Scientists have found out how social media users perceive the photos you upload.
Do you still delight the visitors of your personal page in social networks with your selfies? Then you will never become the queen of Instagram! This harsh truth of life was revealed to the world by researchers at Washington State University. Psychology professor Chris Barry about 5 years ago began to study how a person's personality traits are reflected in his behavior on Instagram.
Then, even in the scientific world, the idea was extremely popular that the propensity to take a huge number of selfies was a hallmark of the narcissistic narcissist-neurasthenic. And the passion for this genre of pop culture stars seemed to be a clear confirmation of this. Barry decided to test the popular theory in practice, organized a study and got … a negative result. People who spent gigabytes in order to perpetuate themselves in the networks of their beloved, in real life, did not stand out among others with special vanity and inflated conceit.
Then the scientists decided to go from the other side. The selfie craze is not really a testament to your inner vices. But is it possible that in the eyes of those around you, the passion for "selfies" somehow compromises you, makes them make hasty conclusions about your wonderful morning?
Barry and his colleagues conducted an interesting experiment. They recruited two groups of students: 30 from the University of Washington and 119 from the University of Southern Mississippi. Educational institutions in opposite parts of the United States (northwest and south of the country) were chosen to exclude personal acquaintance between representatives of one and the other team.
Students from Washington provided the scientists with their Instagram pages for an experiment. Psychologists selected several dozen posts from their accounts on similar topics, where the guys talked about various events in their lives (travel, parties, sports competitions, etc.). Moreover, some students preferred to work in the selfie genre, while others more often used "posi", that is, they posed when someone else took pictures of them.
Then peers on the other side of the country had to rate the Instagram profiles of Washingtonians on 13 criteria: narcissism, success, extroversion, low or high self-esteem, etc.
It turned out that the way the same events are presented has a strong impact on the perception of users.
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“Even when the two accounts had the same content, the attitude towards the person who posted the selfie was negative,” says Professor Chris Barry. “And those students who focused on posi were rated as more entrepreneurial, sociable, reliable, outgoing, and successful. In addition, users believed they had high self-esteem and more attractive qualities to become a good friend. Selfie lovers lost in all of these positions.
Scientists believe that there are visual cues that, regardless of context, elicit either positive feedback or annoyance on social media. How can this be explained? According to one hypothesis, when you pose for a photographer, you look more natural in the picture. Therefore, the user who views your feed considers you to be a sincere and open person. Naturally, until I saw your selfie, where you are already a "poured out" narcissistic, mannered and vain egoist.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV