It’s a truth universally acknowledged by certain segments of the Facebook community that a workout isn’t a workout unless it’s been posted on social media for all to see.
You know the type: the girl from secondary school who flew totally under your radar until she started broadcasting her regular 6am marathon training with Map My Run (helpfully hashtagged with #goals, obviously); the colleague who thinks it’s a great idea to share what he’s bench-pressing with the entire Internet and – worst of all – the ones who share smug (and sweaty) post-gym selfies in expensive fluorescent sportswear, captioned with the bicep emoji. Who knew that putting your workout on your various social networks was such a great way of burning calories?
If you’ve ever felt that the worst #fitspo offenders are probably a teeny tiny bit vain, you’ll feel entirely vindicated to learn that a new study from London’s Brunel University reveals that those guilty of such behaviour tend to be narcissists. Hate to say we told you so, and all that…
Researchers collected data from 555 Facebook users, who also completed personality surveys measuring a clutch of traits, which included extroversion, neuroticism, self-esteem and narcissism.
The study revealed that narcissists frequently updated statuses to show their achievements, motivated by a need for attention and validation from their online peers. So that screenshot from your friend’s Cross Fit app could in fact be a cry for love and attention – albeit a really, really irritating one.
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‘Narcissists also wrote more status updates about their diet and exercise routine, suggesting that they use Facebook to broadcast the effort they put into their physical appearance’, the researchers added.
In further ‘spoiler alert’ news, the study also found that people with lower self-esteem were most likely to post regular updates about their romantic partners. #RelationshipGoals, anyone?
Strangely enough, research reveals that these attention-grabbing ‘achievement’ posts actually received a greater number of likes and comments than other posts. However, this could be a classic case of the ‘hate like.’ As Psychology lecturer Dr Tara Marshall puts it, ‘Although our results suggest that narcissist’ bragging pays off because they receive more likes and comments to their status updates, it could be that their Facebook friends politely offer support while secretly disliking such egotistical displays. Greater awareness of how one’s status updates might be perceived by friends could help people to avoid topics that annoy more than they entertain.’
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