“Get out of my selfie!” Narcissism, gender, and motives for self-photography among emerging adults.

Abstract

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.

Predicting Selfie-Posting Behavior Through Self-Esteem, Narcissism and Exhibitionism Among Indian Young Youth

“…Kapidzic (2013) has found that narcissism is a strong predictor of selfie-posting behavior. A narcissist is more likely to share selfies on social networking sites than others (Wang et al, 2012).A sample of 276 college students confirmed that grandiose and exhibitionistic forms of narcissism are significant predictors of selfie-posting behavior (Koterba et al, 2021).…”

Associations between Highly Visual Social Media Use and Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating– A Changing Landscape

“…Females are more likely to take personal and group sel es, post personal sel es, crop photos and use photographic lters as compared to male counterparts (51). Though no gender difference emerged from sel es taken alone (52), sel es featuring others were more common among females (53). Sel e posting among females show a stronger association with leadership and/or authority, while male's use of sel e seems to be linked to ideas of entitlement and exploitation (54).…”

How to know who you are through your short video selfies?—Capturing personality via short video selfies

“… Kaurin et al (2018) coded the recent selfies uploaded on social media and found that extraversion was positively associated with selfies with a pet. In addition, research has shown a connection between narcissistic personality and selfies (e.g., Shane-Simpson et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Koterba et al, 2021 ). For example, Wang et al (2020) found that narcissistic individuals are more likely to post their selfies on social media because they are satisfied with their bodies.…”