When the camera does lie: Selfies are dishonest indicators of dominance.

Abstract

Photographic self-portraits, or selfies, are used for a variety of reasons. Research has shown that selfies taken from below make the person appear more dominant. The current research explores whether selfies offer an honest depiction of a person’s personality. It was also explored how people change the visual properties of selfies for different situations. Seventy five participants took two selfies of themselves in two scenarios: either for a CV for a job application or for a dating website. Participants’ personality characteristics of warmth and dominance were also recorded. Differences in the two scenarios showed that participants were more likely to rotate their head slightly for the dating scenario than for the CV scenario and they were also more likely to use a lower camera angle for the CV scenario than the dating scenario suggesting that they were aware that a lower camera angle makes one appear more dominant. Personality characteristics correlated with elevation of the selfies. People who were more dominant tended to use a higher camera angle, which, ironically, previous research shows produces an image that appears less dominant. Selfies, therefore, can be seen as a dishonest depiction of personality.