Study suggest Facebook better for extroverts

Auckland University psychology student Samantha Stronge, who has recently completed a study on the way Facebook makes people feel. Photo / Nick Reed

Researcher says Facebook is good for the outgoing but introverts can feel left out.

Facebook may be good for extroverts but bad for introverts, a new study has found.

The study, led by Auckland University psychology doctoral student Samantha (Sam) Stronge, has found that introverts with Facebook pages are slightly less likely to feel included in their group of friends than introverts who stay away from Facebook - apparently because they see their friends doing things that they feel excluded from.

In contrast, extroverts feel just as included in their friend groups whether they are on Facebook or not, and simply use Facebook as an extension of their already busy social lives.

"Extroverts post more status updates and send more messages to people," Ms Stronge said.

"For introverts, those who did have a Facebook profile had lower belonging than those who didn't, because they didn't use it actively enough. They are just kind of looking."

Her study confirms some overseas studies pointing to a "poor get poorer" effect, where people who already feel relatively excluded from society (introverted) feel even more excluded after joining Facebook.

The study, published today in the NZ Journal of Psychology, was part of the NZ Attitudes and Values Study of 6428 New Zealanders aged 18 and over in 2011. At the time only 49 per cent of men in the sample, but 69 per cent of women, had joined Facebook.

Their extroversion was measured by how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as "I am the life of the party" (extroverted) and "I don't talk a lot" (introverted).

Most people placed themselves around the middle of the scale, with decreasing numbers at each extreme.

Their belongingness was measured by three statements: "I know that people in my life accept and value me," "I know that people around me share my attitudes and beliefs," and "I feel like an outsider".

Extroverts, people with partners, and men, were most likely to feel they belonged, while introverts, single people and women felt more excluded.

Having a Facebook page made those who already felt excluded feel only slightly more excluded than they already were, but the effect was still significant.

"While the hypothesised relationship was detectable but subtle in 2011, we wonder whether it may strengthen, and thus the gap between extroverts and introverts may widen, as social media become an increasingly central part of our social environment," Ms Stronge and her co-authors wrote.

Ms Stronge, 24, has only about 100 Facebook friends - "much lower than the rest of my friends" - and recommends that introverts should also limit Facebook's psychological damage by only letting their closest friends in real life befriend them on social media.

"Anecdotally, people do recognise when Facebook isn't good for them, and go through friend purges and cut down massive numbers of friends or go off the grid," she said.

"Maybe you should be cutting it down to your actual close friends."