NPDs [and BPDs] Can Be Identified By Their Facebook Accounts, Say Psychologists

[Strong Again]

Have a Facebook account? Laura Buffardi, doctoral student in psychology, and associate professor W. Keith Campbell from the University of Georgia says it may tell them you are a narcissist.

Narcissism is not just attention-seeking or wanting to be liked. Clearly everyone who signs up for a social media site wants to interact with others. It is more severe and characterized by an inability to form healthy, long-term relationships.

The tremendous growth of social networking sites (Facebook now has 100 million users, for example) has led psychologists to explore how personality traits are expressed online. Buffardi and Campbell chose Facebook because it's the most popular networking site among college students and because it has a fixed format that makes it easier for researchers to compare user pages.

Not everyone who uses Facebook is a narcissist. "We found that people who are narcissistic use Facebook in a self-promoting way that can be identified by others," said Buffardi.

They gave personality questionnaires to nearly 130 Facebook users, analyzed the content of the pages and had untrained strangers view the pages and rate their impression of the owner's narcissism.

The researchers found that the number of Facebook friends and wallposts that individuals have on their profile pages correlates with narcissism. Buffardi said this is consistent with how narcissists behave in the real-world, with numerous yet shallow relationships. Narcissists are also more likely to choose glamorous, self-promoting pictures for their main profile photos, she said, while others are more likely to use snapshots.

Untrained observers were able to detect the narcissists also. Observers used three characteristics – quantity of social interaction, attractiveness of the individual and the degree of self promotion in the main photo – to form an impression of the individual's personality. "People aren't perfect in their assessments," Buffardi said, "but our results show they're somewhat accurate in their judgments."

Some researchers in the past have found that personal Web pages are more popular among narcissists, but Campbell said there's no evidence that Facebook users are more narcissistic than others.

"Nearly all of our students use Facebook, and it seems to be a normal part of people's social interactions," Campbell said. "It just turns out that narcissists are using Facebook the same way they use their other relationships – for self promotion with an emphasis on quantity of over quality."

Still, he points out that because narcissists tend to have more contacts on Facebook, any given Facebook user is likely to have an online friend population with a higher proportion of narcissists than in the real world. Right now it's too early to predict if or how the norms of online self-promotion will change, Campbell said, since the study of social networking sites is still in its infancy.

"We've undergone a social change in the last four or five years and now almost every student manages their relationships through Facebook – something that few older people do," Campbell said. "It's a completely new social world that we're just beginning to understand."

www.science20.com/news_releases/narcissists_can_be_identified_by_their_facebook_accounts_psychologists

[SunflowerFields]

Source, please?

I'd like to post a link to this to my FB accout 

[Strong Again]

Sorry, forget about link. Here you go sunflower:

www.science20.com/news_releases/narcissists_can_be_identified_by_their_facebook_accounts_psychologists

[SunflowerFields]

Fantastic, thanks. I just posted it to my wall. 90% of my friends will have no idea what it's about, but I have this sly, knowing smile now

[Strong Again]

Fantastic, thanks. I just posted it to my wall. 90% of my friends will have no idea what it's about, but I have this sly, knowing smile now

You're welcome 

[breakingpoint]

Fantastic, thanks. I just posted it to my wall. 90% of my friends will have no idea what it's about, but I have this sly, knowing smile now

They are ALL gonna be thinking... ."Ohhh... .I know who she is referring to". Must be them... .can't be me.

[Strong Again]

Fantastic, thanks. I just posted it to my wall. 90% of my friends will have no idea what it's about, but I have this sly, knowing smile now

They are ALL gonna be thinking... ."Ohhh... .I know who she is referring to". Must be them... .can't be me.

LOL no doubt. After all, it's never them.

[louiseann17]

I have read that before Strong... .in my research on personality disorders... .I have always thought that FB attracts a certain 'type' of person though i accept NOT everyone on Fb has a personality disorder i was on there myself for a short while... .But i do believe it attracts some people that are emotionally and socially arrested in some form or other and people with certain kinds of mental disorders... .its like a magnet for them... .and this also happens on other social sites too... .

My ex is addicted to the net... .the sites... .the gaming ... .everything about it... .i have always felt uncomfortable with this... .like i said in other posts these sites and especially FB can be abused... .I read a blog somewhere cant remember now about sociopaths adoring the net and sites like FB because it gives them exactly what there after... .its one to think about... .

Louiseann

[Strong Again]

Yeh, I think the article does mention that not everyone on FB has a personality disorder, but there are the narcissistic types who can be more easily ID'd by their profiles.

And to touch on the point you just made, it does seem to be a playground for people with PD's for definite.

[uk guy]

My ex used Facecheat to snare every new victim, and also to make out she was the one being mistreated.

[Strong Again]

My ex used Facecheat to snare every new victim, and also to make out she was the one being mistreated.

Same here  she once told me via text, 'You're easily replaced! I can get another you in 5 minutes, in fact I've begun my search on Facebook already. Eeenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo'.

Such a sweetheart 

[pdoll]

Same here  she once told me via text, 'You're easily replaced! I can get another you in 5 minutes, in fact I've begun my search on Facebook already. Eeenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo'.

Daaaaaaaaang.

[id-crisis]

My ex used Facecheat to snare every new victim, and also to make out she was the one being mistreated.

Same here   she once told me via text, 'You're easily replaced! I can get another you in 5 minutes, in fact I've begun my search on Facebook already. Eeenie, Meenie, Minie, Mo'.

Such a sweetheart  

Ouch. Nasty!  But, at least you had warning, rather have that than the sneaking around I suppose.  

I've always distrusted sites like facebook. The first time I visited MySpace I couldn't believe what I was seeing!  Almost seemed to me that people were trying to sell themselves. Every young woman wants to be a glamour puss, the young men - pop gods, the vampires etc etc

It's a crazy old world, fo sho  

[Strong Again]

Ouch. Nasty!  But, at least you had warning, rather have that than the sneaking around I suppose.

Well, she did cheat on me a month into the relationship, so I only have myself to blame for thinking I could keep a sinking ship afloat.

[louiseann17]

She sounds just awful... .a nightmare... .but thats BPD im finding out... .I guess some are worse than others though... .

[Strong Again]

She sounds just awful... .a nightmare... .but thats BPD im finding out... .I guess some are worse than others though... .

Well Louiseann, I really didn't expect her to turn out so bad because she beguiled me with her 'rescue me' waif behaviours on the phone and FB (I was never able to ID BPD behaviours at the time, and didn't know I was walking into a minefield). There were serious red flags which I didn't need to study BPD to be aware of, and I told her on FB I couldn't be with her for those reasons, but the clever girl shape-shifted into the helpless waif, started crying down the phone, and this activated my rescuing compulsions. And the rest is history, as they say.

Like I've also mentioned, my story is pretty tame compared to many of the things I've read on here. Though I've no doubt that if I'd have stayed with her I'd have ended up on anti-depressants, turning to God, and hearing voices -- just like her long term ex did -- or worse, suicidal or in a psyche ward. I just had a lucky escape, so to speak.

[SunflowerFields]

Though I've no doubt that if I'd have stayed with her I'd have ended up on anti-depressants, turning to God, and hearing voices -- just like her long term ex did -- or worse, suicidal or in a psyche ward. I just had a lucky escape, so to speak.

My ex's estranged wife (#2) had epilepsy.

I actually once asked him when she got it. He said, "why, you think it's because of me?" I said, "Yup". He said it was before they met. Whether or not that's true, who knows - but it was hilarious that he realized I was actually trying to see if there is a connection to his behavior.

[RanaX]

This is 100% true, my X kept huge pictures of her always and answered every messages of strangers also. She kept making new friends and never added me to Her FB.  

[Marcie]

I have a lot of friend on there and also I have professional photos of me. but thats because I am a photographer. I use it to promote my business. Otherwise I don't even think I would probably have a facebook or care.

[Evan]

Mmm not sure how to apply this theory ... .

Do I analyse the 3 seperate facebook accounts she has under the one false name?

Or the other facebook accounts under other false names?

It feels like a spy novel sometimes

[just_think]

It feels like a spy novel sometimes

i totally felt like i was humphry bogart and she was mary astor.

"you're a good man, sister"

[MrStinkMeanor]

I just recently joined FB and it's been interesting to interact with her there. She kind of 'found' me- I did not look for her- but I did friend her when she requested it. Entirely predictable that this was a source of more hurt for me, tho I do feel I am very strong and well-immunized by my understanding of her pathology. Some things I noticed:

1) She changes her profile pic constantly.

2) She messages me privately very often but will not comment or post on my wall- like she doesn't want to acknowledge me to the world.

3) She has lots of pics with guys who are mutual friends but none with me. Why? I was supposed to be her best and closest friend and ally.

4) When I did comment on something of hers she ignored my comment and interacted with others who had left comments.

Even with all I know, even with my armor of BPD knowledge, even with my new found ability to shrug off many of her behaviors, it still infuriated me that she was privately begging me to be her friend again and saying all this super sweet and loving stuff, and in public acting as if I was just some loser who was trying to stalk her. Disgusting.

She has everyone fooled. They have no idea what is behind the mask. If I told all the stories here it would set your hair on fire. She manipulated me to the point I was nearly suicidal before I found out about BPD.

I know it's best to stay NC but sometimes I wish I could pay her back. I know that's wrong. It just makes me mad.

[Strong Again]

She has everyone fooled. They have no idea what is behind the mask. If I told all the stories here it would set your hair on fire. She manipulated me to the point I was nearly suicidal before I found out about BPD.

Sorry to hear she drove you to such a low point. You should let it all out on here my friend... .great therapy.

[just_think]

She has everyone fooled. They have no idea what is behind the mask. If I told all the stories here it would set your hair on fire. She manipulated me to the point I was nearly suicidal before I found out about BPD.

I know it's best to stay NC but sometimes I wish I could pay her back. I know that's wrong. It just makes me mad.

i know i had to hold back when 3 days after a 911 call she created a group outing herself with BPD and how she was "cured" and invited everyone from her college's network.

she asked me to post something and join the group.  luckily i saw through the trap of her wanting access to my fb statuses, but i still thought about just copy pasting the conversation we had that day about her getting high on xanax, snipers being everywhere, threatening to to cut off her hands and is "going to have a lot of sex (in the next 6 months)"

but i post it on here instead.


ah... .i can't wait to find a healthy relationship.

[Marcie]

So my friend tagged 13 pictures of me from our travels. I felt like such a narcissist. There was a bunch I didn't like. Is that narcissistic?

@MrStinkMeanor I know that sucks. UGH! good thing I read your post, now I know that no matter how strong I feel I shall never break NC. NC is forever. I will be damned if I let him hurt me anymore! yea sometimes I think about revenge but then i think do i really want to stoop to his level? I mean if there is one thing I learned is that I want to be nothing like him. Bleh. I'm not perfect but, I don't want to be evil, manipulative, controlling, and self centered.

[veganozzie]

Interesting study. Yeah, it's easy to pick out the narcissists by things like how often they change their profile pics. One thing that Campbell was quoted as saying that I disagreed with, though:

""We've undergone a social change in the last four or five years and now almost every student manages their relationships through Facebook – something that few older people do."

There are 170 million unique users of Facebook every month in the US alone, well over 1 billion worldwide, and they are of all ages. 78% of Facebook's users are over age 25, so saying that "few older people" use Facebook to manage social relationships is patently ridiculous.

Have a Facebook account? Laura Buffardi, doctoral student in psychology, and associate professor W. Keith Campbell from the University of Georgia says it may tell them you are a narcissist.

Narcissism is not just attention-seeking or wanting to be liked. Clearly everyone who signs up for a social media site wants to interact with others. It is more severe and characterized by an inability to form healthy, long-term relationships.

The tremendous growth of social networking sites (Facebook now has 100 million users, for example) has led psychologists to explore how personality traits are expressed online. Buffardi and Campbell chose Facebook because it's the most popular networking site among college students and because it has a fixed format that makes it easier for researchers to compare user pages.

Not everyone who uses Facebook is a narcissist. "We found that people who are narcissistic use Facebook in a self-promoting way that can be identified by others," said Buffardi.

They gave personality questionnaires to nearly 130 Facebook users, analyzed the content of the pages and had untrained strangers view the pages and rate their impression of the owner's narcissism.

The researchers found that the number of Facebook friends and wallposts that individuals have on their profile pages correlates with narcissism. Buffardi said this is consistent with how narcissists behave in the real-world, with numerous yet shallow relationships. Narcissists are also more likely to choose glamorous, self-promoting pictures for their main profile photos, she said, while others are more likely to use snapshots.

Untrained observers were able to detect the narcissists also. Observers used three characteristics – quantity of social interaction, attractiveness of the individual and the degree of self promotion in the main photo – to form an impression of the individual's personality. "People aren't perfect in their assessments," Buffardi said, "but our results show they're somewhat accurate in their judgments."

Some researchers in the past have found that personal Web pages are more popular among narcissists, but Campbell said there's no evidence that Facebook users are more narcissistic than others.

"Nearly all of our students use Facebook, and it seems to be a normal part of people's social interactions," Campbell said. "It just turns out that narcissists are using Facebook the same way they use their other relationships – for self promotion with an emphasis on quantity of over quality."

Still, he points out that because narcissists tend to have more contacts on Facebook, any given Facebook user is likely to have an online friend population with a higher proportion of narcissists than in the real world. Right now it's too early to predict if or how the norms of online self-promotion will change, Campbell said, since the study of social networking sites is still in its infancy.

"We've undergone a social change in the last four or five years and now almost every student manages their relationships through Facebook – something that few older people do," Campbell said. "It's a completely new social world that we're just beginning to understand."

www.science20.com/news_releases/narcissists_can_be_identified_by_their_facebook_accounts_psychologists

[Weird Fishes]

Heh.  I always say I'm two clicks below a narcissist, and FB is a big reason for that.  I love facebook.  I sometimes hate facebook.  But I've been addicted to social media sites since highschool.

I like to post lots of pictures (usually of other people or animals or travels), I change my profile photo every couple weeks, and yeah, I do think about them before I post them.  And I frequently look at FB and wonder how crazy I am being.  Granted, people seem to be genuinely amused by my posts and I don't have 800 friends... .  

Healthy narcissism... .  still not sure what that looks like.  I LIKE sharing the things I do and like.  I like creating a controlled version of myself.  But I don't think it's a false or manipulative version. 

Is wanting to do that just plain unhealthy, period?