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Narcissism, psychopathy greater among men who post selfies online

Men who posted more online photos of themselves – or selfies – showed greater levels of narcissism and psychopathy, according to results from an online survey.

“It’s not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study,” Jesse Fox, PhD, of the Ohio State University, said in a press release. “The more interesting finding is that they also score higher on this other anti-social personality trait, psychopathy, and are more prone to self-objectification.”

The online survey assessed trait predictors of social networking usage and two forms of visual self-presentation: editing an image posted on social networking websites, and posting “selfies.” The researchers included a nationally representative sample of 800 U.S. men aged 18 to 40 years.

They found that trait self-objectification, narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy and age were all linked to time spent on social networking websites.

Although age, narcissism and trait self-objectification were significant predictors, psychopathy and Machiavellianism were not, researchers wrote.

However, narcissism, psychopathy, time spent on social networking websites and the number of other photos posted were related to the number of selfies posted, researchers wrote.

“Those higher in narcissism and psychopathy reported posting selfies more frequently,” the researchers wrote. “Narcissists and individuals high in self-objectification more frequently edited photos of themselves that they posted to [social networking sites].”

Disclosure: See the study for a full list of researchers’ relevant financial disclosures.