Compulsive use of social media may be associated with a strong desire for reassurance among people who are afraid to rely on others and engage in face-to-face interactions, according to a study published October 21, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One by Chris Bjornsen and Allen Harbaugh of Longwood University, US.
The inherent tendency to create and maintain intimate emotional bonds throughout life is a basic component of human nature. Attachment styles encompass secure, anxious, avoidant, and fearful types. Secure attachment is associated with a high degree of trust in close relationships, whereas anxious attachment is characterized by a strong desire for closeness but intense worry about the availability of significant others. On the other hand, avoidant attachment is characterized by a preference for emotional distance, and fearful attachment is associated with a strong internal desire for relationship closeness combined with a high level of fear of the possible negative consequences of reliance on others.
Attachment anxiety and avoidance may promote different strategies for managing narcissistic insecurities. While grandiose narcissism is often associated with avoidant attachment, vulnerable narcissism is more commonly related to anxious attachment. Grandiose narcissism is characterized by high extraversion, and a heightened need for admiration combined with a lack of empathy. Vulnerable narcissism is also characterized by an elevated need for admiration, but is combined with a tendency toward shyness, a dominant sense of shame regarding the strong need for others, and hypersensitivity to imagined criticism.
In the new study, Bjornsen and Harbaugh explored the relationship between attachment styles, narcissism, and problematic social media use – impulsive, compulsive use designed to elevate one's mood, despite negative consequences. The 555 adult participants, who were recruited from social media and crowdsourcing apps, completed a 76-item online questionnaire.
The results showed that reported levels of problematic social media use were lowest among people with a secure attachment style, with increasing levels reported by those with avoidant, anxious, and fearful attachment styles. Vulnerable narcissism was also associated with a higher level of problematic social media use, potentially to solicit relationship attention that is difficult to achieve in real life. By contrast, grandiose narcissism was not significantly associated with problematic social media use.
According to the researchers, study limitations include the lack of evidence for causal relations among the variables. In addition, the sample was limited to US participants, so the results may not generalize across populations. However, the new study builds on past research by examining the potential roles of vulnerable narcissism and fearful attachment as correlates to problematic social media use. Of practical use to researchers, clinicians, and prevention programs, these results suggest that individuals who demonstrate both high attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance may attempt to satisfy relationship needs through this maladaptive behavior.
The authors add: “We found that adults who are either trusting/confident in their interpersonal relationships, or remain more distant from others, do not tend to experience problematic social media use (compulsive, impulsive, disruptive use of social media). However, adults who are more anxious or fearful about their interpersonal relationships tend to also have higher levels of covert or vulnerable narcissism as well as significantly higher levels of problematic social media use.”
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One : https://plos.io/477o9Ni
Citation: Bjornsen CA, Harbaugh AG (2026) Attachment, grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, interpersonal competence, and problematic social media use: A latent profile analysis. PLoS One 21(10): e0359569. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0359569
Author countries: USA.
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.
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Attachment, grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, interpersonal competence, and problematic social media use: A latent profile analysis
21-Oct-2026
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.