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Narcissism and Problematic Internet Use: Differential Links to Internet Versus Social Media Addiction-A
Lanqing Zhou1, Junkai Wang1, Kexin Lou1
1Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking
|May 15, 2026
Summary
Problematic Internet use (PIU) is linked to narcissism, particularly its antagonistic and vulnerable traits. Dimensional analysis reveals specific narcissism facets are more strongly associated with PIU than global scores.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Internet Studies
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Problematic Internet use (PIU) is a growing concern with significant negative impacts.
- Research on the relationship between narcissism and PIU has yielded inconsistent findings.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a meta-analysis examining the association between global, dual-dimensional, and trifurcated narcissism and various domains of PIU.
- To explore how different facets of narcissism relate to PIU and identify potential moderators.
Main Methods:
- A meta-analysis of 143 effects from 74 studies (N = 68,705) using random-effects models and relative weight analyses.
- Examination of global narcissism, dual-dimensional (grandiose, vulnerable), and trifurcated (interpersonal antagonism, narcissistic neuroticism, agentic extraversion) narcissism across PIU domains.
Main Results:
- Global narcissism showed a significant positive association with PIU (r = 0.26).
- Associations varied by PIU domain, with social media addiction showing a stronger link (r = 0.26) than general Internet addiction (r = 0.16).
- Interpersonal antagonism and vulnerable narcissism demonstrated stronger positive associations with PIU, while narcissistic neuroticism showed inverse associations.
Conclusions:
- Antagonistic and vulnerable aspects of narcissism appear particularly relevant to problematic Internet use.
- The study underscores the importance of considering dimensional aspects of narcissism rather than relying solely on global scores for a nuanced understanding of PIU.
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