Personality and Individual Differences 97 (2016) 98–101

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Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Short Communication

“Selfie-ists” or “Narci-selfiers”?: A cross-lagged panel analysis of selfie

taking and narcissism
Daniel Halpern a,⁎, Sebastián Valenzuela a, James E. Katz b
a
School of Communications, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Alameda 340, Santiago, RM 08901-1071, Chile
b
Division of Emerging Media Studies, College of Communication, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: We examine the widely popular social phenomenon of “selfies” (self-portraits uploaded and shared in social
Received 11 December 2015 media) in terms of the observed positive relationship between this individualistic form of social media usage
Received in revised form 8 March 2016 and narcissism. We conducted a cross-lagged analysis of a two-wave, representative panel survey to understand
Accepted 9 March 2016
whether narcissists take selfies as an outlet for maintaining their positive self-views (the self-selection hypoth-
Available online 22 March 2016
esis), or if by taking selfies' users would increase their level of narcissism (the media effect hypothesis). The find-
Keywords:
ings, however, are consistent with both hypotheses, suggesting a self-reinforcement effect: whereas narcissist
Selfie individuals take selfies more frequently over time, this increase in selfie production raises subsequent levels of
Narcissism, narcissism.
Social Media © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Self-reinforcement effect
Cross-lagged analysis

1. Introduction
Found in many people to a degree, narcissism traits include grandi-
osity, dominance and superiority (Paulhus & Williams, 2002). Narcis-
sists often believe that they are special and superior to others, yet
respond to self-esteem threats with rage, defiance, and humiliation
(Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001). They present a success-oriented personality
and expect to be treated accordingly while giving little back (Bergman,
Fearrington, Davenport, & Bergman, 2011). Narcissists may not seek
long-term relationships preferring to use relationships to augment
their popularity and satisfy short-term status needs (Campbell, 1999).
Relevant for our research is the fact that they generally need social con-
tacts in order to obtain the attention they require for building their self-
esteem (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). This leads them to maintain several
exhibitionist strategies (Bergman et al., 2011). Narcissists also tend to
use their interpersonal relationships to make themselves appear social-
ly desirable and to seek out external sources of admiration to maintain
their self-esteem (Brown & Zeigler-Hill, 2004).
2. Narcissism and social media
Social network sites (SNSs) offer several affordances that could ap-
peal narcissists. First, narcissists tend to develop less intimacy as op-
posed to emotionally committed-relationships (Bergman et al., 2011),
and SNSs are places where social relationships with weak ties are
⁎ Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: dmhalper@uc.cl (D. Halpern), savalenz@uc.cl (S. Valenzuela).
cultivated (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). Thus, these platforms
have become fertile ground for narcissists to form “weak tie” connec-
tions that do not require emotional investments (Bergman et al.,
2011), but also satisfy their need to get the attention of more people
(Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001). Second, because the quantity of social
media contacts are counted and displayed, these platforms are plausible
indicators of popularity (Sundar, 2008). Consequently, narcissists can
maintain their inflated self-views by gaining higher numbers of SNS
friends, which affirms their grandiosity and ensures a large online audi-
ence for their posts (Bergman et al., 2011). In fact, research has shown a
positive relationship between the number of contacts, activity in SNS
and levels of narcissism (Carpenter, 2012). Third, SNSs present several
advantages for strategic self-presentation where users can promote
themselves in highly tailored fashion via self-descriptions and satisfy
their vanity via photos. Ong et al. (2011) found among 275 adolescents
that narcissistic individuals rated their Facebook profile pictures as
more fashionable and cool, suggesting that they select profile photos
that are self-perceived as more physically appealing. This is consistent
with strategies adopted by narcissists in affirming their positive illu-
sions of their physical appearance (Morf & Rhodewalt, 2001).
An argument then can be that narcissism is positively related to SNS
use. However, relatively little research has focused on the causality as-
pect: most of the studies have assumed that this personality trait is a
predictor for SNS use. Nevertheless, a positive relationship between nar-
cissism and SNS could be explained by two quite different perspectives:
(1) Narcissists utilize more social media (the self-selection hypothesis),
or (2) Use of SNSs produces higher levels of narcissism (the media effect
hypothesis). Whereas both views predict a positive association between

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.019
0191-8869/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 D. Halpern et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 97 (2016) 98–101
SNS use and narcissism, the mechanisms of their production are differ-
ent. In the first case, use of social media would be perceived as a conse-
quence of narcissism. In the second case, a specific SNS use would be
capable of augmenting the same personality trait. In fact, research has
shown that SNS exposure has differential effects on individuals, such
as elevating users' self-disclosure (Trepte & Reinecke, 2013), affecting
their levels of bridging social capital (Burke, Kraut, & Marlow, 2011),
and variously empowering users via acquiring the role of helpers
(Barak, Boniel-Nissim, & Suler, 2008). It is plausible, too, that these
two types of effects co-exist, reinforcing each other in positive feedback
fashion.
Thus, narcissistic users would use SNSs more, and by using SNSs
more, they become more narcissistic over time. Thus, as communication
researchers, it is worth examining how specific uses of SNS, such as
selfies, are related to narcissism.
2.1. Selfie-ssism or narci-selfiers?
Popular in social media use, “selfies” (self-portraits uploaded and
shared in social media) are being used transversally across SNS plat-
forms, and hence provide a gateway to investigate this topic. Selfies
allow users' novel opportunities to customize their self-presentation
by giving picture-takers different ways to portray themselves. Interest-
ingly, recent research has shown that this individualistic form of SNS
usage is highly related to narcissism. Fox and Rooney (2015) found in
an online survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. men
aged 18–40 that their overall narcissism scores, measured using four
items of the Narcissism Personality Inventory (NPI), positively predict
the number of selfies they posted in the week before they were polled.
Likewise, Sorokowski et al. (2015) ran two studies with a pooled sample
of 1296 Poles aged 14–47 years, and concluded that whereas women
posted more selfies than men in the week before they took the survey,
the relationship between this behavior and narcissism, based on an
adapted NPI, was stronger among men than women.
Overall, these studies provide evidence for a strong relationship be-
tween narcissism and selfie production. Nevertheless, they do not ad-
dress the causality quandary, leaving open question of whether the
selfies-narcissism relationship is explained by selectivity, by media ef-
fects, or by both. Thus, we posit the following hypotheses:
H1: Higher levels of narcissism will predict increasing frequency of
taking selfies for sharing.
H2: Higher frequency of taking selfies for sharing will predict in-
creasing levels of narcissism.
3. Method
To examine the hypotheses, a two-wave panel survey was conduct-
ed one year apart. To assure a more accurate representation, a national
panel was employed following the Chilean National Socioeconomic
Characterization Survey (CASEN). For this purpose, three variables
were considered: gender (male: 48.7%; female: 51.3%); age (18–34:
55%; 35–44: 20%; 45–64: 22%; 65+: 3%) and geography. The selected
panel members received the survey's URL through an e-mail invitation.
8840 participants received the first email, and 1225 responded the
questionnaire. A year after, we randomly selected 500 participants to
complete a follow-up survey. 314 participants completed both ques-
tionnaires, for a retention rate between waves of 62.8%.
3.1. Measures
3.1.1. Narcissism
To avoid respondent exhaustion, we focused on four dimensions of
narcissism from the NPI that seemed closely related to the selfie phe-
nomenon. Thus, narcissism was assessed using 10 items with state-
ments responding to the authority/superiority dimension (e.g., “I am
more capable than other people”), exhibitionism (e.g., “I like to be the
99
center of the attention”), exploitativeness (e.g., “I will never be satisfied
until I get all that I deserve”) and vanity (e.g., “I like to look at myself in
the mirror”). For each item, respondents used a 5-point Likert scale from
strongly disagree to strongly agree. Responses were summed and aver-
aged (wave 1: M = 2.75, SD = 0.55, Cronbach's α = 0.77; wave 2:
M = 2.84, SD = 0.57, Cronbach's α = 0.74). A paired t-test showed a
significant increase in the average of narcissism levels between waves,
t(276) = 3.27, p b 0.001.
3.1.2. Selfies
Respondents were asked how often in the past year they had taken a
picture of themselves for sharing, using a 7-point scale, from never to
every day (wave 1: M = 2.58, SD = 1.24; wave 2: M = 2.97, SD =
1.43). As was the case with narcissism, selfie taking increased signifi-
cantly over time, t(301) = 5.63, p b 0.001.
Control variables. A host of control variables were measured, all in
wave 1 (with one exception, explained below). Given that extroversion
and openness to new experiences have been important personality pre-
dictors of SNS usage (Correa, Hinsley, & De Zuniga, 2010), we asked par-
ticipants to respond from 1 to 10, how much extroverted (M = 6.04,
SD = 2.14) and how much open to experience new situations they
were (M = 6.98, SD = 2.15). We also controlled for age (M = 31.3,
SD = 11.3) and gender (65% female). Due to changes between waves,
frequency of use of seven online media that support sharing selfies (in-
cluding Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp) was
measured in both waves on a 7-point scale, from never to all the time
(wave 1: M = 3.20, SD = 0.80, Cronbach's α = 0.66; wave 2: M =
2.93, SD = 0.71, Cronbach's α = 0.66; t(278) = −6.54, p b 0.001).
3.1.3. Statistical analysis
To analyze over-time relationships between selfie behavior and nar-
cissism, we estimated a cross-lagged panel model (Kessler & Greenberg,
1981), in which both synchronous and asynchronous associations be-
tween the key variables were calculated using structural equation
modeling. The key advantage of this design over other common panel
data models is that it takes into account both inertial effects and possible
reciprocal effects. Hence, it is well suited for testing for selective, causal
and/or reinforcing effects. Because 7% of the sample had missing values
in the variables of interest, full information maximum likelihood esti-
mation was used (Holbert & Stephenson, 2002) on the rather small
sample size (N = 303). Considering the fact that we were predicting di-
rectionality in the hypotheses, the α level of statistical significance was
set at p b 0.10. To facilitate interpretation, all results employ standard-
ized (z-score) coefficients. The model was estimated using Stata 14.1.
4. Results
Table 1 shows the zero-order, bivariate correlations between all var-
iables that were subsequently included in the cross-lagged model. The
results of this preliminary analysis show that the correlations between
frequency of taking selfies and narcissism levels at time 1, time 2 and
across times 1 and 2 are all positive and statistically significant. Howev-
er, these results may be spurious, as they do not control for inertial ef-
fects and other individual-level differences, such as age, gender,
personality traits and general online and social media use.
Thus, we estimated the cross-lagged structural model depicted in
Fig. 1 using structural equation modeling. This model included the key
variables as well as the five control variables (not shown for presenta-
tional clarity). As revealed, there was strong evidence of a positive rein-
forcement between selfie behavior and narcissism. On the one hand,
after controlling inertial effects and contemporaneous relationships,
the cross-lagged effect of narcissism at time 1 on selfie behavior at
time 2 was positive and significant (standardized β = .10 [90% confi-
dence interval = .03, .18], p b 0.05). On the other hand, the significant
effect from frequency of selfie taking at time 1 on narcissism levels at
time 2 was also positive and significant (standardized β = .07 [90%
100 D. Halpern et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 97 (2016) 98–101

Table 1
Zero-order correlations across variables.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

1. Narcissism time 1 1.00

2. Narcissism time 2 .62⁎⁎⁎ 1.00
3. Selfie-taking time 1 .12⁎⁎ .10⁎ 1.00
4. Selfie-taking time 2 .19⁎⁎⁎ .23⁎⁎⁎ .59⁎⁎⁎ 1.00
5. Age −.07 −.01 −.31⁎⁎⁎ −.33⁎⁎⁎ 1.00
6. Female −.22⁎⁎⁎ −.23⁎⁎⁎ .21⁎⁎⁎ .17⁎⁎⁎ −.24⁎⁎⁎ 1.00
7. Online media time 1 .16⁎⁎⁎ .05 .33⁎⁎⁎ .24⁎⁎⁎ −.19⁎⁎⁎ .08 1.00
8. Online media time 2 .13⁎⁎ .12⁎⁎ .34⁎⁎⁎ .36⁎⁎⁎ −.17⁎⁎⁎ .15⁎⁎ .58⁎⁎⁎ 1.00
9. Extroversion .16⁎⁎⁎ .21⁎⁎⁎ .08⁎ .16⁎⁎⁎ .02 .00 .16⁎⁎⁎ .05 1.00
10. Openness .11⁎⁎ .18⁎⁎⁎ −.03 .13⁎⁎ .00 −.14⁎⁎ .06 .05 .22⁎⁎⁎ 1.00

N = 303.
⁎ p ≤ .10.
⁎⁎ p ≤ .05.
⁎⁎⁎ p ≤ .01.

CI. = .01, .16], p b 0.10). And, considering the confidence intervals of the
standardized coefficients, the reciprocal relationship between selfies
and narcissism was notably symmetrical.
5. Discussion
This study aims to understand whether narcissists take selfies as an
outlet for maintaining their positive self-views (the self-selection hy-
pothesis), or if by taking selfies' users increase their level of narcissism
(the media effect hypothesis). The results of a two-wave panel study
demonstrated that this character trait influences selfie production
(self-selection effect) and that, in turn, increases the levels of narcissism
reported by users over time (media effect). Thus, the data supports a
self-reinforcement effect (Slater, 2007) that can be understood as a re-
ciprocal process that is reinforced by higher levels of narcissism that
users gain through the practice of selfies. This means that users who en-
gage in this behavior probably feel rewarded by sharing their own im-
ages with other users, augmenting their levels of narcissism and
consequently their use of SNS for selfie production.
The present study extends prior research in selfies and narcissism by
offering two new insights. First, it presents what we believe is the first
longitudinal study of causal effects between these variables, demon-
strating that they reinforce over time. Secondly, it validates the applica-
tion of a new theoretical approach to understand reciprocal processes
that drive computer-mediated communication. In our study, people
with high levels of narcissism are engaged in frequent use of selfies. Ac-
cording to previous research, it could be argued that this trend is attrib-
utable to the fact that posting and editing photos encourage users to
engage in self-promoting and superficial behaviors. Thus, the preva-
lence of narcissistic individuals practicing selfies may lead to a rise of
this trait among users who have some initial degree of narcissism, or
possibly (and here we speculate beyond what our data support) even
inducing it in those who did not initially manifest it.
5.1. Limitations and directions for future research
This study has several limitations. First, all measures were self-
reports, therefore social desirability and other forces such as mood
and memory might influence the results. Secondly, by analyzing
only one character trait without controlling for other psychological
variables that might be related, such as self-esteem, we may be
over- or under-estimating the effects of narcissism. Thirdly, our sam-
ple was relatively small (N = 314 for the second wave). Plausible
next steps arising from this research would be to see if the findings
in the context of this particular sample, drawn as it was only from
Chile, are more generalizable.
In closing, although it may seem surprising that taking selfies—a
relatively small behavior—could have a significant effect on a charac-
ter trait, it nonetheless seems to be the case. Thus, we believe that
this is an important step in the study of social media and psycholog-
ical aspects of mediated communication, and also a testimonial to
the way in which micro-behavior is both reflective of and additive
to macro-levels of personality and social interaction.
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