Narcissism and romantic relationship presentation on social media: The role of motivations and partner attractiveness

Abstract

Two studies assessed the associations that narcissistic admiration (an agentic form of narcissism characterized by assertive self-enhancement and self-promotion) and narcissistic rivalry (an antagonistic form of narcissism characterized by self-protection and self-defense) have with self-enhancing and communal motivations for sharing romantic relationship information on social media, and how the partner's physical attractiveness relates to the likelihood of sharing this information. In Study 1, 248 participants reported on their actual relationships. In Study 2, 423 participants evaluated hypothetical partners whose physical attractiveness was experimentally manipulated. In both studies, narcissistic rivalry was associated with greater self-enhancing motivations. In Study 1, narcissistic admiration was associated with greater self-enhancing and communal motivations for sharing the relationship. In both studies, narcissistic individuals were not more likely to share their relationships if their partners were physically attractive. Study 2 provided some evidence that both narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry were associated with a preference for sharing sexy photographs of one's partner, depending upon the operationalization of the preference.