Narcissism And Selfie-Posting Behavior

Participants

The initial sample consisted of 145 undergraduate students who had ever posted their own selfies on SNSs from a university in China. After removing five incomplete surveys, the final sample was composed of 151 participants, among which, 95(62. 86% ) were male and 56(37. 14%) were female. The participants’ ages ranged from 16 to 24, with an average age of 20 years (SD = 1. 44). The average age of participants was 21(SD = 3. 70).

Materials and Procedure

Ethical approval was gained from the first researcher’s University Ethics Committee. Self-report questionnaires were completed in a quiet classroom after obtaining informed consent. It took about 8 min to complete all the questionnaires. All the participants were free to withdraw from the study at any time. The anonymity of the study was emphasized before data collection.

Means, standard deviations, and zero-order correlations for all study variables were presented in Table 1. Results showed that narcissism, body satisfaction, and attitude toward selfie posting behavior were significantly correlated with selfie posting behavior positively. In addition, narcissism and attitude toward selfie-posting behavior were positively associated with body satisfaction. To sum up, there were three questions that were addressed. The first question asks the participant to choose the one picture that they think Emma should use in updating her profile. The second question asks participants to guess when Emma last updated her profile picture. The third question asks the participants to guess how frequently Emma posts her thoughts or pictures on Instagram. Again, participants who see the selfie pictures will probably think she posts more frequently than the other conditions.

Part I consisted of open ended questions which consisted of the Emma wood profile picture, period for her last update of the profile picture and lastly the time interval of posting pictures or thoughts.

Part II and Part III consisted of scaled questions on EMMAs general description and the real impression. There are ten questions about Emma that participants will complete, all of which use an interval scale of 0 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree). Here, participants rated Emma as more self-absorbed, selfish, narcissistic, or egotistical. These were our main independent variables in our study.

The participants were appreciated for participating in the study. They were debriefed the purpose of the study on how selfies impact the impressions about Instagram users.

The five participants who did not complete the questionnaires were ignored and were not analyzed in this paper.

Results

Table 1 shows the zero-order, bivariate correlations between all variables that were subsequently included in the cross-lagged model. The results of this preliminary analysis show that the correlations between frequency of taking selfies and narcissism levels as revealed, in the selfie, groupie and professional studies. There was strong evidence of a positive reinforcement between selfie behavior and narcissism (M= 2. 8889, SD = 1. 25098). On the one hand, after controlling inertial effects and contemporaneous relationships, the cross-lagged effect of narcissism on groupie and professional behavior was less positive and significant as it recalled in our study. “Groupie” participants gave Emma a lower narcissism rating (M = 2. 6429 SD = 1. 34021) whereas “Professional” participants gave Emma the lowest narcissism rating (M = 2. 809,SD = 1 1. 25403). The data from the study also showed significant relationship between the last time of Emma updating her status and the frequency of posting her status.

We ran a chi square looking at the frequencies to determine best Emma’s behavior. By Using the photo conditions our independent variable (selfie, groupie, or professional) and the photo participants recalled seeing as the dependent variable, we saw a significant effect, χ2(2) = 0. 832, p=. 0660. Most participants in the selfie condition recalled selfies (72 PARTICIPANTS); most participants in the groupie condition recalled seeing groupies(42 participants); and most participants in professional photo condition recalled seeing professional photos (37 participants). This indicates that participants saw our manipulation as intended

I ran an ANOVA on the dependent variable “Emma seems selfish “Using the photo condition(selfie v. groupie v. professional) as our independent variable and ratings of “Emma seems selfish” as the dependent variable, we found a significant condition effect, F(2, 150) = 0. 421, p=. 657. Turkey post hoc tests showed that participants thought Emma seemed more selfish in the selfie condition (M = 2. 8889, SD = 1. 25098) than participants in both the groupie(M = 2. 6429 SD = 1. 34021) and professional(M = 2. 7838, SD = 1. 65219) conditions. The groupie and professional conditions, however, did not differ from each other. This supports our prediction that participants exposed to selfies are more likely to rate Emma high in selfishness than those who are exposed to groupies or professional photos. ”

Using the priming condition (groupie vs. professional) as our independent variable and ratings of “Emma seems selfish” as our dependent variable, we did not found a significant condition effect, t(77) =. 418, p>. 05. Participants rated Emma as less selfish in the professional condition (M = 2. 7838, SD = 1. 65219) than participants in the professional condition (M = 2. 6429,SD=1. 34021).

ALSO Using the priming condition (groupie v. professional) as our independent variable and ratings of Emma seems happy as our dependent variable, we found a significant condition effect, t(77) =. 961, p>. 05. Participants rated Emma as more selfish in the GROUPIE condition (M=2. 5135,SD=1. 48364) than participants in the professional condition ((M=2. 8095,SD=1. 25403)).

With the priming condition (selfie v. professional) as our independent variable and ratings of “Emma seems shy” as our dependent variable, we did not found a significant condition effect t(77) =. 263, p>. 05. Participants rated Emma as more selfish in the selfie condition (M = 2. 5135, SD = 1. 48364) than participants in the professional condition (M = 2. 809,SD = 1 1. 25403)

With the priming condition (selfie v. professional) as our independent variable and ratings of Emma seems downed as our dependent variable, we did not found a significant condition effect t(107) = 1. 374, p>. 05. Participants rated Emma as more selfish in the selfie condition (M=2. 8750,SD=1. 20956)than participants in the professional condition (M=2. 5135,SD=1. 46480)

Discussion

This study expands research on how selfies are interpreted. Our findings indicate that including a selfie with a INSTAGRAM post alters interpretations of message appropriateness, perceived poster narcissism, and social attractiveness. Gender of the selfie poster did not influence judgments in our sample.

Our results contribute to research about the relationship between selfies and narcissism. While other studies have

Considered the role of narcissism in producing selfies,12,13 we demonstrated that people are more likely to judge INSTAGRAM selfie posters to be narcissists than those who post messages without selfies.