In this digital age, selfie is a form of self-expression. This post will describe our research into how selfies reveal their owner’s personality and how people judge other people’s personalities based on selfies. (Qiu Lu Qu & Zhu 2015).
Expression of personality in social media
The results of psychological research have shown that social media can reveal personality, for example, in Facebook profiles (Back and others). The number of albums and photos on Facebook (Eftekhar Fullwood & Morris 2014) and the words used in tweets are all indicators of personality. There is little information about the relationship between self-portraits and personality. Do selfies reveal the personality of their owners? Can selfies be used to predict someone’s personality?
Does a photo reflect personality? Why might selfie be different?
In the past, studies have found that photographs can reveal personality traits. In portraits taken from others, for example, smiling is associated with Extraversion.
Selfie is different from other photos in two important ways. selfie allows users to take photos in a way that suits them. Users can control the facial expressions, camera positions, and background objects. The motivation behind taking a self-portrait may differ from that of other types of photos. Selfie can be used to express oneself and share it with others on social networks. Selfies can be used to show off a person’s personality. They may use impression management techniques to create a socially desirable image of themselves (Lin Tov & Qiu 2014).
What did the study reveal?
A collection of 123 photos from Sina Weibo, a popular microblogging site in China, was coded using thirteen cues. Selfie users completed the Big Five personality assessment. The results showed that individuals who were agreeable were more likely to display positive emotions and take their self-portrait below. Due to privacy concerns, conscientious people were less likely than others to include private locations in their selfies. Duckface was more common among those with higher neuroticism. The cues did not relate to extraversion.
Eight undergraduates acted as judges in a project to predict personality based on selfies. Only one personality dimension was accurately predicted: openness to experience. It is possible that they used invalid cues to make their judgment. They used, for example, whether the self-portrait showed positive emotion or pressed lips in order to judge extrovert. Their conscientiousness rating was related to displaying public information, showing positive emotion, and avoiding duckface when taking selfies. The higher rating of Neuroticism is related to duckface but not positive emotion. Judges also rated those who pressed their lips and showed a full face in selfies with a lower level of openness.
Implications
Our research indicates that selfies contain personality-related cues. People cannot judge the personality of others based on their selfies. This may be because selfie owners used impression management techniques to make it impossible for people to accurately assess other’s personalities. This study presents (a) new evidence on how social networking is associated with personality; (b) a code for analyzing selfies, and (c) a set of cues to predict personality based on selfies.
References
Back, M. D., Stopfer, J. M., Vazire, S., Gaddis, S., Schmukle, S. C., Egloff, B., et al. (2010). Facebook profiles do not reflect self-idealization but rather the actual personality. Psychological Science 21(3): 372-373.
Eftekhar, A., Fullwood, C., & Morris, N. (2014). How much exposure is needed to capture personality in Facebook photos and other photo-related activities? Computers in human behavior, 37, 162-170.
Qiu, L., Lin, H., Ramsay, J., & Yang, F. (2012b). You are what your tweet is: Personality and perception via Twitter. Journal of Research in Personality 46(6): 710-718.
Qiu, L., Lu, J., Qu, W., & Zhu, T. (2015). What does your self-portrait reveal about you? Computers in human behavior, 52, 443-449.
Naumann, L. P., Vazire, S., Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2009). Personality judgments based on appearance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 35(12), 1661-1671.
Vazire, S., Naumann, L. P., Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2008). Portrait of a Narcissist: Physical manifestations of narcissism. Journal of Research in Personality 42(6): 1439-1447.
Hall, J. A., & Pennington, N. (2013). Self-monitoring and honesty to cue usage on Facebook. Computers in Human Behavior 29(4): 1556-1564.
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