If you're feeling pretty proud of your selfie game these days, here's a little something to make you feel even more awesome (OK, or potentially way less awesome) about your snapshots: A new study published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior found that how you take a selfie could give insight into your personality — or at least clue you in to how others might perceive you. (So yes, those one-handed, #fromabove shots you love to take could actually say something about you beyond the fact that you're looking straight-up fierce today.)
"Little is known about how selfies reflect their owners' personality traits and how people judge others' personality from selfies," wrote study authors in their abstract. But for their research, which was conducted at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, they aimed to take a closer look at the psychological implications. In doing so, they surveyed 123 popular selfie-takers from the website Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging platform — first by having study participants take a personality test, and then by having a separate group of 107 students assess them.
Granted, said group of students weren't exactly experts in the field of science per se, but it's safe to say in general that a group of college kids sure are experts in the field of selfies. (So you know, that's basically a science, right?) But here's what was really interesting about the study: According to researchers, "a person's selfie corresponded well with their own self-evaluation of their personality." In other words, how you'd describe your own personality vs. what kind of selfies you take are pretty much on point with one another. But for participants who had to guess the personality traits of the selfie-taker, the results were mixed; they only hit the nail on the head when it came to the traits of extraversion and openness.
So even though it's apparently pretty hard to tell what someone else's personality may be like based on their selfies alone, they can tell you something about your own. Researchers used 13 aspects of selfie-taking to develop a personality methodology, and believe me, it'll definitely reveal some things about your inner-self. Check it out below, and see what your go-to poses have to say.
1. If You Make A Duckface...
You score pretty highly on the emotional instability scale and are also possibly neurotic. (Yikes.)
2. If You Hide The Location of Your Selfie...
You score highly when it comes to conscientiousness and (spoiler alert) are also pretty concerned with privacy.
3. If You Hold the Camera Low...
You also score highly on agreeableness, and are therefore probably awesome to be around. (Go you!)
4. If You Smile or Laugh...
You're most likely very open to new experiences... and, you know, love to laugh. (But who doesn't?)
5. If You Look Directly Into The Camera...
You're totes friendly — and super confident.
6. If You Look Like You're Having Fun...
...you probably are! But also, you too score pretty highly on the agreeableness scale. Which is awesome.
Now go on and break out your selfie stick. You've got some low-positioned photos to take while staring directly into the camera and laughing your face off.
Images: Hope Marie, Erin McKelle, Chrissy Teigen , katriinaisberg, raaachbee, emiliathehoe/Instagram
