Narcissistic power poster? On the relationship between narcissism and status updating activity on Facebook

Abstract

The pervasiveness of social networking sites and the popularity of status updates have prompted the question whether excessive online self-presentation is motivated by narcissism. The present studies assessed (1) whether this concern is shared by users of social networking sites, and (2) the actual relationship between narcissism and frequency of status updates using self- and informant reports of narcissism and an observational measure of status updating activity. Results confirmed that users of social networking sites believe that narcissism strongly predicts status updating activity. However, analyses of the actual relationship in a German and US sample yielded null-results. Using the equivalence testing approach allowed us to conclude that the effect of narcissism on status updating activity is not substantial.