Your Selfies Really Do Reveal More About Yourself Than You Realize
by N/A, 9 years ago |
7 min read
Your selfie says much more than you think.
Thanks to Hollywood (namely the Kardashians), selfies have become a completely normal part of society.
It's even defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as "an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera especially for posting on social networks."
But selfies also reveal layers of our own personality...
A study led by researchers at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore analyzed 123 participants, who took selfies and a personality questionnaire. Another group of students were then asked to judge their selfies.
The study was based off 13 different selfie aspects: whether the person made a duckface, pressed their lips together, looked straight at the camera, exhibited emotional positivity, held the camera high or to the side, showed their full face or body, showed the background location, and whether the photo was photoshopped.Â
People who scored higher levels of agreeableness were more likely to give a positive vibe in their selfies. They were also more inclined to hold the camera lower.
People who were more conscientious tended to hide the location of the selfie, indicating a desire for privacy.
As for the quintessential duckface, those selfies were associated with neuroticism and emotional instability.
Another study suggests that people who take frequent selfies are more likely to exhibit a mental illness, such as OCD and body dysmorphic disorder.
More info on that study can be found here.
Interestingly enough, the group that was asked to guess the personality traits of the selfie-takers weren't always spot on. The only thing they could accurately gage were openness and extraversion.
So for your next selfie, keep in mind: the angle, background, frequency and facial expression you make might be giving away a lot more about your personality than you think.
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