Have you noticed someone sharing 'deep' takes on your LinkedIn feed?If so, they might be a narcissist. That's according to a new study, which has revealed how to spot narcissistic people on the popular networking platform. Researchers from the University of Alabama carried out two experiments with more than 650 participants. The results revealed that the more narcissistic a participant was, the keener they were to project a deep, insightful image on LinkedIn. Why? Not because they are gullible, but because they want to look clever, according to the researchers. 'Our findings suggest that endorsing empty, profound–sounding statements is not always a failure of judgment, it can be a tactical bid to look clever,' said the study's lead author, William Hart.'For narcissistic people in particular, appearing intellectually sophisticated seems to matter more than whether the statement actually means anything.' Have you noticed someone sharing 'deep' takes on your LinkedIn feed? If so, they might be a narcissist (stock image)
From regularly looking in the mirror to constantly craving attention, there are several key signs that someone might be a narcissist.However, until now, the link between LinkedIn habits and narcissism has remained a mystery. To get to the bottom of it, the researchers conducted two experiments with 661 university students. In the first experiment, participants were told to come across as either a 'sophisticated' or an 'unsophisticated' thinker. They were then asked to rate a series of nonsense phrases that you'd find on LinkedIn. The results revealed that those trying to seem sophisticated rated nonsense phrases as more profound – and were also more likely to claim they knew made-up facts. In the second experiment, participants completed surveys to assess how narcissistic they were, before being asked to rate the same nonsense phrases. Again, the researchers found that the more narcissistic a participant was, the more likely they were to rate nonsense phrases as profound.
