“Selfies” (self-taken photos) are a common self-presentation strategy on social media. This study experimentally tested whether taking and posting selfies, with and without photo-retouching, elicits changes to mood and body image among young women. Female undergraduate students (N = 110) were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: taking and uploading either an untouched selfie, taking and posting a preferred and retouched selfie to social media, or a control group. State mood and body image were measured pre- and post-manipulation. As predicted, there was a main effect of experimental condition on changes to mood and feelings of physical attractiveness. Women who took and posted selfies to social media reported feeling more anxious, less confident, and less physically attractive afterwards compared to those in the control group. Harmful effects of selfies were found even when participants could retake and retouch their selfies. This is the first experimental study showing that taking and posting selfies on social media causes adverse psychological effects for women.
brownbrady on September 6th, 2018 at 14:52 UTC »
Disclaimer:
Sample size was small (113 people). Participants were York U students.intensely_human on September 6th, 2018 at 14:37 UTC »
To be honest, this may not extend very well to real world situations.
A selfie is an inherently highly selected and designed thing. Being forced at a random time and in a random situation to take a selfie is probably the equivalent of telling someone to ask out their crush in the lab.
Forcing something so highly planned, to happen without planning, is bound to cause anxiety.
dauntedbox376 on September 6th, 2018 at 13:20 UTC »
I wonder if these feelings would be an effect of posting on social media in general, not just selfies. Although, I imagine selfies would have a larger effect size compared to other social media posts.