自恋作为一种人格特质,以膨胀的自我概念、寻求他人持续的关注和肯定为主要特征,而社交网站鼓励多种形式的自我提升行为,深受自恋者的喜欢。在考察社交网站上的一般性使用行为、不同类型社交平台上、不同性质的使用行为以及具体的使用行为时,均发现了自恋的显著预测作用(自我选择效应);不同形式的社交网站使用行为也会强化个体的自恋水平(媒体效应)。自恋和社交网站使用之间相互作用、相互强化(强化螺旋模型)。两者的关系还受性别、年龄和代际差异以及文化等因素的影响。未来研究还需进一步探讨自恋和社交网站使用行为的界定及测量、两者的作用方向以及研究方法的改进等问题。
Narcissism is continuous attention and a personality trait characterized by inflated self-concept and desire for others' admiration. Narcissists are fond of social networking sites (SNSs) because SNSs encourage different types of self-promoting behaviors. Previous studies have found that narcissism could significantly predict SNSs use behaviors (i.e. the self-selection effect), including overall use of SNSs, use behaviors on different social networking platforms, different types of use behaviors (active usage vs. passive usage), and specific forms of use behaviors (selfies, status update, social feedback, and privacy control). SNSs use behaviors could also promote individuals' narcissism (i.e. the media effect). Therefore, narcissism and SNSs use may interact and mutually reinforce each other (i.e. the reinforcing spirals model). In addition, the association between narcissism and SNSs use behaviors can be affected by gender, age and generation gap as well as culture. Future studies should further address the issues like the definition and measurement of narcissism and SNSs use. The direction of the two interacting constructs and research methods in this area should also be explored and improved by future research.