People Who Take Selfies Are Not As Hot As They Think, Says Study
You may be overestimating your hotness quotient.
Getty You've got selfies down cold — you know the best poses, lighting, and locations for the best selfies. You should be a master at selfies since you take them all the time.
Well, you look good and you want to be able to capture these moments so down the road you can look at these pictures and remember feeling confident and amazing. You don't want to be selfish and keep your pictures to yourself, so you share every single one of them on social media.
But are you as attractive and likable as you think you are?
A recent study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science has found that people who take a ton of selfies have a tendency to overestimate their attractiveness and likability, and are seen by others as more narcissistic.
The researchers said, "We examined how these self-favoring biases manifest in a highly popular novel context that is particularly self-focused — selfies. Specifically, we analyzed selfie-takers' and non-selfie takers' perceptions of their selfies, versus photos taken by others, and compared these to the judgments of external perceivers."
For the study, researchers from the University of Toronto recruited 198 college students, which included 100 regular selfie-takers and 98 non-selfie-takers or minimal selfie-takers. The participants were invited to take a selfie using a smartphone camera, and also had their pictures taken by one of the researchers.
The participants were then asked to rate each photo based on how attractive and likable they believed their friends would perceive them to be in the photo if it were posted on social media. A sample of 178 independent raters (who had been recruited on the internet) was also asked to rate the participants' photos in terms of attractiveness and likability, as well as for narcissism.
Both groups — the regular selfie-takers and the non-selfie-takers — demonstrated a self-favoring bias by believing that they'd be seen as more attractive and likable in their pictures than they actually were by the independent raters. In addition, the selfie-takers overestimated themselves significantly more, especially when judging their own selfies rather than the researcher-taken photos.
"External judges rated the targets [self-taker participants] as less attractive, less likable, and more narcissistic in their selfies than in the photos taken by others," wrote the researchers. "Thus, self-enhancing misperceptions may support selfie-takers' positive evaluations of their selfies, revealing notable biases in self-perception."
If you want to continue taking selfies to boost your self-confidence or record how you looked at a certain age, go right ahead. But maybe don't overshare. Others may not be looking at your pictures the same way you do.