Individuals with a higher degree of narcissism keep an eye on the selfies that other people post on social networking websites like Facebook. However, they don’t appear to have an desire to “like” or comment on those selfies, according to research published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
The study by Jung-Ah Lee and Yongjun Sung, of Korea University in Seoul surveyed 319 social network users who had ever posted their own selfies on websites such as Facebook, KakaoStory, Instagram, and Twitter.
The researchers found that individuals with a higher degree of narcissism have a more favorable attitude toward the act of posting selfies. They were also more likely to respond to other people’s comments and “likes” on their own selfies. In addiction, narcissism was associated with carefully examining other people’s selfies and the feedback other people received.
Despite their interest in other people’s selfies, however, individuals with a higher degree of narcissism were not more likely to provide feedback to other people’s selfies.
“An interesting finding is that narcissism was not associated with the act of providing a comment or ‘like’ on other people’s selfies, suggesting that individuals higher in narcissism observe other people’s selfies to a greater extent, but do not necessarily comment on or ‘like’ them. Individuals higher in narcissism are not apathetic toward other people’s social media content and actually are more likely to keep an eye on what others are posting as a means of comparative self-enhancement strategy. Nevertheless, they do not engage in social interaction with or provide direct feedback to other people,” Lee and Sung wrote in their study.
