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Does Downward Social Comparisons Affect Mobile Phone Addiction? Narcissism Matters!

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Abstract

This study investigated the roles of implicit and explicit narcissism in the relationship between downward social comparison and mobile phone addiction. We randomly recruited 529 college students to complete the downward social comparison scale, mobile addiction tendency scale, and implicit and explicit narcissism questionnaires. Results showed that (1) downward social comparison positively related to implicit narcissism and mobile phone addiction but negatively related to explicit narcissism. Moreover, mobile phone addiction negatively related to explicit narcissism and positively related to implicit narcissism. (2) Downward social comparison positively predicted mobile phone addiction. (3) Implicit and explicit narcissism were parallel mediators in the relationship between downward social comparison and mobile phone addiction. Together, these results suggested that narcissism mediated the relationship of downward social comparison and mobile phone addiction of college students.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Adolescent Cyberpsychology and Behavior, Ministry of Education, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Fanchang Kong, Feng Tang, Haibo Zhang & Xiaojun Sun

  2. Schology of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Fanchang Kong, Feng Tang, Haibo Zhang & Xiaojun Sun

  3. School of Education, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yan Zhang

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  1. Fanchang Kong
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  2. Feng Tang
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  3. Haibo Zhang
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  4. Xiaojun Sun
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  5. Yan Zhang
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Correspondence to Fanchang Kong or Yan Zhang.

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Kong, F., Tang, F., Zhang, H. et al. Does Downward Social Comparisons Affect Mobile Phone Addiction? Narcissism Matters!. J. technol. behav. sci. 5, 266–272 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-020-00136-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-020-00136-9

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