Facebook Me. No, Me! No, Me!

You might think that narcissists' Facebook profiles would be heavily spiced with the word "I." But it seems that even narcissists know that's a dead giveaway about their least attractive personality trait. In "Narcissism and Implicit Attention Seeking: Evidence from Linguistic Analyses of Social Networking and Online Presentation" (July 2011 in Personality and Individual Differences), an international team of researchers report on a typical social networking "workaround" used by narcissists. When they restrain their online use of the word "I," they call attention to themselves with sexy photos and profanity.

In Scientific American This Month: Beauty and the Beasts

In July's Scientific American:


Show a man a picture of an attractive woman, and he might play riskier blackjack. With a real-life pretty woman watching, he might cross traffic against a red light. Such exhibitions of agility and bravado are the behavioral equivalent in humans of physical attributes such as antlers and horns in animals. “Mate with me,” they signal to women. “I can brave danger to defend you and the children.” ....

Read the article.