiration that comes with being superior, powerful and unique, is also a way of getting validation from the outside world, of chasing away that lingering inner sense of worthlessness that is so torturous for the narcissist.

"Deep down, narcissists hope for love and caring", says Frank Yeomans, "but it often makes them feel very uncomfortable if they seem to find it, partly because they feel vulnerable and doubt the authenticity of any love that comes their way. In addition, they may devalue anyone who loves them because that person, like themselves, can not live up to their excessively demanding standards. Narcissists can't grasp the concept of love as a mutual devotion that includes acceptance of flaws. Love does not sustain them, it feels elusive and unsafe." The problem is, he explains, that to the narcissist, admiration feels safer. It feels safer, because we can earn admiration through our achievements. Hence, for the narcissist, admiration feels much more like something they can control, something they can work for. On the other hand, love can't be controlled, so it means taking a leap of faith. Narcissist, then, prefer to be admired, and are endlessly trying to provoke admiration, because that's what they know to do.

Part of this distrust in love has to with early childhood experiences. Typically, it is the role of the caregiver to be empathic and attuned to the infant. The caregiver's role is to protect and soothe a child when they are upset, and in order to effectively be able to do that they need to understand the child's internal experience. In other words, the caregiver needs to be empathic and attuned. The idea is that for people who develop NPD, there was some breakdown in this process of empathic attunement, which prevented them from feeling loved, and which lead them to develop internal representation of relationships that are somewhat skewed.

The way narcissists typically experience relationships is characterized predominantly by a superior self and a devalued other, which, when something rattles the narcissists sense of self-worth, can rapidly shift to a devalued self and a superior other. In other words, relationships for the narcissists are uneven and imbalanced, and the narcissist is usually vaguely aware that they vacillate between idealizing and devaluing others.

Frank Yeomans believes that problems in attunement may have gotten worse nowadays: "When people grew up in more extended families, if there was a kind of empathic failure, someone else was there to pick up the slack" he says.

Is this something that can be repaired? Yes, according to Dr. Yeomans. "A person can be helped to move beyond that, and to develop a view of relationships that integrate positive and negative aspects of a person based on mutual connectedness, instead of this one-up and one-down approach. It takes a long time, however, because narcissists have such a shaky sense of self worth and their defenses are so fragile that they can't handle a lot of confrontation." says Dr. Yeomans, "You have to be patient." After all, sometimes, what it takes is just one good relationship.

Keep Reading By Author Simone Hoermann, Ph.D.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Narcissism And What's Underneath, Part II: Admiration and Love

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Simone Hoermann, Ph.D., is a Psychologist in private practice in New York City. She specializes in providing psychotherapy for Personality Disorders, Anxiety, and Depression ...Read More Last week, I wrote a blog post about a conversation with Dr. Frank Yeomans on the fragile sense of self worth that is underneath some narcissistic behaviors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Shamed into Self-Love: Dynamics, Roots, and Functions of Narcissism

Richard W. Robins, Jessica L. Tracy and Phillip R. Shaver

Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Psychological Inquiry is an international forum for the discussion of theory and meta-theory. The journal strives to publish articles that represent broad, provocative, and debatable theoretical ideas primarily in the areas of social psychology and personality. We discourage submission of purely empirical, applied, or review articles. Each issue typically includes a target article followed by peer commentaries and a response from the target author. Manuscripts for the target articles can be invited or submitted. Manuscripts for the commentaries are always invited. Authors for the commentaries are chosen by the editors with input from the target authors.

Building on two centuries' experience, Taylor & Francis has grown rapidlyover the last two decades to become a leading international academic publisher.The Group publishes over 800 journals and over 1,800 new books each year, coveringa wide variety of subject areas and incorporating the journal imprints of Routledge,Carfax, Spon Press, Psychology Press, Martin Dunitz, and Taylor & Francis.Taylor & Francis is fully committed to the publication and dissemination of scholarly information of the highest quality, and today this remains the primary goal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shamed into Self-Love: Dynamics, Roots, and Functions of Narcissism on JSTOR

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Shamed into Self-Love: Dynamics, Roots, and Functions of Narcissism Richard W. Robins, Jessica L. Tracy and Phillip R. Shaver Published By: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Psychological Inquiry is an international forum for the discussion of theory and meta-theory. The journal strives to publish articles that represent broad, provocative, and debatable theoretical ideas primarily in the areas of social psychology and personality.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
According to a recent study, narcissists tend to follow other narcissists on Instagram.

Generally, says the study, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior, we see Instagram users who post selfies and "groupies" as more narcissistic than people who post photos taken by others. But when certain types of narcissists see selfies and groupies, they evaluate the posters in a more positive light.

That's just one of a series of habits scientists have documented among narcissistic Instagram users in the last few years. Below, we've rounded up some of those key behaviors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Narcissists can hide in plain sight on Instagram - here are 7 signs you're following one

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
According to a recent study, narcissists tend to follow other narcissists on Instagram. Generally, says the study, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Computers in Human Behavior, we see Instagram users who post selfies and "groupies" as more narcissistic than people who post photos taken by others.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Lisbeth had a new boyfriend. She was giddy with excitement and wanted to share the news with someone. But she knew that if she told her parents, they would be all over her, wanting to know everything about him and closely observing the relationship. Who could she tell? Her best friend Pam was the perfect choice, except that Pam was without a partner right now. She might not be able to share Lisbeth's excitement, and worse, the news might make her feel bad. Lisbeth did not want to make her friend unhappy, so what could she do?

You might ask: Why did Lisbeth needed to share the information with anyone. Why couldn't she just enjoy it herself?

The answers to these questions are a bit complicated. We know from both attachment theory and self psychology that we need other people to share our feelings in order to feel them fully. We humans are, to a great extent, relationally-oriented. Our need for mirroring or affirmation is part of who we are. There is a basic human need for others to help us know and process what we think and feel. Recognition is part of how we connect to others and know ourselves.

This is a lifetime requirement that's necessary for healthy psychological functioning, just like we need to breathe oxygen for healthy physical functioning. It's also what drives sometimes painful-to-watch social media darlings like Taylor Swift and her "girl squad."

But there is often a hidden undercurrent of other feelings that go along with our need to have someone else reflect us back to ourselves. It's the childlike demand that everyone pay attention to us, the requirement that other people see how important or special or better than everyone else we are.

Behavior related to these feelings looks self-centered and is frequently labeled narcissistic. It turns us off when we see it in someone else, and we definitely do not like to think that it is part of our own emotional makeup.

Most of us would do almost anything to avoid being labeled a narcissist. Yet, according to Heinz Kohut, who developed self psychology, narcissistic needs are normal, and even healthy-when they're not taken to an extreme.

How do you know whether your desire to be seen and admired is healthy or unhealthy narcissism? In one of many terrific posts on her blog, my Psychology Today colleague Susan Krauss Whitbourne notes that healthy narcissism is related to a healthy foundation of "self love." Neither totally self-centered nor completely selfless, healthy self-love allows us to balance meeting our own needs with meeting the needs of others.

Lisbeth realized that there were two ways that she could deal with her desire to share her excitement about her new boyfriend. First, she could make sure that she talked about it with friends who were also in relatively new or exciting relationships. Psychologists have found that sharing with other people who are going through something similar to our own experience can enhance our pleasure in the moment.

In a study published in Psychological Science, Gus Cooney, a social psychologist at Harvard University, and his co-authors, Harvard's Daniel Gilbert and University of Virginia's Timothy Wilson, found that while extraordinary experiences can make us feel good, they can also interfere with our ability to connect with friends who have not shared such moments.

Rather than admiring our specialness, friends may feel left out or simply disconnected from the experience. As a result, seeking to have your back patted for something that makes you stand out can leave you feeling worse than you would have if you had shared an ordinary experience with your friends.

Does this mean giving up on sharing extra-special moments in your life? If you have something wonderful going on, should you share it with anyone? And if you do, are you a narcissist?

The answer to these questions is no. Narcissistic needs are normal and having them does not define you as a narcissist. According to the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual ( DSM-5), a clinical diagnosis of narcissism includes a "pervasive grandiosity, need for admiration, and lack of empathy." Narcissistic needs do not make you a narcissist if you remember that other people also have needs. Finding a good balance between your needs and your friends' needs is part of the definition of friendship.

Lisbeth found a solution to her problem. She still wanted to share her excitement with Pam, her best friend. She realized that she simply needed to find a way to frame the feelings so that Pam did not feel left out, unhappy, or inferior. Lisbeth thought about the ways that she and Pam had been and would continue to be connected. She also recognized the reality of some of the unpleasant feelings that Pam might feel, which would be normal responses to her excitement, such as jealousy, sadness, hopelessness and longing.

In Lisbeth's conversations with Pam, she did not bring up any of these feelings, but tamped down her own excitement as she told her friend about her new boyfriend. Without putting it into words, she was sharing some of Pam's discomfort and pain, even as she asked her friend to share her pleasure and excitement. And interestingly, in recognizing that this balance needed to be finely maintained, Lisbeth found that she did not need to go on and on about her new relationship. Pam was pleased for her. And then they talked about other things.

It is this capacity-to share your experience and move on, to pay attention to things that are meaningful to your friends as well, and to take the focus off yourself-that keeps you from being a narcissist. And perhaps more important, it appears that the capacity to share their experiences will bring you greater pleasure than insisting that your friends admire yours.

As always, please let me know what you think.
References

Shapiro, Shauna L. and Carlson, Linda E. (2009). The art and science of mindfulness: Integrating mindfulness into psychology and the helping professions. American Psychological Association. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/11885-000

Kohut, H. (2009). The Analysis of the Self: A Systematic Approach to the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disorders. University Of Chicago Press.

Bowlby, J. (1988 Reprint). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. Basic Books.

Cooney, Gus, Gilber, Daniel T. and Wilson, Timothy D. (2014). The Unforeseen Costs of Extraordinary Experience. Psychological Science.

Kumar, Amit, Killingsworth, Matthew A. and Gilovich, Thomas. (2014). Waiting for Merlot: Anticipatory Consumption of Experiential and Material Purchases. Psychological Science. doi: 10.1177/0956797614546556

Susan Krauss Whitbourne, The Healthy Side of Narcissism.

Follow me on Twitter @fdbarthlcsw Copyright fdbarth 2016

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Lisbeth had a new boyfriend. She was giddy with excitement and wanted to share the news with someone. But she knew that if she told her parents, they would be all over her, wanting to know everything about him and closely observing the relationship. Who could she tell?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A recent study reveals that an increase in narcissistic traits may be an unwanted result of sharing images, including selfies, "excessively" on social media.

The findings, which appear in The Open Psychology Journal, show that participants who posted large numbers of photos and selfies on social media developed a 25 percent rise in narcissistic traits over the 4-month study period.

This uptick in traits pushed some participants past the diagnostic cutoff for narcissistic personality disorder.

Social media allows us to share major life events and daily musings alike with friends, family, and colleagues. It makes connecting with people around the world easy, and people who use platforms strategically can develop online followings.

However, posting too many photos, including selfies, may have drawbacks.

Researchers from Swansea University in the United Kingdom and Milan University in Italy worked with 74 participants, who ranged in age from 18-34, for 4 months.

Sixty percent of participants used Facebook, 25 percent used Instagram, and 13 percent used Twitter and Snapchat each.

On average, the participants used social media for around 3 hours a day, not including use for work, but some participants reported personal use of up to 8 hours a day.

Overall, those who posted images in quantities that the researchers considered "excessive" showed an average 25 percent increase in narcissistic traits over the study period.

Interestingly, participants who posted words rather than images did not demonstrate this increase.

This distinct personality disorder encompasses many traits.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, there are 10 types of personality disorder, and each affects at least two of the following factors:

how a person thinks about themselves and others

how a person responds emotionally

how a person relates to others

how they control their own behavior

Narcissistic personality disorder occurs when a person has a need for admiration from others, while at the same time lacking empathy.

Many people with this disorder experience self-importance and entitlement, which can result in taking advantage of people.

To receive a diagnosis, a person must exhibit persistent impairments, such as making excessive attempts to attract attention or experiencing problems with goal-setting or interpersonal relationships.

However, some individuals experience narcissistic traits without this type of impact.

Social media focuses on the individual user. As numbers of likes or views go up, the user can feel more "seen," which can improve self-esteem. It can also lead to further attention-seeking.

The link between social media use and narcissism has been a focus of research in recent years, as cell phone use has increased, and it will likely continue to be a topic of study.

The ease of posting a photo in seconds, regardless of where a person is or what they are doing, can result in oversharing. This can feed the ego in potentially problematic ways, as the recent findings indicate.

"That the predominant usage of social media for the participants was visual, mainly through Facebook, suggests the growth of this personality problem could be seen increasingly more often, unless we recognise the dangers in this form of communication."

Prof. Phil Reed, lead author

While further research is needed, the recent results may provide insight for those concerned about the effects of social media.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Social media photo overkill may boost narcissism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A recent study reveals that an increase in narcissistic traits may be an unwanted result of sharing images, including selfies, "excessively" on social media. The findings, which appear in The Open Psychology Journal, show that participants who posted large numbers of photos and selfies on social media developed a 25 percent rise in narcissistic traits over the 4-month study period.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Social media is ubiquitous in our lives. People can spend hours posting and scrolling on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and a host of other platforms. You may know people who are especially absorbed in the social media frenzy, including those who seem to post everything online.

A major component of social media is the ability to display one's own life to the world, which may lead some people to post an inordinate amount of information about themselves. Perhaps because posting on social media involves some degree of seeking attention, people have wondered how social media use may relate to narcissism, a personality trait that is often tied to self-absorption. My colleagues and I at the University of Texas at Dallas examined this question in a new research study.

Researchers agree that there are three dimensions of narcissism. Each dimension is characterized by a heightened sense of self-importance, but they differ from each other in important ways. If you were to ask most people to define narcissism, they would probably emphasize the dimension of narcissism that psychologists conceptualize as grandiosity. People higher in grandiosity put themselves out there: they are bold, extraverted, assertive, and overconfident. They believe they are the best and often try to seek power over others.

On the other hand, vulnerability is characterized by being shy, inhibited, and anxious. People higher in vulnerability desire success and admiration similar to those higher in grandiosity but have difficulties in achieving these goals. Although it is not always obvious, some people with narcissistic tendencies score quite high in vulnerability.

Entitlement involves believing that you deserve more than you do. People higher in entitlement believe that they should be treated special and that they deserve the best. In our research, we studied how these three dimensions of narcissism relate to social media use.

People approach social media in different ways. Sometimes, people post something and wait for the likes and comments to roll in. At other times, people may just scroll through other people's content, possibly feeling like others are better off than them ("She went to Hawaii again?!"). Occasionally, people may come across a post from someone who is complaining about all the things wrong with his or her life and feel better off by comparison. People may even come across pictures from a family or friend event, and feel left out because they weren't invited. These are the kinds of social media behaviors that we looked at in our study: active use (posting content), passive use (looking at other people's content), upward comparison (thinking others are better off), downward comparison (thinking others are worse off), and social exclusion (seeing an event from which you were excluded).

Our results showed that grandiosity was especially related to downward social comparison. When on social media, people higher in grandiosity tend to believe that everyone else is worse off than they are. Vulnerability, though, was particularly related to upward social comparison and perceived social exclusion. When on social media, those higher in vulnerability tend to believe that other people are better off than they are, and they report seeing more social events from which they were excluded.

In addition, people higher in grandiosity and entitlement seem to post more on social media. This was especially the case for those higher in grandiosity posting more things on Snapchat, a messaging app that lets users exchange pictures and videos that disappear after they are viewed. Other than this, findings were generally similar across Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, and entitlement was generally not strongly related to people's use of social media.

Overall, then, people who post a lot on social media may tend to be higher in narcissism, particularly in terms of higher grandiosity. But, the strength of the relationship between narcissism and social media use was small-to-moderate. So, posting a lot on social media does not necessarily mean that a person is narcissistic. In addition, our findings involving vulnerability suggest that some people who are higher in narcissism may often feel bad when using social media.

Our research suggests that different dimensions of narcissism relate to social media experiences in different ways. For people who are higher in grandiosity, these experiences may be relatively pleasant, as they may find social media another outlet to showcase their life and to perceive others to be worse off than themselves. But, for people higher in vulnerability, experiences on social media may be fairly negative because viewing others' posts make vulnerable people feel excluded and worse-off by comparison.
For Further Reading:
Krizan, Z., & Herlache, A. D. (2018). The Narcissism Spectrum Model: A synthetic view of narcissistic personality. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 22, 3-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868316685018

Link: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1088868316685018

Kaitlyn Burnell is a doctoral student in Psychological Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas. Her research examines how young people are interacting with social media, with the goal of understanding the implications that social media has for young people's psychosocial development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Narcissism Relates to Social Media | SPSP

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Social media is ubiquitous in our lives. People can spend hours posting and scrolling on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and a host of other platforms. You may know people who are especially absorbed in the social media frenzy, including those who seem to post everything online.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The weird thing that happens to your brain when you get a like on social media

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From drug-like chemical rushes to the very real risk of addiction, this is the truth about what ‘likes’ are doing to your self-esteem.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Narcissism and Social Media: Should We Be Afraid?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Research reveals a complex picture of the effects of social media on narcissism.

# data[].attributes.body
social media

# data[].attributes.body
Narcissism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Love Instagram? Then you're more likely to be narcissistic compared to people who use Twitter or Facebook

Most millennials know people who delete posts that don't get enough likes

Around 60% of young people think Instagram is the worst for narcissism

Snapchat was voted the second worst, while Twitter and Facebook fared better

Previous studied have found that people who post selfies on social media are more likely to possess what is known as the 'dark triad' of personality traits

Instagram is the most narcissistic social media platform on the planet, according to millennials.

A survey of almost 10,000 students found the social media platform is more suited to the self-obsessed than Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook.

Most millennials know people who delete posts that don't get enough likes.

And two thirds of millennials admitted to liking photos and videos from people who had previously liked their own posts.

Scroll down for video

NARCISSISTIC SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

1. Instagram

2. Snapchat

3. Twitter

4. Facebook

The survey found that 64 per cent of millennials believe Instagram is the most narcissistic social media platform.

In fact, Instagram received more votes as the most vain social media app than Facebook (10 per cent), Snapchat (15 per cent), and Twitter (11 per cent) combined.

'Young people will not beat around the bush as to why they use social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter,' said a spokesperson from LendEDU, who conducted the survey.

'They use these platforms to boast of their daily tidings, carefully craft their public image, and feed their egos in this interconnected digital age.

'All it takes is a two-minute scroll through any social media feed and you will see that a large portion of the posts are jokes about the absurdity of social media.'

'Users that post on Instagram are fuelled by one thing: likes.'

The survey also asked the question: 'Do you make an intentional effort to like people's Instagram posts who like yours?'

In response, 67 per cent of millennials answered 'yes, it's unspoken Instagram code', while 33 per cent said 'no'.

'The large majority of Instagram users have formed unspoken alliances with each other to ensure they each tally enough 'likes' to make their posts stand out,' the spokesperson said.

'It does not matter if Instagram users genuinely enjoy other Instagrammers posts; the only thing that matters is that each insincere expression of emotion from you will lead to your own Instagram page gaining more status.'

As part of the survey, 9,477 millennials were asked: 'Do you know someone who deletes Facebook or Instagram posts if they don't get enough likes?'

In total, 78 per cent of participants said they themselves or someone that they know has deleted posts that did not get enough likes.

Only 22 per cent of millennials did not know someone who had done this.

'The results of this question prove that the overwhelming majority of social media users do not post pictures to genuinely share their experiences with others,' according to LendEDU, a student loan refinancing company.

'Rather, the only reason behind posting is to rack up a sufficient amount of "likes."

'Millennials would rather hide their lives from the public than live with the agony of having an unpopular post on their profile.'

Previous studied have found that people who post selfies on social media are more likely to possess what is known as the 'dark triad' of personality traits.

Experts found traditionally successful manipulators who are classified as being part of the dark triad - people with narcissistic, psychopathic or Machiavellian tendencies - don't send very compelling online messages and seem to rely on looks and body language in person to convey charm.

Psychopaths tend to lack empathy and be anti-social, while narcissists lean toward grandiosity and self-adoration, and people with Machiavellian qualities are goal-oriented, calculated manipulators.

HOW TO SPOT A PSYCHOPATH: FROM CHARM TO MANIPULATION

Psychopaths display different traits depending on their disorder, but common signs include superficial charm, a grandiose notion of self-worth, the need for stimulation and impulsiveness, pathological lying, the ability to manipulate others and a lack of remorse and empathy.

Experts claim people usually find psychopaths intriguing, but can't put their finger on why.

This is down to incongruous behaviour because psychopaths tend to do a lot of acting to deceive, or mimic normal reactions, sometimes changing their views and reactions quickly.

For example, Self-professed psychopath Jacob Wells said that upon meeting someone, he tries to become 'the most interesting person they know' and presumably adopts suitable interests and responses to do this.

His response also gives away another common trait - a grandiose notion of self-worth - in that he can be the most interesting person in the room.

Psychopaths occasionally tend to exhibit unconvincing emotional responses, with slip-ups including tone of voice or body language.

This may be because they are unable to understand emotions such as fear and love, but can mimic them.

Generally psychopaths' 'emotions' are shallow and short-lived and there is a manipulative ulterior motive to showing them.

For example, Mr Wells said he offers to do favours and tells false secrets to people to gain their complete trust.

He also displays insincere charm - another trait associated with psychopaths.

He says: 'I keep secrets, and tell them fake secrets to further gain their trust, and once they trust me enough, I ask for favours, reminding them of the favours I did them. I can get literally anything from them, which is incredibly useful.'

Psychopaths typically display an incredible ability to manipulate others and sometimes take pleasure in doing so.

Psychopaths often have an air of superiority about them, perhaps shown by Mr Wells' belief he can spot other psychopaths

Even expert Dr Hare, who came up with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) used as a diagnostic tool to determine where someone lies on the psychopathy spectrum, warns that anyone can be duped during a short interaction with a psychopath.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Instagram as the most narcissistic social media platform

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Most millennials know people who delete posts that don't get enough likes Around 60% of young people think Instagram is the worst for narcissism Snapchat was voted the second worst, while Twitter and Facebook fared better Previous studied have found that people who post selfies on social media are more likely to possess what is known as the 'dark triad' of personality traits Instagram is the most narcissistic social media platform on the planet, according to millennials.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The psychology of narcissism - W. Keith Campbell