Many people claim that the entire social media business model enables narcissistic people to thrive. Is this true? Let’s take a deep dive.

If it is in fact true, then this idea would be predicated on people being attracted to posts that attack others. Kind posts, by this reasoning, would not tend to incite as much emotion and interest.

As it turns out, this is precisely what is occurring. A University of Winnipeg study that analyzed every single Tweet posted by US members of Congress between 2009 and 2019 found that when they express more negative incivility toward others on social media, they receive more "likes" and re-Tweets than when they post positive or neutral comments.

In other words, the toxic posts of politicians become more popular than those expressing positive feelings, which reinforces such negative online behavior.

Supporting this finding, a New York University study that analyzed more than 2.7 million Facebook and Twitter (now X) posts found that negative, hostile messages attacking an outgroup are twice as frequently shared or retweeted than messages directed toward an ingroup.

How did we,........

© Psychology Today