They’re so vain — and this new study is definitely about them.
Looking to weed out the narcissists in your life? Researchers say there’s one, hard-to-hide habit the unpalatable personality type finds impossible to break.
The way they engage with their smartphones can tell you everything you need to know, new findings reveal — those with narcissistic tendencies are significantly more likely to exhibit problematic patterns of scrolling, posting, and liking social media posts.
The data, published in the Journal of Research in Personality, shows that a person’s social media behavior could be an indicator that someone is a bit too into themselves.
Social media addiction goes beyond heavy usage. It includes behaviors like compulsively checking for updates, being unable to cut back despite negative consequences, and relying on online interactions for emotional satisfaction.
These behaviors can lead to problems in real life — including sleep problems, reduced face-to-face interaction, and poor job or academic performance.
The team worked to explore not just whether narcissism and addiction are linked, but how they might influence each other over time.
To begin, they identified six forms of narcissism: admiration, rivalry, enmity, isolation, heroism, and sanctity.
The study sample was comprised of 339 adults aged 19 to 41, living in Poland. They all completed multiple assessments, answered questions about their social media use, and filled out established measures of narcissism and social networking addiction focused on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
The results showed that individuals who scored high in nearly every form of narcissism — except sanctity— also reported higher levels of social media addiction.
However, the dynamic between the two varied depending on the type of narcissism.
Those with heroism, admiration, and rivalry had what researchers called a “reciprocal” relationship with addiction.
When one went up, the other tended to go down over time, suggesting a push-pull dynamic where users may alternate between bursts of ego-driven behavior and periods of compulsive social media use. This hints at an internal struggle between seeking admiration and dealing with the consequences of addiction.
In contrast, enmity (a hostile, antagonistic form of narcissism) and isolation (withdrawn and cold) tracked in sync with social media addiction. When usage spiked, so did these darker narcissistic traits — and vice versa.
That suggests these traits may actually worsen the addiction or feed off it in a continuous loop.
So, what does this mean for the average user?
If someone is constantly glued to their phone, obsessing over likes and followers, they might not just be addicted to their feed — they could also be revealing something about their personality.
And if their behavior seems driven by a need for admiration or marked by antagonism, you might be looking at a narcissistic pattern.
Of course, the researchers caution that their study was based entirely on self-report data, which means some findings could be influenced by how honestly participants assessed their own behaviors and traits.
Still, the study opens a fascinating window into how our online habits mirror our inner worlds.
So next time you find yourself — or someone else — unable to stop refreshing that Instagram feed, it might be worth asking: Is this just a bad habit — or a sign of something worse?
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