Narcissistic and Histrionic Pathological Traits Association with Passive Data from Facebook Profile

Evidences suggest a relationship between narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) traits and passive data from social network sites, mainly, number of friends. A possible hypothesis for this relationship is the presence of the attention seeking trait, which is also a core component of the histrionic personality disorder (HPD). The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship between NPD and HPD traits with passive data from Facebook profiles. Participants were 131 Brazilian Facebook users (93 women) aging from 18 to 64 years ( M = 31.13 years, SD = 9.23). We administered the attention seeking and grandiosity dimensions from the Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory 2 (IDCP-2), the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Personality Disorders (IIP-PD), and research assistants completed a questionnaire related to 31 Facebook passive data. Pearson correlations showed a complex pattern, but when we controlled for general level of personality pathology using IIP-PD cutoff, we observed a change in the correlation pattern, and higher correlations with HPD traits than with NPD traits. Differences found in correlations with the control variable are explained based on Simpson’s paradox. Data suggests that the HPD core traits, i.e., an exaggerated need for attention, may be the leading trait to explain the relation between Facebook passive data and NPD.