Self-Disclosures on Facebook: The Two Faces of Narcissism

Abstract

Individual personality traits are key factors that affect users’ self-disclosure on SNS. We examined the relationship between an individual personality trait (i.e., narcissism) and three dimensions of self-disclosure behavior on Facebook (i.e., intention, level, and control of self-disclosure). A total of 261 Facebook users completed an online survey. The findings showed that more narcissistic individuals engage in deeper levels of self-disclosure and do so with greater intentionality than previous research indicated. More interestingly, narcissistic users simultaneously tend to control their expressions in public by concealing who they really are. Overall, these findings suggested that the self-disclosures on Facebook must not investigated by a single dimensions for better understanding of psychological dynamics of it users. In addition, the present research suggested that the narcissism should not be regarded as a predictor which simply gives either a positive or negative influence on self-disclosing behaviors in SNS.