Crowned as the ‘word of the year’ in 2013, studies were carried out in recent times to find out the correlation between ‘selfies’ and social behaviour.
Recent research revealed that posting selfies on any social media portal can be linked with antisocial characteristics, the Chicago Tribune reported.
A study carried out by the Ohio State University in December 2014- the first to scientifically examine the relationship between posting selfies and personality traits- concluded that men especially, could have psychopathic traits if they posted selfies on a regular basis.
The study concluded that those men who frequently edited and posted photos of themselves on social media portals also tested higher in behaviours of narcissism and objectification.
“We are all concerned with our self-presentation online, but how we do that may reveal something about our personality,” said Professor Jesse Fox, who teaches in the university’s School of Communication.
The researchers primarily focused on what is known as the ‘dark triad’ of personalities: narcissists, those who are egocentric and believe they are better than others; Machiavellians, those who are cynical, selfish and manipulative; and psychopaths, those who lack empathy and disregard how their behavior affects others.
The authors of the study analysed 800 men between the ages of 18 and 40 years who were made to answer questions about their physical features and evaluated how much certain behaviors described them, such as how much they want others to pay attention to them and how much they thought about the integrity of their actions.
The subjects of the study were also made to note how much time they spent on social media on a daily basis, how many selfies they usually posted and how often their selfies were edited to make them look better, the study noted.
The research concluded that narcissistic and psychopathic traits correlated with men who posted more selfies, while narcissism and self-objectification peaked in men who more frequently edited their photos.
Not editing photos at all however, suggested more impulsive behaviour, according to Fox, while those who edited and perfected their images before posting displayed characteristics of self-objectification.
