رفتار ارسال عکس سلفی با خود شیفتگی در مردان ارتباط دارد

Although many studies have investigated individual differences in online social networking, few have examined the recent and rapidly popularized social phenomenon of the “selfie” (a selfportrait photograph of oneself). In two studies with a pooled sample of 1296 men and women, we tested the prediction that individuals who score high on four narcissism sub-scales (Self-sufficiency, Vanity, Leadership, and Admiration Demand) will be more likely to post selfies to social media sites than will individuals who exhibit low narcissism. We examined three categories of selfies: own selfies; selfies with a romantic partner; and group selfies, controlling for non-selfie photographs. Women posted more selfies of all types than did men. However, women’s selfie-posting behavior was generally unrelated to their narcissism scores. In contrast, men’s overall narcissism scores positively predicted posting own selfies, selfies with a partner, and group selfies. Moreover, men’s Vanity, Leadership, and Admiration Demand scores each independently predicted the posting of one or more types of selfies. Our findings provide the first evidence that the link between narcissism and selfie-posting behavior is comparatively weak among women than men, and provide novel insight into the social motivations and functions of online social networking.

Social media, including online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, have developed at an extreme rate over the last several years (Chou et al., 2009 and Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Common usages of social media, and its relative novelty, are related to an emergence of new psychological and social phenomena (Back et al., 2010, Błachnio et al., 2013, Houghton and Joinson, 2010, Nadkarni and Hofmann, 2012 and Ross et al., 2009), some of which have yet to be thoroughly investigated. Many researchers have examined individual differences in social media usage. The results of these studies suggest that social media activity is related to characteristics of the Five Factor Model (Ross et al., 2009 and Ryan and Xenos, 2011) and jealousy (Muise, Christofides, & Desmarais, 2009). Narcissism has also been shown to predict online social activity. Researchers have found that individuals characterized by relatively elevated narcissism are egocentric, have a sense of grandiosity, dominance, and entitlement, and perceive themselves as more attractive and better than others, but – importantly – are still marked by insecurity (Fox and Rooney, 2015 and Raskin and Terry, 1988). Researchers studying narcissism have generally suggested a positive association between this characteristic and social media usage (Buffardi and Campbell, 2008, Carpenter, 2012, Lee et al., 2014, McKinney et al., 2012, Mehdizadeh, 2010 and Ryan and Xenos, 2011). However, closer examination of previous studies reveals many negative results, methodological limitations, or only partial confirmation of this thesis (Deters et al., 2014, McKinney et al., 2012, Panek et al., 2013 and Skues et al., 2012). Because narcissists tend to be exhibitionistic, attention seeking, and highly concerned with their physical appearance (Vazire, Naumann, Rentfrow, & Gosling, 2008), it seems logical to predict that narcissistic individuals may be more likely to post their pictures on social media than others. Narcissism has been found to be a significant predictor of the motivation for selecting profile pictures (Kapidzic, 2013), and narcissistic users are more likely to upload their attractive photos on social media than are less narcissistic users (Wang, Jackson, Zhang, & Su, 2012). Ong and colleagues (2011) additionally reported that narcissists assessed the attractiveness of their online pictures as unobjectively high (i.e., higher than ratings obtained from their peers). It remains unclear, however, whether narcissists post more pictures on social media than do others. For example, Ryan and Xenos (2011) did not find any significant relationship between narcissism and the number of profile pictures or number of tagged pictures posted on Facebook. Similar findings were reported by Ong and colleagues (2011). Previous inconsistencies in studies examining links between narcissism and social media usage may be due to the possibility that narcissism is related to the posting of only a specific picture type, i.e., “selfies”. Because this word is relatively new and has yet to attain a definite, clear definition, we have operationalized the word selfie for the purpose of this study. Based on online dictionaries (Selfie, 2015a and Selfie, 2015b) and other Internet sources we propose to define a selfie as: a self-portrait photograph of oneself (or of oneself and other people), taken with a camera or a camera phone held at arm’s length or pointed at a mirror, that is usually shared through social media. According to this definition (and consistent with real-life observations), selfies include not only self-portraits taken alone, but also photographs taken of oneself with a partner or a group of people. Selfies in fact have a long history dating back to the early beginnings of photography. The first selfies are thought to have been taken independently by an American amateur photographer, Robert Cornelius, and an English inventor, Charles Wheatstone around the year 1840 (Wade, 2014). However, the most dynamic development in this phenomenon is its extreme and recent increase in usage in social media. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word selfie was first used in 2002, and already within a decade, “selfie” was chosen as Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year (Selfie, 2015a). Indeed, the word’s frequency increased in usage by 17,000% between the years 2012 and 2013. Presently, selfies are taken by millions of people all over the world every day, including politicians (Presidents Obama and Putin and the previous Iranian President Ahmadinejad), actors, musicians, sportsmen, and even astronauts in outer space. Surprisingly, there are practically no psychological studies regarding selfies, with the exception of one recent study assessing trait predictors of social networking site usage (Fox & Rooney, 2015). In this study, Fox & Rooney found that narcissism and psychopathy predicted the number of selfies posted by men. Although the current study is not meant to be a replication of this work, as we began conducting the research before Fox and Rooney‘s paper was published, our findings are an interesting extension of their results. In the present study, we are the first to test whether narcissism predicts selfie posting behavior in both men and women. In addition to analyzing the results separately for each sub-scale of narcissism (Self-sufficiency, Vanity, Leadership, and Admiration Demand), we divided selfie posting behavior into three meaningful categories: own selfies, selfies with a romantic partner, and group selfies, controlling for the total number of photos (excluding selfies) posted by each participant on social media sites. Moreover, conducting our study in Poland enables us to draw some conclusions regarding the cultural universality of relationships between narcissism and taking selfies.

In summary, although researchers have investigated correlates of narcissism in social media usage (Lee et al., 2014, McKinney et al., 2012 and Mehdizadeh, 2010), in our study we tested whether narcissism subscales predicted selfie-posting on social media and whether this relationship differed between men and women. We found that relationships between narcissism and selfie-posting differed as a function of user sex, type of selfie, and type of narcissism subscale. In general, narcissism predicted selfie-posting behavior more strongly among men than women. Despite the fact that most online social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were launched within the past decade, already tens of millions of people around the world take part in online social networking. Yet the social, cognitive and psychological implications of such computer-mediated interaction remain largely unknown. Our findings, which connect the rapidly increasing social phenomenon of posting selfie photographs to various online sites with narcissistic tendencies particularly among men, support the hypothesis that the motivations and functions of online social networking may in part reflect strategic self-presentation. Further studies of this type may provide new insights into how social networking allows people to manage and develop not only their social networks, but also their self-concept.