自戀狂自卑者更愛上社交網站
Using Facebook is the online equivalent of staring at yourself in the mirror, according to a study.
Those who spent more time updating their profile on the social networking site were more likely to be narcissists, said researchers.
Facebook provides an ideal setting for narcissists to monitor their appearance and how many ‘friends’ they have, the study said, as it allows them to thrive on ‘shallow’ relationships while avoiding genuine warmth and empathy.
They also tend to use the site for promoting themselves to friends or people they would like to meet, the study concluded.
Researcher Soraya Mehdizadeh from York University in Canada asked 100 students, 50 male and 50 female, aged between 18 and 25 about their Facebook habits.
They all took psychology tests to measure their levels of narcissism, which the study defined as ‘a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and an exaggerated sense of self-importance’.
Those who scored higher on the narcissism test checked their Facebook pages more often each day than those who did not.
There was also a difference between men and women – men generally promoted themselves by written posts on their Facebook page while women tended to carefully select the pictures in their profile.
The findings, published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour And Social Networking, also suggested that those with low self-esteem also checked their Facebook pages more regularly than normal.
This may not be altogether surprising as it is widely thought, however contradictory it may appear, that narcissism is linked to a deep-rooted lack of self-esteem.
Miss Mehdizadeh admitted that not everyone would appreciate her findings.
She said: ‘I think people get sort of defensive about it – like, “I don’t use my Facebook for that reason” – because it’s a label that you don’t want to be slapped with.’
Facebook has more than 500 million users worldwide and is the world’s biggest social networking website, but it has been involved in a number of controversies.
最新研究表明，使用Facebook社交網站就如同在鏡前自我欣賞。
研究人員稱，花費較多時間更新社交網站個人資料的人更有可能是自戀狂。
研究顯示，Facebook允許網友大力發展“淺層”交情，不必付出真情實感，因而成爲衆多自戀狂關注自身形象和“好友”數量的理想之地。
研究結論稱，人們還傾向於利用社交網站把自己引薦給朋友或想要結識的人。
加拿大約克大學的研究員索拉雅•麥蒂扎德對100名年齡在18至25歲之間的學生使用Facebook的習慣進行了調查，男女人數各半。
受訪者都參加了衡量自戀程度的心理測試。該研究把自戀定義爲“自大、尋求仰慕、並具有強烈自負意識的普遍心理類型。”
自戀測試得分較高的人每天查看Facebook個人主頁的頻率更高。
男性與女性之間也有差別：男性常通過在Facebook個人主頁上發表新帖來展示自己，而女性傾向於細心挑選個人資料照片。
研究結果還表明，自卑者登錄Facebook的頻率也比其他人要高。該研究結果發表在《網絡心理學、行爲和社交網絡》期刊上。
這些發現也許並不會讓人吃驚，因爲人們普遍認爲自戀與根植於內心的自卑有關，儘管這看起來很矛盾。
麥蒂扎德小姐承認並非所有人都贊同她的結論。
她說：“我想人們對此都有些牴觸，因爲誰都不想被貼上這樣的標籤。有人會說，‘我不是因爲這個才上Facebook的’。”
全球最大的社交網站Facebook在世界各地擁有5億多用戶，但也引發了諸多爭議。
Vocabulary:
narcissist: inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity（自我陶醉者，自戀者）
grandiosity: having an exaggerated belief in one's importance（自大）
