Selfie-Objectification: Does Taking One’s Own Picture Increase Levels of State Self-Objectification among College Females?

The current experiment investigated the effects of taking a selfie on self-objectification. In the experiment, 107 women either took 5 selfies, unlimited selfies, had 5 photos taken of them, or had no photos taken. Participants completed an Objectified Body Consciousness Scale and 10 “I am” statements, which were coded for self-objectification. Women in the unlimited selfie condition made more appearance-based self-statements than those whose photos were not taken

Effects of Body Shape on Literal Objectification: When Ideal May Be Less Than Ideal

Objectification, or the tendency to adopt an externalized view of self/other, is a ubiquitous process disproportionately affecting women (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Recent work has examined literal objectification, defined as “any outcome in which a person is perceived as, or behaves, objectlike, relative to humanlike” (Heflick & Goldenberg, 2014, p. 225). Focusing on women’s physical appearance heightens literal objectification, including reduced perceptions of warmth, competence, and morality (Heflick et al., 2011). We investigated whether participants’ ratings of literal objectification vary as a function of body type. Seventy-one college women (Mage = 19.23) viewed three photos of women, manipulated to depict low, average, and high ideal body shapes. Participants rated the degree to which each woman possessed competence, warmth and morality, and their desire to collaborate on a group project with them. Average images were rated as significantly higher on warmth, morality, and collaboration desirability than high ideal and low ideal images, and marginally more competent than high ideal images. High ideal images were rated as significantly lower on warmth and marginally lower on collaboration desirability than low ideal images. Future research should extend this work to evaluate behavioral manifestations of literal objectification and explore what other factors might moderate these effects

Knowing Your World through Social Media

This panel discusses how social media may shape users\u27 knowledge, worldview, and even relationships. These media can make us feel like we know a lot about other people, events, and issues. But how much do we really know? How accurate is information spread through social media? Who is trying to persuade us using social media? And what does it mean to be a friend or follower online? The panelists, four experts who represent politics, journalism, public relations, and psychology, explore these questions in a wide-ranging discussion

What Do You Think about Ink?

Using a modified IAT, we examined both implicit and explicit attitudes toward tattooed individuals. Participants demonstrated a negative implicit bias toward tattoos. Correlations between implicit and explicit measures were mixed, suggesting the benefit of assessing implicit and explicit attitudes

Unselfish traits and social decision-making patterns characterize six populations of real-world extraordinary altruists

Here, the authors show that real-world extraordinary altruists, including heroic rescuers and altruistic kidney donors, are distinguished by unusually unselfish traits and decision-making patterns. This pattern was not predicted by a general sample of adults who were asked what traits would characterize altruists