“It is a naive illusion to think that our image is just an appearance that disappears
Behind him is the substance of the true ego, independent of the view of others.
Milan Kundera, Eternity
You browse social networking sites, and you like what someone you don’t know has posted, and you might just make a quick visit to their profile as if you were entering their house.
I liked the title, and now you're checking out the rest of the details, profile picture, posts, likes, comments, and more.
Well, now you have an idea about the owner of this house, through his tweets, I knew that he only loves black coffee, and owns a home library, so this is the account of an educated person.
You move on to another account, and most of his preferences are pictures of pets, it looks like he has a cat or a dog, and a third account for someone who interacts in comments and replies with accounts discussing politics, and you say to yourself: He must not have an interesting life in the real world.
But, what about their selfies?
Have you tried looking beyond the words and ideas that the authors chose to share in the digital space?
In this article, we discuss how researchers analyze our profile pictures on social media, and how your picture might say what you didn't say about yourself.
Image and Identity: How are our identities formed in the virtual world?
The link between the appearance of the individual and his essence has always been the subject of great interest in the field of psychology, and with the growing role of social media and its impact on most aspects of our lives, the interest of psychologists and sociologists has increased in all aspects related to it, our personal photos and what we choose to put on the front of our pages are not excluded On the communication sites, scientific evidence increases about our ability to infer and predict the personalities of individuals from their photos, and sometimes even more precisely what they disclose about themselves directly and explicitly from publications, comments, or others (1), and you may sometimes be surprised by the ability of even non-specialists to Guess the characters of others and analyze them from the simplest to the smallest detail.It can be said, then, that our images in the digital world are an extension of our identities in the real world. This appears clearly and clearly in the younger generation - in particular - of users of social media. The process of filling out your profile with your information - including your personal image - to some extent reflects part of the image It is more than the process of exploring and developing personal identity.
Perhaps one of the manifestations that supports the link between identity and personal photos is that individuals use them as a tool to express their political positions (2) as we witnessed in the recent war on Gaza and the violations of Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem last year, where communication sites were colored red in an expression of solidarity With Palestine from all over the world, in addition to the blue color in solidarity with Muhammad Matar, one of the victims of the massacre of the sit-in of the General Command in Sudan in 2019, which blue was his favorite color according to his family, or the black color with which the pages of millions around the world were painted in solidarity with the movement. Black Lives Matter" in the United States of America after the killing of the American "George Floyd" during his arrest by the police in 2020.
Is there a relationship between our profile pictures and our personalities?
In order to discuss what the research says about the topic, we will first look at the basis for studying personalities and their many aspects.
In general, many theories have been put forward in personality psychology, which have attempted to divide the multiple traits of the individual and put them into a template or scientific model that can be used in an easy way, but due to the presence of a large number of personality traits, it was difficult to take them all into account in the context of scientific measurement and access For a unified and simplified model at the same time, and here we find that the model of the five major personality traits simplified this complexity well, as it collected and divided the most important features that can be used to describe the individual, and put them in five dimensions that can be viewed as major features under which many Adjectives related and similar to each main feature, which are as follows:
Diastolic (Extraversion):
Extroverts are characterized by their impulsiveness and high activity. They are those who go to a party or social event, so they are the first to notice their presence and high energy.
Conversely, those on the other side of the trait spectrum are less active and involved in social events, and less willing to connect with others.
Psychotherapist Jordan Peterson says that extroverts often see the world as a place full of social opportunity, while introverts see the world as a place they must always escape and spend time alone.
Openness to experience:
This trait is associated with imaginative people, eager for new experiences and adventures that break boring routines, and is closely related to creativity and interest in art and abstract concepts. On the contrary, they do not like change and break with routine, they do not enjoy new experiences much, and they are not interested in abstract ideas that they do not find a place for in reality.
Neuroticism:
Also called emotional anxiety trait, it is the direct opposite of emotional stability trait.
This trait includes negative emotions of all kinds. We find that neurotic people, or those who have this trait in particular, respond more negatively to life problems and pressures, are less emotionally stable, and experience feelings of anxiety, anger and mood swings more than others, of course, and it is worth noting They are also the group most likely to develop depression, chronic anxiety, bipolar and other mood disorders.
Agreeableness:
Empathic, always sacrificing, always striving to avoid collisions and disagreements, and caring about the opinions of others around them, is the most important characteristic of highly agreeable people.
On the other side of this spectrum is the trait of aggression. Hostiles also sacrifice, but they sacrifice the peace and harmony of the environment around them in exchange for asserting their point of view or obtaining their endeavours. They are also usually less sensitive to the feelings of others, more competitive in the workplace, and not satisfied what is offered to them.
Conscientiousness:
This trait is associated with discipline, diligence, planned behavior, and self-discipline.
This trait is more likely to be present in friends who have achieved academic success or proven themselves in leadership positions, and you may not be surprised to learn that a significant number of studies have observed and emphasized the inverse relationship between it and procrastination, with low discipline people tending to They practice procrastination as a way of life, and often have difficulty completing the tasks required of them.
What does my profile picture say about me then?
Many studies have studied the potential relationships between personal photos and the Big Five traits of users of different social media sites, mostly by using artificial intelligence programs to analyze the personal photos of large numbers of users and draw conclusions about their personalities.
In a famous study conducted in 2016, a number of researchers collected data and personal photos for more than 66,000 personal accounts on the Twitter platform, and analyzed several components in their personal photos, starting with the contents of the main photo and whether it included the person alone or other faces with him, In addition to the contrast and sharpness of colors in the image, personal features and facial expressions, even the smallest details, such as the ratio between the area occupied by a person’s face to the size of the entire image, and then by comparing the results of the analysis with the five characteristics expected of their owners, I came to several conclusions that we review as follows:
The diversity of your life experiences is related to not putting pictures of your face
It was found that people who were open to experiences were more likely to not include their faces in their selfies, but rather other things.
This - according to the study - is consistent with the fact that they do not tend to go along with what is expected and usual (to show their faces in the space designated for this as is customary), and characteristics such as contrast and sharpness in image quality were more clear to them, which is consistent with their artistic sense and their inclinations. Creative, then you can assume that your friend who puts the painting “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son” is a portrait of him;
He will be excited to accompany you on your skydiving experience!
Social people choose color photos
On the other hand, if you belong to the category of extroverts, then it is likely that you are among the most distinct and visible in the diversity of colors in their photos (Colorfulness), and you are the only one among the five traits whose photos suggest that they are younger than their real age, and in this Context Also, you're less likely to appear in glasses in your profile picture, which we often associate with introverts (as opposed to extroverts), like your classmate who rarely socializes and prefers to sit on the last seat.In addition, the higher your extraversion trait, the more likely it is that your profile picture is not just you, you are more likely than others to put a picture that shows you in the middle of a group of your colleagues and friends, which was also confirmed by a study that analyzed the profile pictures of Facebook users (3) , in contrast to the harmonic and highly disciplined, who tend to stick to what is expected of others to see in their personal photos, that is, only their faces.
Your sadness is revealed by your profile picture
Here, it is worth telling those who are open to experiments that the study found that their expressions also may suggest negative feelings in their pictures, such as sadness or anger, but to a lesser degree than those who showed the trait of neuroticism in their accounts, and this may be explained by their interest in standards of beauty and creativity in their personal pictures;
Which may require them to show some seriousness in the features of their photos.
One of the most important differences between neuroticism, on the one hand, and conscientiousness and consociationalism, on the other, was the nature of the colors contained in the image. As you might expect, those with negative emotions tend to have less intense and varied colors, and may use black and white images only, while On the other hand, the colors in the harmonics and those with high tunability are more cheerful and contain colors (4).
Seduction mania: Pictures that express the narcissism of their owners
However, even apart from studies that looked at the five personality traits, we find other dimensions that were the focus of studies. For example, several studies looked at the narcissistic trait of social media users, and found that those who applied this trait more than others were They are the ones who post more physically attractive pictures compared to others, and when the researchers asked them to rate their own pictures and pictures of others, their rating of their pictures was higher than their evaluation of others' pictures, that is, they actually think that they look more beautiful than them (5) (6), and it was also found They update their profile pictures more frequently than others (6).
It is worth noting here that narcissism has had a clear share of interest among researchers in social media, where a correlation is being studied between it and several dimensions, such as activity rate and appearance on websites, status updates, and sharing of photos, personal photos, and others.
Here, we find an interesting link between narcissism and selfies in particular, and a study suggested that positive comments and attention that users receive on those photos enhances their positive view of themselves, raises narcissism, and increases their participation rate (7). In an endless cycle of implicate the media makers with their mirror.
Do I put my profile picture as my account picture?
what is the difference?
Several studies have also examined the differences between the sexes and the impact of this on the choice of personal pictures, and concluded that females try to show more emotion in their pictures, such as putting their pictures with family members or with the emotional partner, more than males whose main goal was to emphasize their sense of pleasure. and adventure in their personal photos (8).
It might make sense now that you're recalling profile pictures of your personal account or the accounts of your acquaintances and friends and sorting them based on what the studies say.
A recent study also looked at the relationship between the look of a user's selfie and level of satisfaction, and found that those who use their own self-portrait (the image of their face) as a selfie report a higher level of life satisfaction than those who use other forms of selfies (9).
Cat lovers are different from dog lovers in their personalities
As for the level of photos of pets and about the eternal rivalry between cat and dog lovers, we find that research has studied the differences between their personalities and patterns based on their preferences for pets, but these research did not specifically include the analysis of personal photos on social media and linking them to the traits of individuals and their personalities, but its main goal was to measure Personality traits based on an individual’s tendency to own a dog or cat as a pet, and accordingly studies linking personal photos and personality analysis appeared later, as the user’s personal image containing a cat or dog is an indicator of his preferences (10)(11).
In this context, a group of researchers analyzed nearly 62,000 Twitter user profiles, and found that a total of 17,
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Sources:
(1) The Effects of Verbal Versus Photographic Self-Presentation on Impression Formation in Facebook.
Journal of Communication 2012
(2) Changing Facebook Profile Pictures as Part of a Campaign: Who Does It and Why?
2015
(3) What Your Facebook Profile Picture Reveals about Your Personality.
Proceedings of the 25th ACM international conference on Multimedia.
(4) Analyzing Personality through Social Media Profile Picture Choice |
Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media
(5) Do Facebook Profile Pictures Reflect User's Personality?
Computers in Human Behavior 2015
(6) The Role of Narcissism in Self-Promotion on Instagram.
Personality and Individual Differences 2016
(7) "Selfie-Ists" or "Narci-Selfiers"?: A Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis of Selfie Taking and Narcissism.
Personality and Individual Differences 2016.
(8) Gender Differences in Facebook Self-Presentation: An International Randomized Study.
Computers in Human Behavior 2014
(9) Profile Pictures in the Digital World: Self-Photographs Predict Better Life Satisfaction.
Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021,
(10) Personalities of Self-Identified “Dog People” and “Cat People.”
2015
(11) Personality Characteristics of Dog and Cat Persons.
2015
(12) Personality Profiles of 'Cat' and 'Dog People' in Social Media |
Small Studies Big Data http://wwbp.org/blog/personality-profiles-of-cat-and-dog-people-in-social-media/