New York, Jan 7 (IANS) Check if your husband loves to post edited selfies frequently on the social media sites like Facebook and Instagram as this habit may turn him into a narcissist with underlying insecurity about his appearance to the world.
According to a new study, men who posted more online photos of themselves than others scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy.
In addition, men who were more likely to edit their selfies before posting scored higher in narcissism and self-objectification.
“It is not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study,” said lead study author Jesse Fox, assistant professor of communication at The Ohio State University.
Most people do not think that men even do that sort of thing, but they definitely do, Fox added.
The more interesting finding is that men also score higher on this other anti-social personality trait called psychopathy and are more prone to self-objectification.
The sample included 800 men from age 18 to 40 who completed an online survey asking about their photo posting behaviour on social media.
The participants also completed standard questionnaires for anti-social behaviours and for self-objectification.
Results showed that posting more photos was related to narcissism and psychopathy, but psychopathy was not related to editing photos.
“That makes sense because psychopathy is characterised by impulsivity. They are going to snap the photos and put them online right away. They want to see themselves. They don’t want to spend time editing,” she pointed out.
Editing photos was also related to higher levels of self-objectification.
“With the growing use of social networks, everyone is more concerned with their appearance. That means self-objectification may become a bigger problem for men, as well as for women,” Fox noted.
While this study did not include women, Fox said she is currently conducting follow-up work that suggests the same findings found in this research also apply to women.
Women who post more selfies also show higher levels of narcissism and psychopathy.
However, self-objectification plays a larger role with women as would be expected.
The results were published online in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.