Narcissistic prosociality in social media campaigns: Findings from a survey quasi- experiment

We investigate whether conspicuous participation in online social media campaigns is associated with narcissism and whether this association results in apathy, and free riding. We address these questions in the context of the Ice Bucket Challenge (IBC) campaign by examining the relationship between degree of participation (exposure), personality traits (Big Five and grandiose narcissism), and measures of apathy (unaware of the social cause) and free riding (letting others donate). In a two-stage survey quasi-experiment that decouples personality tests from behavioural questions we find significant associations between conspicuous behaviour (direct-exposure) and grandiose narcissism, particularly amongst female respondents. However, we find no significant association between this relationship and apathy for the campaign’s social cause, nor did we find conclusive evidence of free riding. These results suggests that narcissistic prosociality (the combination of personal gratification and social concern) was a significant motivation for participating in this social media campaign.