The relationship between types of narcissism and motivations for posting self-photography on instagram

Abstract

Self-photography is defined as a photo with only oneself that is taken by oneself or other people. This study aims to examine the relationship between grandiose narcissism types (i.e., Leadership/Authority, Grandiose/Exhibitionism, Entitlement/Exploitativeness) and motivations in predicting self-photography posting on Instagram. We hypothesized that individuals with narcissism would post self-photography with the motives to seek attention and to communicate with others. A total of 180 participants completed a questionnaire assessing grandiose narcissism and motivations for posting self-photography. A hierarchical regression was used to analyze data. The results revealed that only grandiose narcissism and its subtype, Grandiose/Exhibitionism, were associated with attention seeking motivation for posting self-photography. Other than this association, there was no other relationships between narcissism types and types of motivations. Results suggest that individuals with high grandiose narcissism and high grandiose exhibitionism narcissism are more likely to post self-photography to seek attention. The relationship between communal narcissism and motivations was also analyzed as additional analysis.