Emerging adults, defined as individuals between the ages of 18 and 29, are the most common users of social media. In addition, more than half of emerging adults have shared a "selfie," or a photograph taken of oneself, on social media. Selfies have been linked to various aspects of narcissism, though there is some evidence that this may vary by gender and age. The present study aimed to unpack links between gender, narcissism, and selfie-taking behaviors and to document motives for taking selfies. A total of 276 college students (218 females) between ages 17 and 29 years (M ϭ 20.03 years, SD ϭ 1.81) completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-13 (Gentile et al., 2013) and reported the number of selfies they had taken in the past week that included only themselves and the number that included others. Participants also listed their motives for posting selfies to social media. Results indicate that grandiose and exhibitionistic aspects of narcissism are tied to selfie-taking. Further, though no gender difference emerged for selfies taken alone, selfies featuring others were more common among women. Finally, regardless of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory-13 score, participants frequently cited narcissistic motives for taking selfies. Public Policy Relevance StatementTaking photographs of the self ("selfies") is a cultural phenomenon that is particularly common among college students. However, our results suggest that not all people take selfies in the same way: People who like to show off their bodies are more likely to take selfies, and women are more likely to take selfies that feature other people than men. Further, it seems that those who take selfies tend to engage in self-focused or self-promoting thinking.

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