AUTHOR=Nash Kyle , Johansson Andre , Yogeeswaran Kumar 

TITLE=Social Media Approval Reduces Emotional Arousal for People High in Narcissism: Electrophysiological Evidence

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00292

DOI=10.3389/fnhum.2019.00292

ISSN=1662-5161

ABSTRACT=<p>We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine if posting a “selfie” and receiving validation from others in the form of “likes” on social media can help narcissists reduce psychological distress. After all participants completed the narcissistic personality inventory (NPI) and experienced social exclusion, participants completed an auditory startle task that elicits the P3 to white noise—an ERP component that reflects emotional arousal and is sensitive to psychological distress. Participants were then randomly assigned to either view a personal “selfie” that quickly received a significant number of ostensibly real “likes” (<italic>selfie with likes</italic> condition), view a “selfie” with no feedback (<italic>selfie only</italic> condition), or view a neutral picture before (<italic>neutral picture</italic> condition) completing the auditory startle task again. Results revealed that participants high on the Leadership/Authority subscale of the NPI in the “selfie” with “likes” condition demonstrated a pre–post manipulation decrease in P3 mean amplitude, relative to participants in the other two conditions. These results suggest that approval <italic>via</italic> social media can help certain kinds of narcissists alleviate distress from social exclusion.</p>