Bored a lot? Love selfies? There’s a word for you.

• Narcissists crave attention; if they don’t get enough of it, they may struggle.
• A new study found a link between excessive smartphone use, narcissism, and boredom.
• Taking selfies is also a form of narcissism.

Want to drive a narcissist crazy? Keep them bored.

Despite the fact that there are more ways to distract yourself than ever before — via cellphones, streaming movies, TV shows, and even doing more work — people who are highly narcissistic cannot stand dull downtime, according to a new study.

The rocky relationship between narcissism — an inflated sense of importance and need for excessive attention — and boredom goes hand in hand. People who crave attention require it all the time, and when narcissists aren’t getting enough, they aren’t finding ways to distract themselves. Instead, they find dull periods excruciating.

Measuring boredom 

The study, published in the journal Current Psychology, examined how narcissists use smartphones, which, paired with social media, gives them the perfect avenue to “curate and present their preferred self-image,” researchers said. But there’s also another reason why they might be glued to their phones: They’re easily bored.

For the study, the researchers from the University of Kentucky homed in on a specific age group that it predicted participated in excessive phone use: young adults. A total of 532 young adults were asked to complete questionnaires measuring their own narcissism, smartphone use, and levels of boredom. Respondents’ narcissism was graded based on their response to questions that categorized narcissistic qualities. Boredom was assessed through questions that gauged how often they felt disengaged. 

The results weren’t surprising: Researchers found that people “showed that grandiose narcissism was positively associated with compulsive smartphone use, while the effect of vulnerable narcissism was fully mediated by boredom.”

From a clinical perspective, Susan Krauss Whitbourne, a professor emerita of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said that if you know someone who exhibits narcissism and struggles with boredom, it’s vital to remain mindful and consider why someone struggles when they are not the center of attention.

Seeking constant validation

“It must be a tough process indeed when those likes, hearts, and comments don’t come flooding in with each post. Seeking validation when validation isn’t there can only become the source of even more insecurity,” Whitbourne wrote.

There’s perhaps a no better indicator of narcissism than social media. Previous research has explored the topic, specifically the relationship between narcissism and selfies.

People who post excessive selfies to Instagram detailing their vacations or daily lives are indeed exhibiting a form of narcissism, specifically grandiose narcissism, which is described as “extraversion, low neuroticism, and overt expressions of feelings of superiority and entitlement.”