Be honest with me here: You have one or even multiple friends, who always post their gym activity to Facebook or Instagram. Or maybe that person is you.
Researchers from the Brunel University in London have conducted a study as to why so many people share every workout on social media. The results are unflattering, to say the least.
The study surveyed Facebook users and examined personality traits against motives and status updates – an area of research that is only now beginning to garner much attention. The survey measured the ‘Big Five’ personality traits (extroversion, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness), self-esteem and narcissism.
The research found that people who are keen on updating their exercise routines, and who constantly gravitate their posts around their healthy diets that would contribute to their physical appearance, these people tend to be narcissists.
The study concludes that the main motivation behind these people’s fitness and diet updates is “their need for motivation and validation from the Facebook community.” And these statuses indeed get the highest number of likes.
“Narcissists more frequently updated about their achievements, which was motivated by their need for attention and validation from the Facebook community”, the study concludes.
Dr Tara Marshal says, “although our results suggest that narcissists’ bragging pays off because they receive more likes and comments to their status updates, it could be that their Facebook friends politely offer support while secretly disliking such egotistical displays.”
As the research team noted, further studies are need to better understand the responses that particular types of status updates garner, and to better understand – beyond these broad generalities – what status updates may say about the users posting them.