Abstract
People draw automatic social inferences from photos of unfamiliar faces and these first impressions are associated with important real-world outcomes. Here we examine the effect of selecting online profile images on first impressions. We model the process of profile image selection by asking participants to indicate the likelihood that images of their own face (“self-selection”) and of an unfamiliar face (“other-selection”) would be used as profile images on key social networking sites. Across two large Internet-based studies (n = 610), in line with predictions, image selections accentuated favorable social impressions and these impressions were aligned to the social context of the networking sites. However, contrary to predictions based on people’s general expertise in self-presentation, other-selected images conferred more favorable impressions than self-selected images. We conclude that people make suboptimal choices when selecting their own profile pictures, such that self-perception places important limits on facial first impressions formed by others. These results underscore the dynamic nature of person perception in real-world contexts.
Highlights
Key events in our professional, social, and romantic lives unfold on the Internet
We calculated calibration for each of the three social network contexts, to reveal which traits were most accentuated by profile image selection in each context, and analyzed these data separately for own and Internet ratings
In the Calibration experiment, unfamiliar viewers rated 12 images of a single individual, making it likely that this diluted their first impressions. These viewers made multiple trait judgments to a single photo, which may increase overlap in these judgments (Rhodes, 2006). We addressed these potential concerns in the Selection experiment, presenting unfamiliar viewers with only two images of each participant and asking viewers to rate these images for a single trait impression
Summary
Key events in our professional, social, and romantic lives unfold on the Internet. Approximately one-third of employers search online for information on job candidates (Acquisti & Fong, 2015), half of British adults that are currently searching for a relationship have used online dating (YouGov, 2014), and 1.79 billion people worldwide have an active Facebook account (Facebook, 2016). We are continually forming first impressions of unfamiliar people in professional, romantic, and social contexts via social networking sites. We make inferences about an individual’s character and personality within a split second of exposure to a photograph of their face (Willis & Todorov, 2006). These impressions have been shown to predict important and diverse real-world outcomes—both online and offline—including the number of votes received by political candidates (Olivola, Funk, & Todorov, 2014), company profits generated during a CEO’s tenure (Rule & Ambady, White et al Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications (2017) 2:23
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