Abstract
Users of social networking sites such as Facebook frequently post self-portraits on their profiles. While research has begun to analyze the motivations for posting such pictures, less is known about how selfies are evaluated by recipients. Although producers of selfies typically aim to create a positive impression, selfies may also be regarded as narcissistic and therefore fail to achieve the intended goal. The aim of this study is to examine the potentially ambivalent reception of selfies compared to photos taken by others based on the Brunswik lens model Brunswik (1956). In a between-subjects online experiment (N = 297), Facebook profile mockups were shown which differed with regard to picture type (selfie vs. photo taken by others), gender of the profile owner (female vs. male), and number of individuals within a picture (single person vs. group). Results revealed that selfies were indeed evaluated more negatively than photos taken by others. Persons in selfies were rated as less trustworthy, less socially attractive, less open to new experiences, more narcissistic and more extroverted than the same persons in photos taken by others. In addition, gender differences were observed in the perception of pictures. Male profile owners were rated as more narcissistic and less trustworthy than female profile owners, but there was no significant interaction effect of type of picture and gender. Moreover, a mediation analysis of presumed motives for posting selfies revealed that negative evaluations of selfie posting individuals were mainly driven by the perceived motivation of impression management. Findings suggest that selfies are likely to be evaluated less positively than producers of selfies might suppose.
Highlights
The trend of uploading selfies appears to be a growing form of self-presentation and self-promotion in social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook
While there is an emerging body of research on taking selfies, this is one of the first studies to investigate the facet of perception and the question of how observers evaluate people shown in selfies
The results reveal several notable differences between the reception of selfies and photos taken by other persons
Summary
The trend of uploading selfies appears to be a growing form of self-presentation and self-promotion in social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook. While researchers have begun to investigate individuals’ social and Impact of Photo Type on Impression Formation psychological motivations for taking and sharing selfies online (e.g., Weiser, 2015; Sung et al, 2016; Barry et al, 2017; Wang et al, in press), very little is known about the perception of selfies. As a side result of their empirical investigation on the differences between selfie takers’ self-ratings and external raters’ judgments, they demonstrated that persons in selfies were rated more negatively than the same persons in photos taken by others. The assumption of negative outcomes may be in contrast to the broad popularity of selfies. The assumption of negative outcomes is in contrast with findings that pictures with faces and selfies on Instagram tend to generate a high number of likes (Bakhshi et al, 2014; Souza et al, 2015). It could be argued that greater attention and positive feedback from close contacts who wish to maintain a positive relationship with the profile owner (Lee et al, 2014, 2016; Scissors et al, 2016) do not necessarily preclude a negative interpretation by a larger audience
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