The moderating effect of gender in the relationship between narcissism and selfie-posting behavior

The longitudinal association between narcissism and problematic social networking sites use: The roles of two social comparison orientations

The present study aimed to explore whether the tendency to compare one's abilities and opinions to those of others (social comparison orientation) could longitudinally mediate the association between narcissism and problematic SNS use. A total of 1,196 college students were assessed at three time points over 22 months. The results showed that narcissism at time 1 was positively related to problematic SNS use at time 3 and that ability comparison at time 2 longitudinally mediated the association between narcissism at time 1 and problematic SNS use at time 3, whereas the longitudinal mediating effect of opinion comparison at time 2 was not significant. These findings suggest that narcissism more distally and ability comparison more proximally may be risk factors for engaging in problematic SNS use, and it is important to distinguish between types of social comparisons in problematic SNS use behaviors.

How to know who you are through your short video selfies?-Capturing personality via short video selfies

The extant literature has accumulated enormous knowledge on personality prediction from digital records on social networking sites (e.g., photo selfies). However, little is known about how short video selfies reflect their owner's personality and how people judge others' personalities from short video selfies. Taking short video selfies is very popular today; many people are willing to share their short video selfies with others. Based on the lens model theory, it is expected that one's personality is associated with short video selfies. By analyzing 177 Chinese TikTok (Douyin in China) users' short video selfies and their Big Five personalities, it showed that specific cues in short video selfies related to agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. But only extraversion could be predicted by short video selfies accurately. This study is the first to reveal personality-related cues in short video selfies and has practical implications for both short video platforms and their users.

Construction and characteristic of the media exhibitionism construct and the Media Exhibitionism Questionnaire

Introduction: Internet users often reveal online intimate details from their lives, such as pictures with naked parts of their bodies or posts about their emotional states. The first part of the article presents an attempt to create media exhibitionism construct based on psychopathological criteria from ICD-10. The second part of the article presents psychometric properties of the Media Exhibitionism Questionnaire.

Material and methods: After extracting 49 items, based on the theoretical foundations of the media exhibitionism construct, the competent judges assessed the accuracy of individual items. This resulted in the selection of 20 statements. Then the revised questionnaire was sent to Facebook users asking them to fill it out and send it to other users of the portal. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was carried out by the method of main components with Varimax rotation on N=65 persons, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on N=554 persons.

Results: After EFA the questionnaire consisted of 14 items and 4 factors: physical exhibitionism, exhibitionism of narcissistic traits, emotional exhibitionism, exhibitionism of histrionic traits. The four-factor solution was adopted on the basis of theoretical assumptions. The chi2 value was significant (χ2=286.01; p<0.001), which indicated discrepancies between the observed covariance matrix and the one implied by the model. Other indicators have shown a satisfactory agreement between the data and the model.

Conclusions: The questionnaire has satisfactory psychometric properties (α=0.846) and can be used to predict problem behaviours on social media, as well as in counselling regarding responsible development of self-image on the Internet.

Selfitis Behavior: Assessing the Italian Version of the Selfitis Behavior Scale and Its Mediating Role in the Relationship of Dark Traits with Social Media Addiction

Research on selfie-related behavior has recently flourished. The present study expands theoretical and empirical work on phenomenon by assessing the psychometric properties of the Selfitis Behavior Scale among an Italian sample and by examining its unexplored mediating role in the relationships between dark triad traits and social media addiction. A total of 490 participants (53.1% females) completed a self-report survey including socio-demographics, the Selfitis Behavior Scale (SBS), the Short Dark Triad Scale (SD3), and the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS). Results showed the SBS had a five-factor structure with good psychometrics properties in terms of reliability coefficients and measurement invariance across gender. In addition, findings from the path model supported the mediating role of selfitis behavior in the relationships of narcissism and psychopathy with social media addiction. Machiavellianism was found to be unrelated to selfitis behavior and social media addiction. The model shed light into the previous inconsistent findings on the associations between dark triad traits and social media addiction by taking into account the key role of selfitis behavior as an underlying mechanism. The findings may explain individual differences in personality traits associated with co-dependence (i.e., the combination of the dependence on self and others and social media addiction).

The Influence of Social Interactions and Subjective Norms on Social Media Postings

This study investigated the influence of social interactions and subjective norms on individuals’ social media postings. The study developed a theoretical model by extending the Theory of Reasoned Action with social interactions. A CB-SEM analysis was conducted to test the hypothesised relationships based on the data collected from 312 social media users. Results indicated that social interactions (i.e. likes, shares, comments and follows) were significantly related to the attitude towards the selfie-posting behaviour. Further, the attitude and subjective norms were significantly related to behavioural intentions, which together accounted for a significant amount of variance in the actual behaviour. The findings contributed to literature by introducing the significant role of “social interactions” in predicting the attitude towards the selfie-posting behaviour.

Selfie-engagement on social media: Pathological narcissism, positive expectation, and body objectification - Which is more influential?

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 (R2 = 0.227; p < .001) and women (R2 = 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.

Moderating Role of Gender in the Relationship between Big Five Personality Traits and Smartphone Addiction

This study contributed to cyberpsychology literature by identifying moderating role of gender in the relationship between personality traits and smartphone addiction. A multi-group SEM analysis was employed to investigate the relationship between five factor personality traits (i.e. Big Five) and smartphone addiction among men and women. Big-Five-Inventory (BFI) and Smartphone Addiction Inventory (SPAI) were used to collect data from 320 undergraduate students. The results suggested a positively significant relationship between neuroticism (emotional imbalance) and smartphone addiction for women only. Whereas, conscientiousness was negatively related with smartphone addiction for women. Further, there was a negatively significant relationship between agreeableness and smartphone addiction for both genders. The findings suggested that gender has a moderating role in the relationship between neuroticism and smartphone addiction.

Social Exclusion, Surveillance Use, and Facebook Addiction: The Moderating Role of Narcissistic Grandiosity

One hundred and eighty-eight participants completed the online questionnaire with items on demographics (age and gender), social exclusion, surveillance use, Facebook addiction, and narcissistic grandiosity. The findings showed that social exclusion was positively associated with Facebook addiction (B = 0.237, p < 0.001) and surveillance use was significantly positively associated with Facebook addiction (B = 0.211, p < 0.01). The surveillance use of Facebook was found to be a significant mediator between the risk of social exclusion on Facebook and Facebook addiction (B = 0.054, CI [0.20, 0.113]). Narcissistic grandiosity significantly moderated the associations between social exclusion and Facebook addiction (B = 0.079, p = 0.012). These findings suggest that the risk of social exclusion could serve as facilitator of Facebook addiction depending on narcissistic grandiosity.

The dark side of internet: Preliminary evidence for the associations of dark personality traits with specific online activities and problematic internet use

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Research has shown that personality traits play an important role in problematic internet use (PIU). However, the relationship between dark personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, sadism, and spitefulness) and PIU has yet to be investigated. Consequently, the objectives of this study were to investigate the relationships of dark traits with specific online activities (i.e., social media, gaming, gambling, shopping, and sex) and PIU.

METHODS

A total of 772 university students completed a self-report survey, including the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen Scale, Short Sadistic Impulse Scale, Spitefulness Scale, and an adapted version of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale.

RESULTS

Hierarchical regression analysis and a multiple mediation model indicated that being male was positively associated with higher online gaming, online sex, and online gambling, and negatively associated with social media and online shopping. Narcissism was related to higher social media use; Machiavellianism was related to higher online gaming, online sex, and online gambling; sadism was related to online sex; and spitefulness was associated with online sex, online gambling, and online shopping. Finally, Machiavellianism and spitefulness were directly and indirectly associated with PIU via online gambling, online gaming, and online shopping, and narcissism was indirectly associated with PIU through social media use.

DISCUSSION

Findings of this preliminary study show that individuals high in dark personality traits may be more vulnerable in developing problematic online use and that further research is warranted to examine the associations of dark personality traits with specific types of problematic online activities.

Exploring Factors Behind Offline and Online Selfie Popularity Among Youth in India

“The Selfie Culture,” practiced globally, is gaining popularity with each passing day. Owing to its ubiquitous fame across the globe, it becomes essential to inquire the grounds for such worldwide recognition. In few years, it also became the center of attraction among researchers and previous studies had recognized two important aspects of selfie: first, why is selfie posting on social media is increasing day by day and second, who choose to involve more frequently in selfie posting behavior on social media? However, these studies focused only on its online popularity on various social media platforms but did not pay much attention on its offline popularity among selfie takers. In addition to this, the multifaceted sides of selfie which may make it different from other pictures and might also play an important role in its popularity in both offline and online platforms remained unexplored. The present study addressed this gap and explored two important aspects of selfie related behavior, First, it emphasized the significance of understanding the user's conception of selfie and second, it explored the determining factors behind both offline (taking) and online (posting) modes of the practice. 60 college going students (44 females and 16 males) living in Delhi, India participated in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and qualitative thematic analysis was used to cull out the themes. The results showed five factors (looks good, keeping memories, mood driven, mirroring the self and posting on social media) behind selfie offline (taking) involvement. Further, the online (posting) selfie popularity had been driven by three factors (social approval, being the best among the rest, to maintain online presence). Participants' popularity of selfie usage in both offline and online modes advocates the need to explore the offline selfie involvement of selfie takers in future research. The study also extended the existing conceptualization of selfie phenomenon which could help to unravel its wide popularity among its users.