Consistently Showing Your Best Side? Intra-individual Consistency in #Selfie Pose Orientation.

Annukka K Lindell

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00246

Abstract

Painted and photographic portraits of others show an asymmetric bias: people favor their left cheek. Both experimental and database studies confirm that the left cheek bias extends to selfies. To date all such selfie studies have been cross-sectional; whether individual selfie-takers tend to consistently favor the same pose orientation, or switch between multiple poses, remains to be determined. The present study thus examined intra-individual consistency in selfie pose orientations. Two hundred selfie-taking participants (100 male and 100 female) were identified by searching #selfie on Instagram. The most recent 10 single-subject selfies for the each of the participants were selected and coded for type of selfie (normal; mirror) and pose orientation (left, midline, right), resulting in a sample of 2000 selfies. Results indicated that selfie-takers do tend to consistently adopt a preferred pose orientation (α = 0.72), with more participants showing an overall left cheek bias (41%) than would be expected by chance (overall right cheek bias = 31.5%; overall midline bias = 19.5%; no overall bias = 8%). Logistic regression modellng, controlling for the repeated measure of participant identity, indicated that sex did not affect pose orientation. However, selfie type proved a significant predictor when comparing left and right cheek poses, with a stronger left cheek bias for mirror than normal selfies. Overall, these novel findings indicate that selfie-takers show intra-individual consistency in pose orientation, and in addition, replicate the previously reported left cheek bias for selfies and other types of portrait, confirming that the left cheek bias also presents within individuals’ selfie corpora.

Highlights

Comparing only left and right cheek poses indicates that selfie takers show a left cheek bias: 53.17% left cheek selfies; 46.83% right cheek selfies
Given the three posing options, five or more selfies in one pose orientation was classed as an overall bias toward that pose orientation, being higher than the frequency expected by chance (3.33/10)
Research has established that the left cheek bias for painted (e.g., McManus and Humphrey, 1973) and photographic (e.g., LaBar, 1973) portraits of others is evident in selfies (e.g., Bruno and Bertamini, 2013)

Summary

Introduction

Selfies (digital self-portrait photographs taken with a smartphone or webcam) are ubiquitous. 1631), selfies are uploaded to social media like Facebook and Instagram. This public sharing of selfies is very much the norm, with 17- to 47-year-old Polish participants posting up to 650 selfies per month on social media sites (average 14.01 posted per month for females; 7.62 posted per month for males; Sorokowska et al, 2016). The fact that digital cameras provide photographs immediately, with no costs for film, means that selfies can be taken repeatedly, with the best carefully chosen, edited, and uploaded to social media. Selfietakers perceive themselves as more attractive and likable in their selfies than in photographs taken by other people (Re et al, 2016)

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Conclusion