Frequent tweeters may be narcissists

Washington: Are you a frequent tweeter? You may be a narcissist looking for more followers, a new study suggests. Narcissism and the resultant need for admiration drives tweeting, the study says.

"Narcissism does appear to be a primary driver for the desire for (Twitter) followers, which in turn drives tweets," said researchers led by Shaun Davenport of High Point University in US.

The study participants with narcissistic tendencies tended to tweet more often than others, as well as to post more Facebook status updates, the 'Pacific Standard' reported.

Researchers, who compared the two social media platforms, found a generational divide. They found "narcissistic college students prefer to post content on Twitter, while narcissistic adults prefer to post content on Facebook."

This appears to reflect a difference in Facebook usage between millennials and members of earlier generations, with millennials' posting of status updates being more routine and less likely to reflect narcissistic motives.

Researchers conducted two surveys, one featuring 515 college undergraduates, and another 669 adults recruited online (mean age 32). They listed how often they both tweeted and updated their Facebook status during a typical day, after filling out the 40-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory, the report said.

"Narcissism was found to be a stronger predictor of Twitter active usage (tweets) than Facebook active usage (status updates)," researchers said. "We found no significant direct or indirect relationship with active usage on Facebook for the college students," they said.

The study was published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour.