People who obsess over celebrities or exhibit high levels of narcissism are more likely to develop unhealthy habits on Instagram. A new study published in The Journal of Psychology reveals that this behavior is driven by an underlying fear of missing out and a struggle to manage difficult emotions. The research offers a clearer picture of how specific personality traits make some users vulnerable to addictive social media routines.
Psychological researchers frequently examine how the internet shapes human behavior. As social platforms grow, experts want to understand why some individuals use these apps in ways that disrupt their daily lives. Instagram is particularly popular, boasting roughly two billion active monthly users globally. It features highly visual tools like photo editing and short, disappearing video updates.
These features make the platform highly engaging. For some users, this engagement shifts into a pattern resembling a behavioral addiction. This happens when using an app takes over a person’s life and alters their mood. It can also cause individuals to build a tolerance, meaning they need more screen time to feel the same effects.
Addiction also involves withdrawal symptoms when the app is removed, as well as recurring conflicts in offline relationships. Because true addiction requires all these strict criteria to be met, researchers prefer a broader term for most users. They call this broader pattern problematic Instagram use.
Hadi Fazelirad, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Kharazmi University in Iran, led a team to investigate the psychological roots of this behavior. The group wanted to test a specific psychological framework used to study behavioral addictions. This framework suggests that an individual’s underlying personality traits combine with their emotional and cognitive responses to create addictive habits.
To test this idea, the researchers focused on two distinct personality traits as starting points. The first trait was narcissism. Narcissism is a condition where a person has an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for excessive attention and admiration. The platform’s visual focus provides an ideal stage for individuals with high narcissism to showcase their lives and receive praise.
The second personality trait was celebrity worship. This term describes an intense, sometimes obsessive preoccupation with a famous individual. Some users simply follow a celebrity for entertainment or to connect with other fans. Others develop extreme emotional attachments, which can occasionally border on pathological behaviors.
The researchers suspected that two internal mechanisms might link these personality traits to problematic Instagram use. One mechanism is the fear of missing out. This is a persistent anxiety that other people are having rewarding experiences without you. The other mechanism is a general difficulty with emotion regulation.
Emotion regulation refers to a person’s ability to manage and respond to their feelings in a healthy way. People with poor emotion regulation might struggle to control impulses when they are upset. They might also lack the necessary strategies to calm themselves down. The researchers theorized that these emotional and cognitive hurdles push vulnerable personalities toward excessive app usage.
The team surveyed 450 students from six different universities across Iran. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 35, and nearly 80 percent of the group identified as female. To gather the data, the researchers distributed online questionnaires assessing the various psychological traits in question.
Participants completed several standardized psychological assessments. They answered questions measuring their attitudes toward celebrities, checking for varying levels of obsession. The survey also included a specific scale to measure narcissistic tendencies. Other sections evaluated participants’ struggles with managing their emotions, their fear of missing out on social events, and the severity of their Instagram habits.
After collecting the responses, the researchers analyzed the data using structural equation modeling. This statistical method allows scientists to look at complex relationships between multiple variables at the same time. It helps determine if one factor directly causes another or if a hidden variable acts as a bridge between the two.
The researchers found a positive link between narcissistic traits, celebrity worship, and problematic Instagram use. In other words, individuals who scored higher in narcissism or celebrity obsession also reported unhealthier relationships with the app. However, the connection was not just a direct line from personality to addiction.
Instead, the study revealed that the fear of missing out acted as a bridge between these personality traits and social media habits. For highly narcissistic individuals, Instagram offers a vast audience to impress. These individuals develop an intense worry that they will miss opportunities to gather attention or control their social image. This anxiety drives them to keep checking the app.
A similar pattern emerged for those obsessed with famous figures. Celebrities share constant updates about their personal and professional lives on the platform. Fans who obsess over these figures develop a deep anxiety about missing a post or a story. This fear of missing out pushes them to monitor their feeds constantly.
The study also revealed that emotional regulation difficulties played a central linking role. Narcissistic individuals often struggle to process negative emotions healthily. Rather than dealing with these feelings internally, they might turn to Instagram for a quick mood boost. A few likes or comments can serve as a temporary distraction from their emotional distress.
Fans who intensely worship celebrities face similar emotional hurdles. Constantly comparing their own lives to the highly curated, idealized lives of famous people can damage their self-esteem. Lacking the tools to cope with these negative feelings, they return to the app to distract themselves. This creates a cycle of problematic use that is hard to break.
By understanding the emotional mechanisms behind problematic app usage, mental health professionals might develop better treatments. Therapies that teach people how to accept negative emotions and build healthier offline habits could be quite effective. Recognizing the underlying anxieties that drive endless scrolling is a necessary step in helping users regain control of their digital lives.
The researchers highlighted potential interventions that could help vulnerable users. One option is a treatment model designed to address emotional disorders by teaching cognitive reappraisal. This technique encourages individuals to view negative emotions as temporary states that will eventually pass. By accepting these emotions rather than avoiding them, users might feel less urge to escape into social media.
Other practical interventions could directly target the fear of missing out. Educational programs that emphasize good sleep hygiene and limit technology use before bed have proven helpful in similar situations. Therapy centers and parents could work together to foster offline emotional awareness, reducing a young adult’s reliance on digital validation.
While the study offers new insights, the researchers noted a few limitations to their work. The participant pool consisted entirely of university students in Iran. Because of this specific demographic, the results might not automatically apply to people in other age groups. Individuals living in different cultural contexts might also interact with social media differently.
The data relied on self-reported surveys, which can sometimes skew results. People are not always objective when answering questions about their own flaws, introducing a potential bias into the findings. The research was also cross-sectional, meaning it only captured a single moment in time. This type of research cannot definitively prove that one behavior causes another.
Future research could address these gaps by tracking participants over longer periods. The researchers suggest that future studies should include an equal number of male and female participants to see if gender changes these dynamics. It would also be helpful to differentiate between specific types of narcissism.
The researchers also recommend looking at how overall internet habits influence Instagram-specific behavior. Tracking the total time spent online could provide a much broader picture of a person’s digital life. Understanding how different platforms interact might help experts design more comprehensive strategies for digital wellbeing.
Despite these limitations, the research clarifies the psychological pathways that lead to problematic digital habits. Social media platforms will likely continue to grow and introduce new features designed to capture user attention. Identifying the personality traits and emotional struggles that make users vulnerable is an important step in promoting healthier technology use.
The study, “Celebrity Worship, Narcissism, and Problematic Instagram Use: The Mediating Role of Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Fear of Missing Out,” was authored by Hadi Fazelirad, Mehrane Pirzade, Jafar Hasani, Bahman Bouruki Milan, Robabeh Noury Ghasem Abadi and Mark D. Griffiths.
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