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Narcissism and self-esteem as predictors of dimensions of Facebook use
Personality and Individual Differences 90 (2016) 296–301
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Narcissism and self-esteem as predictors of dimensions of Facebook use Agata Błachnio a,⁎, Aneta Przepiorka a, Patrycja Rudnicka b a b
Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland Institute of Psychology, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 18 April 2015 Received in revised form 5 November 2015 Accepted 12 November 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Facebook usage Narcissism Self-esteem Facebook personal importance Facebook intensity
a b s t r a c t The present paper examines whether narcissism and self-esteem are related to different patterns of Facebook use. The Facebook Motivation and Importance Scale, the Facebook Intensity Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Self-Esteem Scale were used. The participants in the paper-and-pencil study were 653 Polish users of Facebook. We hypothesized that narcissism and self-esteem play a significant role in Facebook use. The results showed that self-esteem and narcissism can be predictors of Facebook personal importance. The study is the first attempt to explore the role of psychological predictors of Facebook use in Poland. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Over the past few years, Facebook has become the number one social networking site (SNS), known mainly as a communication tool, especially among young people (Ellison et al., 2007). In September 2014 an average of 864 million people used Facebook daily (Facebook., 2014). There are two important areas of Facebook research: the motivation behind its use and the personality of users (Błachnio et al., 2013). In several of articles reviewed by Wilson et al. (2012)motivation for using Facebook was a key area of investigation. For instance, Park et al. (2009) indicated four reasons for using Facebook: socializing, entertainment, self-status seeking, and information seeking. Facebook use is connected with creating or maintaining social capital (e.g., Ellison et al., 2007; Johnston et al., 2013). Park and Lee (2014) found that entertainment, relationship maintenance, self-expression, and communication were associated with Facebook intensity, the entertainment motivation being the most influential. Impression management was found to be a significant predictor for Facebook intensity, whereas professional use was not related to it. Facebook intensity was a predictor of the sense of belonging. The dual-factor model of Facebook use proposed by Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012) points to two basic social needs: (1) the need to belong and (2) the need for self-presentation, which can separately or jointly lead to Facebook use. The model links these two needs with other variables, such as narcissism or self-esteem, but, unfortunately, it has not yet been empirically verified (Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012). ⁎ Corresponding author at: Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Błachnio).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.11.018 0191-8869/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The second group of studies pertains to the relationship between Facebook use and users' personality. There have been several studies exploring the relationship between Facebook use and the Big Five personality traits (Seidman, 2013; Hughes et al., 2012), shyness (Ross et al., 2009), depression (Błachnio et al., in press), or loneliness (Ryan & Xenos, 2011). However, studies focusing on both narcissism and self-esteem simultaneously and on the relationship of these variables with Facebook use are scarce (e.g., Marshall et al., 2015; Skues et al., 2012). The present study is meant to yield integrated knowledge on these interrelations. 1.1. Narcissism and Facebook use Narcissism is a personality trait that manifests itself in an infatuation and obsession with oneself and in an aspiration to attain selfgratification, achieve dominance, and satisfy ambition (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998). Since one of the main advantages of Facebook is the possibility of promoting oneself, disclosing private information, presenting oneself in a better light, and creating a positive or even idealistic lifestyle (Błachnio et al., 2013), a narcissistic user may use the available Facebook applications to make others admire him or her (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). This explanation is even more convincing when supported by other results. Previous studies confirmed that people with a high level of narcissism spent more time on Facebook during the day and during one session (Mehdizadeh, 2010) and that they were more socially active in the online community (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). Other studies revealed that the level of narcissism was linked to differences in Facebook use; for example, a high level of narcissism correlated with frequent status updates (Ong et al., 2011), higher self-promotion (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008; Carpenter, 2012; Ryan & Xenos, 2011),
A. Błachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 90 (2016) 296–301
specific photo selection (Kapidzic, 2013), or having a greater number of Facebook friends (Gentile et al., 2012). Some evidence indicates that a high level of narcissism can predict posting selfies on Facebook in the case of male users, but it was not significant in female users (Sorokowski et al., 2015). Even though many studies have supported the hypotheses that Facebook use is linked to narcissism, there have also been studies that did not confirm such effects in the case of the Millennials generation (Bergman et al., 2011) or Australian students (Skues et al., 2012). There is also an ongoing debate about whether Facebook – because of its functions – increases narcissism. The latest results obtained by Horton et al. (2014) suggest that the agentic (selfpromotional) type of user activity facilitates narcissism to a greater degree than communal activity does. As the study by Marshall et al. (2015) showed, Facebook serves narcissists as a place for presenting their accomplishments in order to receive as many likes and comments as possible. Since the results of previous studies suggest that the relationship between narcissism and Facebook usage is complex and ambiguous in various populations, we propose to investigate this relationship further. 1.2. Self-esteem and Facebook use Self-esteem is understood as a global evaluation of oneself. It is a positive or negative attitude towards oneself (Rosenberg, 1989). There is plenty of evidence concerning the relationships of emotional functioning and personality with narcissism (Łaguna et al., 2007). Since people with low self-esteem are shy and reserved and experience high social anxiety (Robins et al., 2001), they may treat Facebook as a comfortable way to overcome these problems and stay connected. It is likely that Facebook gives users with low self-esteem the opportunity to disclose private information about themselves and to express themselves better than in the real world. Moreover, a high level of social anxiety may be related to the sense of loneliness, which also predicts the disclosure of private information on Facebook (Błachnio et al., in press). We wanted to examine how self-esteem is related to different aspect of Facebook use: Facebook importance, Facebook intensity, instrumental Facebook use, and social Facebook use, and whether there are any differences between users with low vs high self-esteem. Previous studies provided evidence of the beneficial impact of Facebook use through both social compensation and social enhancement mechanisms. Greater control over one's personal image and the potential that social media have for positive computer-mediated interaction leads to a greater number of friends and more time spent on Facebook by those who have lower self-esteem (Barker, 2009; Ellison et al., 2007; Jenkins-Guarnieri et al., 2012; Manago et al., 2012; Mehdizadeh, 2010; Wilson et al., 2010; Valkenburg et al., 2006). The intense Facebook use may imply that for users with low self-esteem Facebook is of great importance. Thanks to Facebook those users may build their social capital and receive social support. This reasoning would be in line with the suggestion made by Schwartz (2010)that there is a negative relationship between the frequency of Facebook use, the meaning attributed to Facebook use, and self-esteem. In his the longitudinal study, self-esteem was a moderator of the relationship between Facebook usage intensity and bridging social capital. It means that for people with a low level of self-esteem Facebook use is more profitable as a means of bridging social capital than it is for those with a higher level of self-esteem. (Steinfield et al., 2008). The study by Kalpidou et al. (2011) showed a negative association between self-esteem and time spent on Facebook. The authors concluded that Facebook played a beneficial role in the case of users with low self-esteem. Also, Lee et al. (2012) confirmed the mechanism of social compensatory friending in the form of having a large number of Facebook friends among people with a low level of self-esteem. More light was shed on this research topic by Zywica and Danowski (2008), whose study supported the Social Enhancement (“Rich Get Richer”) and Social Compensation (“Poor Get Richer”) hypotheses. Facebook can play a compensative role for those who have low self-esteem.
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Facebook users who were high on extraversion and self-esteem derived some benefits from using Facebook: they were popular both in the real world and on Facebook, whereas more introverted Facebook users, with low self-esteem, benefited from using that site as well, for instance by receiving a great deal of social support. In order to better explain Facebook use, it is necessary to integrate personality characteristics and motivation in one model. This was done, for instance, in the study by Senol-Durak and Durak (2011), who explored the relationship between individual variables such as self-esteem or affectivity and problematic Internet use cognitions. Based on a bulk of research stressing the strong bonds between personality and Facebook use, in our model we present the associations between users' personality and Facebook use dimensions. The present study has a manifold purpose. Firstly, it is an attempt to add to the body of research an in-depth analysis of motivation for using Facebook in relation to personality traits. Secondly, it refines the existing research on the influence of narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook use, which sometimes yielded ambiguous results (Yu et al., 2010). Moreover, although there has been an increase in the number of studies focused on the relationship of narcissism and self-esteem with Facebook use, a majority of them were conducted in the USA, Asia, or Australia. Considering the cultural and sociodemographic differences in Facebook use indicated in several studies (e.g., Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012), it is worth examining the above relationships in Central Europe, where Facebook use has not been explored yet. In our study, we included four dependent variables related to Facebook use: Facebook importance, Facebook instrumental use, social Facebook use, and Facebook intensity. This seems to be a novel approach and makes it possible to analyze this phenomenon broadly. Facebook importance reflects the attitude towards Facebook, the role it plays in a person's life, and the meaning the person attributes to using it. Social Facebook use emphasizes the role of being connected and socializing with others. Instrumental Facebook use refers to the standard use of Facebook and its applications in everyday life. Facebook intensity comprises the time spent on Facebook and the number of Facebook friends as well as emotional connectedness. On the basis of the literature review, we put forward the following hypotheses: H1: Narcissism is positively related to Facebook personal importance (1a), instrumental Facebook use (1b), social Facebook use (1c), and Facebook intensity (1d). H2: Self-esteem is negatively related to Facebook personal importance (2a), to Facebook intensity (2b), and to social Facebook use (2c), and positively to instrumental Facebook use (2d). 2. Method 2.1. Participants and procedure The participants were a sample of 653 adults; 73% of them were women. The mean age was 21.63 years (SD = 2.62), with the age ranging from 18 to 39. Participants were recruited at several universities in Poland and volunteered to take part in the study without any monetary reward. They were recruited individually using the snowball procedure. They were informed about the purpose of the study and assured of the anonymity of the research. All participants reported that they had a profile on Facebook. They completed a paper-and-pencil survey. 2.1.1. Measures The Facebook Motivation and Importance Scale, developed for the purpose of the study, consists of 21 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree): 13 items concerning Facebook personal importance were developed for the study – eight items, focusing on motivation to use Facebook, were generated on the basis of the list of Facebook use motives presented by Hew (2011) and by Brandtzæg and Heim (2009). The principal component factor analysis
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with oblimin rotation for 653 participants yielded three factors, labeled Facebook personal importance (α = .90; e.g., “I want to express and present myself”), instrumental Facebook use (α = .74; e.g. “I use Facebook for study-related purposes”) and social Facebook use (α = .72; e.g., “I want to meet new people using Facebook”). The three factors explained 56.35% of the variance in Facebook motivation (37.51%, 10.38%, and 8.46% respectively). An inspection of the scree plot reveals that each succeeding factor accounts for a decreasing amount of GE. 2.1.1.1. Facebook Intensity Scale. (FBI; Ellison et al., 2007) was used to measure how Facebook is used and integrated into daily activities and to assess the degree of emotional involvement in Facebook. This scale consists of eight items, two of them measuring the number of Facebook friends and the amount of time spent on Facebook on a typical day, and the remaining six items employing a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Mean total score is calculated with prior log transformation. A representative FBI statement is: “Facebook is part of my everyday activity.” Cronbach's alpha for the Polish version of the scale was .83. 2.1.1.2. Narcissism. The Polish adaptation of Raskin and Hall's Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Bazińska & Drat-Ruszczak, 2000) was employed to measure narcissism. The scale consists of 34 items; each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (not me) to 5 (me). In our sample, the value of Cronbach's alpha for NPI was .93. 2.1.1.3. Self-esteem. The Polish adaptation of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (SES; Łaguna et al., 2007) was used to measure the participants' explicit self-esteem. The scale consists of 10 items; respondents assess their level of agreement with the scale's statements related to overall feelings of self-worth using a 4-point scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree). In our sample, the value of Cronbach's alpha for SES was .83. 3. Results To test the model that examined predictors of Facebook use, we conducted the PLS-SEM procedure using SmartPLS (Ringle et al., 2015). The rationale for using the PLS-SEM approach was an intention to further explore the relations between personality factors and different aspects of Facebook use. Narcissism and self-esteem were introduced into the
model as second-order latent variables, in accordance with NPI and SES factor structure. Both latent personality variables were predictors of latent Facebook variables: Fb personal importance, Fb instrumental use, Fb social use, and Fb intensity, whose indicators were the items of scale. The first part of the analysis focused on the evaluation of the measurement model. To assess the reliability and validity of the model, we followed the guidelines provided by Gefen et al. (2011). The indicator variables with corresponding factor loadings are presented in Table 2. Although values above .70 are preferred, it should be mentioned that values above .40 are considered satisfactory in explanatory studies (Przepiórka et al., 2015, p. 402). Table 2 also presents composite reliability (CR) for the set of items constituting each latent variable. All CR values were above the .80–.90 threshold. Finally, convergent and discriminant validity were assessed. AVE values for all endogenous latent variables were above the .50 threshold — apart from Fb intensity, which was slightly below the threshold (.46). Discriminant validity was tested using Fornell and Larcker's (1981) procedure of checking whether the square root of ACE is higher than the correlations among latent variables. The results are presented in Table 3. The collinearity statistics of VIF were also below the acceptable threshold of 10.0. See Table 1. Structural model assessment included the review of path values and their significance as well as R2 values. Path significance was tested using the bootstrapping procedure for 5000 samples. The results of the analysis confirmed that the influence of narcissism and self-esteem on Fb use was different. Fig. 1 presents path coefficients and R2 values for the model. Fb personal importance, Fb instrumental use, Fb social use, and Fb intensity were positively and significantly related to narcissism. The highest path coefficients were observed for Fb personal importance (β = .41, p b .001) and Fb intensity (β = .33, p b .001), followed by Fb social use (β = .21, p b .001) and Fb instrumental use (β = .12, p b .05). Negative and significant paths were confirmed for the relations of self-esteem with Fb personal importance (β = −.26, p b .001) and Fb intensity (β = −.17, p b .001). On the other hand, in accordance with the hypothesized positive relation, the paths to Fb instrumental use were not significant (β = .07, ns). The path coefficient for Fb social use was also very low and not significant (β = −.01, ns). R2 values describe the degree of explained variance in endogenous latent variables. In our study, those values are low for Fb personal importance (R2 = .14) and very low for other variables: Fb intensity (R2 = .09), Fb social use (R2 = .04), and Fb instrumental use (R2 = .03).
Table 1 Items and their loadings on the Facebook motivation and importance scale. Items
Facebook personal importance
Instrumental Facebook use
Social Facebook use
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
.19 .21 .39 .57 .49 .01 .16 .08 .72 .63 .76 .79 .78 .68 .71 .83 .76 .61 .62 .67 .69
.13 .05 .15 .11 .23 .83 .81 .77 .15 .18 .05 −.04 .06 .16 .09 .05 .22 .14 .25 .12 .02
−.74 −.74 −.79 −.67 −.71 −.01 −.12 −.20 −.41 −.23 −.30 −.17 −.21 −.37 −.28 −.22 −.34 −.52 −.50 −.37 −.25
I want to maintain current relationships I want to meet new people using Facebook I believe that the use of Facebook is timely/in fashion It's just a form of leisure I want to express and present myself Facebook serves scientific and educational purposes for me Facebook helps me to manage everyday tasks I use Facebook for study-related purposes I cannot imagine living without Facebook I am constantly logged into Facebook I cannot wait to share photos or life events on Facebook A day without Facebook is a day wasted If something is not on Facebook, it does not exist Hanging out on Facebook is the best way to relax I noticed that if a friend does not have a Facebook account my relationship with him/her loosens up It scares me to think that Facebook would cease to exist Facebook plays an important role in my life Facebook is the best way to establish or maintain relationships I promote myself through Facebook I post about current events in my life I start my day by checking out Facebook
The loadings higher than .40 were written in bold.
A. Błachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 90 (2016) 296–301 Table 2 Results of measurement model evaluation. Latent variable loadings
AVE
CR
Alpha
.934 .873
.93 .84
.63
.838
.72
.65
.850
.74
.46
.870
.83
.52
.917
.90
Exogenous latent variables Narcissism Self-esteem Endogenous latent variables Social Facebook use Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Instrumental Facebook use Item 6 Item 7 Item 8 Facebook intensity FBI 1 FBI 2 FBI 3 FBI 4 FBI 5 FBI 6 FBI 7 FBI 8 Facebook personal importance Item 9 Item 10 Item 11 Item 12 Item 13 Item 14 Item 15 Item 17 Item 20 Item 21
.812⁎⁎⁎ .739⁎⁎⁎ .834⁎⁎⁎ .872⁎⁎⁎ .838⁎⁎⁎ .710⁎⁎⁎ .589⁎⁎⁎ .366⁎⁎⁎ .727⁎⁎⁎ .638⁎⁎⁎ .770⁎⁎⁎ .763⁎⁎⁎ .757⁎⁎⁎ .747⁎⁎⁎ .717⁎⁎⁎ .655⁎⁎⁎ .786⁎⁎⁎ .769⁎⁎⁎ .766⁎⁎⁎ .676⁎⁎⁎ .704⁎⁎⁎ .743⁎⁎⁎ .706⁎⁎⁎ .712⁎⁎⁎
Note. N = 653. ⁎ p b .05. ⁎⁎ p b .01. ⁎⁎⁎ p b .001.
4. Discussion In the study, associations among Facebook use, personality characteristics such as narcissism and self-esteem, and Facebook use were examined. We investigated whether narcissism and self-esteem are related to different motivations to use Facebook use and can predict Facebook use. The proposed model suggests that a low level of self-esteem and a high level of narcissism can serve as predictors of a high level of Facebook use. Our results indicate that narcissism and self-esteem can predict Facebook use, but not always. As hypothesized (H1a–d), narcissism was found to be a significant positive predictor of different aspects of Facebook use, namely: Facebook
Table 3 Descriptive statistics for constructs and latent variable intercorrelations (N = 653).
Facebook use 1. Facebook personal importance 2. Instrumental Facebook use 3. Social Facebook use 4. Facebook intensity Personality variables 5. Narcissism 6. Self-esteem
M
SD
1.
2.
3.
2.44
1.20
.72
5.03
1.32
.10⁎
.81
4.46 .01
1.41 .67
.36⁎⁎ .76⁎⁎
.11⁎⁎ .12⁎⁎
.80 .40⁎⁎
.68
3.09 2.98
.60 .50
.29⁎⁎⁎ −.08⁎
.15⁎⁎ .13⁎⁎
.20⁎⁎ .08⁎
.25⁎⁎ −.03
Note. Diagonal represents square roots of AVE for each construct. ⁎ p b .05. ⁎⁎ p b .01. ⁎⁎⁎ p b .001.
4.
5.
6.
.55 .44⁎⁎
.42
299
personal importance, instrumental Facebook use, social Facebook use, and Facebook intensity. These results can be seen as showing that people with a high level of narcissism are more absorbed in Facebook, live and breathe Facebook, and cannot imagine life without it. Consequently, they spend plenty of time using that site. For people with a high level of narcissism, using Facebook provides a way to stand out and enjoy a higher social status. Our results showed that there is a relationship between narcissism and Facebook usage patterns. According to our results, narcissism is a predictor of greater Facebook-related activity as well as higher intensity of Facebook use and its overall importance. Narcissistic users more often used Facebook for both social and instrumental purposes. These results are in line with other findings, where higher narcissism and lower selfesteem were related to greater online activity (Mehdizadeh, 2010). Moreover, high narcissism is linked with Facebook self-promotion. This is consistent with other studies, where narcissism was also found to be related to a higher number of friends (Pettijohn et al., 2012). The results obtained by Pettijohn and colleagues also agree with our findings that specific activities are related to the level of narcissism and self-esteem. Regarding self-esteem, as predicted, there was a negative relation between self-esteem and Facebook personal importance (H2a) and intensity (H2b). Those who have a high self-esteem do not attach great importance to Facebook use. One of the possible explanations lies in the nature of self-esteem. Conversely, for people with a low level of self-esteem Facebook activity is a tool for improving selfimage. Those who have high self-esteem perceive themselves as more talented, more intelligent, and more popular (Baumeister et al., 2003); they are more persistent, experience more positive emotions, and undertake more actions (Baumeister et al., 1996). Consequently, they do not need additional attention on Facebook and they may not attach much weight to using it and to being active or popular there. Generally, this is in line with the study by Steinfield et al. (2008), where those with lower self-esteem achieved greater benefits in terms of bridging capital than those with higher self-esteem (H2c). Self-esteem was also very weakly and positively related to instrumental Facebook use (H2d), but this effect was not significant. This is another argument that for those with high self-esteem Facebook is not a means of self-promotion but rather a tool used at work or for educational purposes. However, there was no confirmation in the study that low self-esteem is connected with Facebook importance and intensity (H2b): the association was not statistically significant. This finding is in accordance with the study by Schwartz (2010), where self-esteem was found to be negatively associated with the frequency of status updates and Facebook intensity. The author suggested that low self-esteem may be a result of frequent status updates and frequent Facebook use. A possible limitation of the study can be the self-report character of the methods that were used. In future research, others methods should be chosen. The cross-sectional character of the study made it impossible to determine causal relationships. In previous research, by contrast, there are findings that show an increase in self-esteem as an effect of Facebook use (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011; Zywica & Danowski, 2008). On the other hand, there is a risk of deflating self-esteem due to inevitable social comparisons while on Facebook, and the body of research focused on that aspect of SNS use has been steadily growing in recent years (Chou & Edge, 2012; Forest & Wood, 2012; Kross et al., 2013). In our study, only a general self-reported measure of Facebook activity was used. More studies with a larger number of personal variables indicated in the literature, such as shyness or extraversion, are also needed for a better understanding of the mechanisms of Facebook use. Future research should focus on exploring the Facebook phenomenon and adding other explained variables to the model. In our study R2 values were low, which might suggest that narcissism and self-esteem are not major contributors to social media use. This was especially visible in the case of social and instrumental Facebook use, which means that personality traits, while related to general and self-focused Facebook use, would not be useful in predicting other types of Facebook use. Another issue was high correlation between Facebook intensity and
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Fig. 1. Path coefficients and R2 values for narcissism and self-esteem as predictors of Facebook use variables (Fb importance, Fb instrumental, Fb social, Fb intensity).
Facebook personal importance, which was higher than the square root of AVE. This might suggest that those constructs cover similar aspects of Facebook use and need further research. Moreover, in future studies, moderators between self-esteem and Facebook use should be included — such as public self-consciousness (Lee et al., 2012), which was a moderator of the associations between self-esteem and the number of Facebook friends. 5. Conclusion Facebook has become a very important tool especially for young people; therefore, knowledge about the psychological mechanism involved in its use seems to be essential for understanding the Facebook phenomenon. As far as we know, our study is the first one conducted on a Polish sample. Its results show that narcissism and self-esteem are traits that can be predictors of Facebook use. This knowledge may be useful for the purposes of prevention and therapy focusing on Facebook use and its determinants. Author disclosure statement No competing financial interests exist.
Acknowledgments This research was supported by a grant from the NCN No. 2014/15/ B/HS6/03129. Dr. Aneta Przepiorka was supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). We thank Prof. Mariola Łaguna for her helpful comments on the manuscript.
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Narcissism and self-esteem as predictors of dimensions of Facebook use Agata Błachnio a,⁎, Aneta Przepiorka a, Patrycja Rudnicka b a b
Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland Institute of Psychology, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 18 April 2015 Received in revised form 5 November 2015 Accepted 12 November 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Facebook usage Narcissism Self-esteem Facebook personal importance Facebook intensity
a b s t r a c t The present paper examines whether narcissism and self-esteem are related to different patterns of Facebook use. The Facebook Motivation and Importance Scale, the Facebook Intensity Scale, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, and the Self-Esteem Scale were used. The participants in the paper-and-pencil study were 653 Polish users of Facebook. We hypothesized that narcissism and self-esteem play a significant role in Facebook use. The results showed that self-esteem and narcissism can be predictors of Facebook personal importance. The study is the first attempt to explore the role of psychological predictors of Facebook use in Poland. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Over the past few years, Facebook has become the number one social networking site (SNS), known mainly as a communication tool, especially among young people (Ellison et al., 2007). In September 2014 an average of 864 million people used Facebook daily (Facebook., 2014). There are two important areas of Facebook research: the motivation behind its use and the personality of users (Błachnio et al., 2013). In several of articles reviewed by Wilson et al. (2012)motivation for using Facebook was a key area of investigation. For instance, Park et al. (2009) indicated four reasons for using Facebook: socializing, entertainment, self-status seeking, and information seeking. Facebook use is connected with creating or maintaining social capital (e.g., Ellison et al., 2007; Johnston et al., 2013). Park and Lee (2014) found that entertainment, relationship maintenance, self-expression, and communication were associated with Facebook intensity, the entertainment motivation being the most influential. Impression management was found to be a significant predictor for Facebook intensity, whereas professional use was not related to it. Facebook intensity was a predictor of the sense of belonging. The dual-factor model of Facebook use proposed by Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012) points to two basic social needs: (1) the need to belong and (2) the need for self-presentation, which can separately or jointly lead to Facebook use. The model links these two needs with other variables, such as narcissism or self-esteem, but, unfortunately, it has not yet been empirically verified (Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012). ⁎ Corresponding author at: Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Błachnio).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.11.018 0191-8869/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The second group of studies pertains to the relationship between Facebook use and users' personality. There have been several studies exploring the relationship between Facebook use and the Big Five personality traits (Seidman, 2013; Hughes et al., 2012), shyness (Ross et al., 2009), depression (Błachnio et al., in press), or loneliness (Ryan & Xenos, 2011). However, studies focusing on both narcissism and self-esteem simultaneously and on the relationship of these variables with Facebook use are scarce (e.g., Marshall et al., 2015; Skues et al., 2012). The present study is meant to yield integrated knowledge on these interrelations. 1.1. Narcissism and Facebook use Narcissism is a personality trait that manifests itself in an infatuation and obsession with oneself and in an aspiration to attain selfgratification, achieve dominance, and satisfy ambition (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998). Since one of the main advantages of Facebook is the possibility of promoting oneself, disclosing private information, presenting oneself in a better light, and creating a positive or even idealistic lifestyle (Błachnio et al., 2013), a narcissistic user may use the available Facebook applications to make others admire him or her (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). This explanation is even more convincing when supported by other results. Previous studies confirmed that people with a high level of narcissism spent more time on Facebook during the day and during one session (Mehdizadeh, 2010) and that they were more socially active in the online community (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). Other studies revealed that the level of narcissism was linked to differences in Facebook use; for example, a high level of narcissism correlated with frequent status updates (Ong et al., 2011), higher self-promotion (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008; Carpenter, 2012; Ryan & Xenos, 2011),
A. Błachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 90 (2016) 296–301
specific photo selection (Kapidzic, 2013), or having a greater number of Facebook friends (Gentile et al., 2012). Some evidence indicates that a high level of narcissism can predict posting selfies on Facebook in the case of male users, but it was not significant in female users (Sorokowski et al., 2015). Even though many studies have supported the hypotheses that Facebook use is linked to narcissism, there have also been studies that did not confirm such effects in the case of the Millennials generation (Bergman et al., 2011) or Australian students (Skues et al., 2012). There is also an ongoing debate about whether Facebook – because of its functions – increases narcissism. The latest results obtained by Horton et al. (2014) suggest that the agentic (selfpromotional) type of user activity facilitates narcissism to a greater degree than communal activity does. As the study by Marshall et al. (2015) showed, Facebook serves narcissists as a place for presenting their accomplishments in order to receive as many likes and comments as possible. Since the results of previous studies suggest that the relationship between narcissism and Facebook usage is complex and ambiguous in various populations, we propose to investigate this relationship further. 1.2. Self-esteem and Facebook use Self-esteem is understood as a global evaluation of oneself. It is a positive or negative attitude towards oneself (Rosenberg, 1989). There is plenty of evidence concerning the relationships of emotional functioning and personality with narcissism (Łaguna et al., 2007). Since people with low self-esteem are shy and reserved and experience high social anxiety (Robins et al., 2001), they may treat Facebook as a comfortable way to overcome these problems and stay connected. It is likely that Facebook gives users with low self-esteem the opportunity to disclose private information about themselves and to express themselves better than in the real world. Moreover, a high level of social anxiety may be related to the sense of loneliness, which also predicts the disclosure of private information on Facebook (Błachnio et al., in press). We wanted to examine how self-esteem is related to different aspect of Facebook use: Facebook importance, Facebook intensity, instrumental Facebook use, and social Facebook use, and whether there are any differences between users with low vs high self-esteem. Previous studies provided evidence of the beneficial impact of Facebook use through both social compensation and social enhancement mechanisms. Greater control over one's personal image and the potential that social media have for positive computer-mediated interaction leads to a greater number of friends and more time spent on Facebook by those who have lower self-esteem (Barker, 2009; Ellison et al., 2007; Jenkins-Guarnieri et al., 2012; Manago et al., 2012; Mehdizadeh, 2010; Wilson et al., 2010; Valkenburg et al., 2006). The intense Facebook use may imply that for users with low self-esteem Facebook is of great importance. Thanks to Facebook those users may build their social capital and receive social support. This reasoning would be in line with the suggestion made by Schwartz (2010)that there is a negative relationship between the frequency of Facebook use, the meaning attributed to Facebook use, and self-esteem. In his the longitudinal study, self-esteem was a moderator of the relationship between Facebook usage intensity and bridging social capital. It means that for people with a low level of self-esteem Facebook use is more profitable as a means of bridging social capital than it is for those with a higher level of self-esteem. (Steinfield et al., 2008). The study by Kalpidou et al. (2011) showed a negative association between self-esteem and time spent on Facebook. The authors concluded that Facebook played a beneficial role in the case of users with low self-esteem. Also, Lee et al. (2012) confirmed the mechanism of social compensatory friending in the form of having a large number of Facebook friends among people with a low level of self-esteem. More light was shed on this research topic by Zywica and Danowski (2008), whose study supported the Social Enhancement (“Rich Get Richer”) and Social Compensation (“Poor Get Richer”) hypotheses. Facebook can play a compensative role for those who have low self-esteem.
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Facebook users who were high on extraversion and self-esteem derived some benefits from using Facebook: they were popular both in the real world and on Facebook, whereas more introverted Facebook users, with low self-esteem, benefited from using that site as well, for instance by receiving a great deal of social support. In order to better explain Facebook use, it is necessary to integrate personality characteristics and motivation in one model. This was done, for instance, in the study by Senol-Durak and Durak (2011), who explored the relationship between individual variables such as self-esteem or affectivity and problematic Internet use cognitions. Based on a bulk of research stressing the strong bonds between personality and Facebook use, in our model we present the associations between users' personality and Facebook use dimensions. The present study has a manifold purpose. Firstly, it is an attempt to add to the body of research an in-depth analysis of motivation for using Facebook in relation to personality traits. Secondly, it refines the existing research on the influence of narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook use, which sometimes yielded ambiguous results (Yu et al., 2010). Moreover, although there has been an increase in the number of studies focused on the relationship of narcissism and self-esteem with Facebook use, a majority of them were conducted in the USA, Asia, or Australia. Considering the cultural and sociodemographic differences in Facebook use indicated in several studies (e.g., Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012), it is worth examining the above relationships in Central Europe, where Facebook use has not been explored yet. In our study, we included four dependent variables related to Facebook use: Facebook importance, Facebook instrumental use, social Facebook use, and Facebook intensity. This seems to be a novel approach and makes it possible to analyze this phenomenon broadly. Facebook importance reflects the attitude towards Facebook, the role it plays in a person's life, and the meaning the person attributes to using it. Social Facebook use emphasizes the role of being connected and socializing with others. Instrumental Facebook use refers to the standard use of Facebook and its applications in everyday life. Facebook intensity comprises the time spent on Facebook and the number of Facebook friends as well as emotional connectedness. On the basis of the literature review, we put forward the following hypotheses: H1: Narcissism is positively related to Facebook personal importance (1a), instrumental Facebook use (1b), social Facebook use (1c), and Facebook intensity (1d). H2: Self-esteem is negatively related to Facebook personal importance (2a), to Facebook intensity (2b), and to social Facebook use (2c), and positively to instrumental Facebook use (2d). 2. Method 2.1. Participants and procedure The participants were a sample of 653 adults; 73% of them were women. The mean age was 21.63 years (SD = 2.62), with the age ranging from 18 to 39. Participants were recruited at several universities in Poland and volunteered to take part in the study without any monetary reward. They were recruited individually using the snowball procedure. They were informed about the purpose of the study and assured of the anonymity of the research. All participants reported that they had a profile on Facebook. They completed a paper-and-pencil survey. 2.1.1. Measures The Facebook Motivation and Importance Scale, developed for the purpose of the study, consists of 21 items rated on a 7-point Likert scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree): 13 items concerning Facebook personal importance were developed for the study – eight items, focusing on motivation to use Facebook, were generated on the basis of the list of Facebook use motives presented by Hew (2011) and by Brandtzæg and Heim (2009). The principal component factor analysis
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with oblimin rotation for 653 participants yielded three factors, labeled Facebook personal importance (α = .90; e.g., “I want to express and present myself”), instrumental Facebook use (α = .74; e.g. “I use Facebook for study-related purposes”) and social Facebook use (α = .72; e.g., “I want to meet new people using Facebook”). The three factors explained 56.35% of the variance in Facebook motivation (37.51%, 10.38%, and 8.46% respectively). An inspection of the scree plot reveals that each succeeding factor accounts for a decreasing amount of GE. 2.1.1.1. Facebook Intensity Scale. (FBI; Ellison et al., 2007) was used to measure how Facebook is used and integrated into daily activities and to assess the degree of emotional involvement in Facebook. This scale consists of eight items, two of them measuring the number of Facebook friends and the amount of time spent on Facebook on a typical day, and the remaining six items employing a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Mean total score is calculated with prior log transformation. A representative FBI statement is: “Facebook is part of my everyday activity.” Cronbach's alpha for the Polish version of the scale was .83. 2.1.1.2. Narcissism. The Polish adaptation of Raskin and Hall's Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Bazińska & Drat-Ruszczak, 2000) was employed to measure narcissism. The scale consists of 34 items; each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (not me) to 5 (me). In our sample, the value of Cronbach's alpha for NPI was .93. 2.1.1.3. Self-esteem. The Polish adaptation of Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (SES; Łaguna et al., 2007) was used to measure the participants' explicit self-esteem. The scale consists of 10 items; respondents assess their level of agreement with the scale's statements related to overall feelings of self-worth using a 4-point scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree). In our sample, the value of Cronbach's alpha for SES was .83. 3. Results To test the model that examined predictors of Facebook use, we conducted the PLS-SEM procedure using SmartPLS (Ringle et al., 2015). The rationale for using the PLS-SEM approach was an intention to further explore the relations between personality factors and different aspects of Facebook use. Narcissism and self-esteem were introduced into the
model as second-order latent variables, in accordance with NPI and SES factor structure. Both latent personality variables were predictors of latent Facebook variables: Fb personal importance, Fb instrumental use, Fb social use, and Fb intensity, whose indicators were the items of scale. The first part of the analysis focused on the evaluation of the measurement model. To assess the reliability and validity of the model, we followed the guidelines provided by Gefen et al. (2011). The indicator variables with corresponding factor loadings are presented in Table 2. Although values above .70 are preferred, it should be mentioned that values above .40 are considered satisfactory in explanatory studies (Przepiórka et al., 2015, p. 402). Table 2 also presents composite reliability (CR) for the set of items constituting each latent variable. All CR values were above the .80–.90 threshold. Finally, convergent and discriminant validity were assessed. AVE values for all endogenous latent variables were above the .50 threshold — apart from Fb intensity, which was slightly below the threshold (.46). Discriminant validity was tested using Fornell and Larcker's (1981) procedure of checking whether the square root of ACE is higher than the correlations among latent variables. The results are presented in Table 3. The collinearity statistics of VIF were also below the acceptable threshold of 10.0. See Table 1. Structural model assessment included the review of path values and their significance as well as R2 values. Path significance was tested using the bootstrapping procedure for 5000 samples. The results of the analysis confirmed that the influence of narcissism and self-esteem on Fb use was different. Fig. 1 presents path coefficients and R2 values for the model. Fb personal importance, Fb instrumental use, Fb social use, and Fb intensity were positively and significantly related to narcissism. The highest path coefficients were observed for Fb personal importance (β = .41, p b .001) and Fb intensity (β = .33, p b .001), followed by Fb social use (β = .21, p b .001) and Fb instrumental use (β = .12, p b .05). Negative and significant paths were confirmed for the relations of self-esteem with Fb personal importance (β = −.26, p b .001) and Fb intensity (β = −.17, p b .001). On the other hand, in accordance with the hypothesized positive relation, the paths to Fb instrumental use were not significant (β = .07, ns). The path coefficient for Fb social use was also very low and not significant (β = −.01, ns). R2 values describe the degree of explained variance in endogenous latent variables. In our study, those values are low for Fb personal importance (R2 = .14) and very low for other variables: Fb intensity (R2 = .09), Fb social use (R2 = .04), and Fb instrumental use (R2 = .03).
Table 1 Items and their loadings on the Facebook motivation and importance scale. Items
Facebook personal importance
Instrumental Facebook use
Social Facebook use
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
.19 .21 .39 .57 .49 .01 .16 .08 .72 .63 .76 .79 .78 .68 .71 .83 .76 .61 .62 .67 .69
.13 .05 .15 .11 .23 .83 .81 .77 .15 .18 .05 −.04 .06 .16 .09 .05 .22 .14 .25 .12 .02
−.74 −.74 −.79 −.67 −.71 −.01 −.12 −.20 −.41 −.23 −.30 −.17 −.21 −.37 −.28 −.22 −.34 −.52 −.50 −.37 −.25
I want to maintain current relationships I want to meet new people using Facebook I believe that the use of Facebook is timely/in fashion It's just a form of leisure I want to express and present myself Facebook serves scientific and educational purposes for me Facebook helps me to manage everyday tasks I use Facebook for study-related purposes I cannot imagine living without Facebook I am constantly logged into Facebook I cannot wait to share photos or life events on Facebook A day without Facebook is a day wasted If something is not on Facebook, it does not exist Hanging out on Facebook is the best way to relax I noticed that if a friend does not have a Facebook account my relationship with him/her loosens up It scares me to think that Facebook would cease to exist Facebook plays an important role in my life Facebook is the best way to establish or maintain relationships I promote myself through Facebook I post about current events in my life I start my day by checking out Facebook
The loadings higher than .40 were written in bold.
A. Błachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 90 (2016) 296–301 Table 2 Results of measurement model evaluation. Latent variable loadings
AVE
CR
Alpha
.934 .873
.93 .84
.63
.838
.72
.65
.850
.74
.46
.870
.83
.52
.917
.90
Exogenous latent variables Narcissism Self-esteem Endogenous latent variables Social Facebook use Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Instrumental Facebook use Item 6 Item 7 Item 8 Facebook intensity FBI 1 FBI 2 FBI 3 FBI 4 FBI 5 FBI 6 FBI 7 FBI 8 Facebook personal importance Item 9 Item 10 Item 11 Item 12 Item 13 Item 14 Item 15 Item 17 Item 20 Item 21
.812⁎⁎⁎ .739⁎⁎⁎ .834⁎⁎⁎ .872⁎⁎⁎ .838⁎⁎⁎ .710⁎⁎⁎ .589⁎⁎⁎ .366⁎⁎⁎ .727⁎⁎⁎ .638⁎⁎⁎ .770⁎⁎⁎ .763⁎⁎⁎ .757⁎⁎⁎ .747⁎⁎⁎ .717⁎⁎⁎ .655⁎⁎⁎ .786⁎⁎⁎ .769⁎⁎⁎ .766⁎⁎⁎ .676⁎⁎⁎ .704⁎⁎⁎ .743⁎⁎⁎ .706⁎⁎⁎ .712⁎⁎⁎
Note. N = 653. ⁎ p b .05. ⁎⁎ p b .01. ⁎⁎⁎ p b .001.
4. Discussion In the study, associations among Facebook use, personality characteristics such as narcissism and self-esteem, and Facebook use were examined. We investigated whether narcissism and self-esteem are related to different motivations to use Facebook use and can predict Facebook use. The proposed model suggests that a low level of self-esteem and a high level of narcissism can serve as predictors of a high level of Facebook use. Our results indicate that narcissism and self-esteem can predict Facebook use, but not always. As hypothesized (H1a–d), narcissism was found to be a significant positive predictor of different aspects of Facebook use, namely: Facebook
Table 3 Descriptive statistics for constructs and latent variable intercorrelations (N = 653).
Facebook use 1. Facebook personal importance 2. Instrumental Facebook use 3. Social Facebook use 4. Facebook intensity Personality variables 5. Narcissism 6. Self-esteem
M
SD
1.
2.
3.
2.44
1.20
.72
5.03
1.32
.10⁎
.81
4.46 .01
1.41 .67
.36⁎⁎ .76⁎⁎
.11⁎⁎ .12⁎⁎
.80 .40⁎⁎
.68
3.09 2.98
.60 .50
.29⁎⁎⁎ −.08⁎
.15⁎⁎ .13⁎⁎
.20⁎⁎ .08⁎
.25⁎⁎ −.03
Note. Diagonal represents square roots of AVE for each construct. ⁎ p b .05. ⁎⁎ p b .01. ⁎⁎⁎ p b .001.
4.
5.
6.
.55 .44⁎⁎
.42
299
personal importance, instrumental Facebook use, social Facebook use, and Facebook intensity. These results can be seen as showing that people with a high level of narcissism are more absorbed in Facebook, live and breathe Facebook, and cannot imagine life without it. Consequently, they spend plenty of time using that site. For people with a high level of narcissism, using Facebook provides a way to stand out and enjoy a higher social status. Our results showed that there is a relationship between narcissism and Facebook usage patterns. According to our results, narcissism is a predictor of greater Facebook-related activity as well as higher intensity of Facebook use and its overall importance. Narcissistic users more often used Facebook for both social and instrumental purposes. These results are in line with other findings, where higher narcissism and lower selfesteem were related to greater online activity (Mehdizadeh, 2010). Moreover, high narcissism is linked with Facebook self-promotion. This is consistent with other studies, where narcissism was also found to be related to a higher number of friends (Pettijohn et al., 2012). The results obtained by Pettijohn and colleagues also agree with our findings that specific activities are related to the level of narcissism and self-esteem. Regarding self-esteem, as predicted, there was a negative relation between self-esteem and Facebook personal importance (H2a) and intensity (H2b). Those who have a high self-esteem do not attach great importance to Facebook use. One of the possible explanations lies in the nature of self-esteem. Conversely, for people with a low level of self-esteem Facebook activity is a tool for improving selfimage. Those who have high self-esteem perceive themselves as more talented, more intelligent, and more popular (Baumeister et al., 2003); they are more persistent, experience more positive emotions, and undertake more actions (Baumeister et al., 1996). Consequently, they do not need additional attention on Facebook and they may not attach much weight to using it and to being active or popular there. Generally, this is in line with the study by Steinfield et al. (2008), where those with lower self-esteem achieved greater benefits in terms of bridging capital than those with higher self-esteem (H2c). Self-esteem was also very weakly and positively related to instrumental Facebook use (H2d), but this effect was not significant. This is another argument that for those with high self-esteem Facebook is not a means of self-promotion but rather a tool used at work or for educational purposes. However, there was no confirmation in the study that low self-esteem is connected with Facebook importance and intensity (H2b): the association was not statistically significant. This finding is in accordance with the study by Schwartz (2010), where self-esteem was found to be negatively associated with the frequency of status updates and Facebook intensity. The author suggested that low self-esteem may be a result of frequent status updates and frequent Facebook use. A possible limitation of the study can be the self-report character of the methods that were used. In future research, others methods should be chosen. The cross-sectional character of the study made it impossible to determine causal relationships. In previous research, by contrast, there are findings that show an increase in self-esteem as an effect of Facebook use (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011; Zywica & Danowski, 2008). On the other hand, there is a risk of deflating self-esteem due to inevitable social comparisons while on Facebook, and the body of research focused on that aspect of SNS use has been steadily growing in recent years (Chou & Edge, 2012; Forest & Wood, 2012; Kross et al., 2013). In our study, only a general self-reported measure of Facebook activity was used. More studies with a larger number of personal variables indicated in the literature, such as shyness or extraversion, are also needed for a better understanding of the mechanisms of Facebook use. Future research should focus on exploring the Facebook phenomenon and adding other explained variables to the model. In our study R2 values were low, which might suggest that narcissism and self-esteem are not major contributors to social media use. This was especially visible in the case of social and instrumental Facebook use, which means that personality traits, while related to general and self-focused Facebook use, would not be useful in predicting other types of Facebook use. Another issue was high correlation between Facebook intensity and
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Fig. 1. Path coefficients and R2 values for narcissism and self-esteem as predictors of Facebook use variables (Fb importance, Fb instrumental, Fb social, Fb intensity).
Facebook personal importance, which was higher than the square root of AVE. This might suggest that those constructs cover similar aspects of Facebook use and need further research. Moreover, in future studies, moderators between self-esteem and Facebook use should be included — such as public self-consciousness (Lee et al., 2012), which was a moderator of the associations between self-esteem and the number of Facebook friends. 5. Conclusion Facebook has become a very important tool especially for young people; therefore, knowledge about the psychological mechanism involved in its use seems to be essential for understanding the Facebook phenomenon. As far as we know, our study is the first one conducted on a Polish sample. Its results show that narcissism and self-esteem are traits that can be predictors of Facebook use. This knowledge may be useful for the purposes of prevention and therapy focusing on Facebook use and its determinants. Author disclosure statement No competing financial interests exist.
Acknowledgments This research was supported by a grant from the NCN No. 2014/15/ B/HS6/03129. Dr. Aneta Przepiorka was supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). We thank Prof. Mariola Łaguna for her helpful comments on the manuscript.
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