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

Abeles, Margaret

DeWeese, Mariah

Geesey, Maren

Kozak Williams, Megan

Linder, Jennifer Ruh

Reynolds, Anastasia C.

Tompkins, Tanya

English

DigitalCommons@Linfield

	•  Objec'ﬁca'on	theory	posits	that	women	who	are	objec'ﬁed	perceive	themselves	from	a	third-person	perspec've,	as	an	object	to	be	evaluated	based	on	external,	rather	than	internal,	traits 	•  This	tendency,	called	self-objec'ﬁca'on	(SO),	is	associated	with	decreased	cogni've	ﬂuency,	increased	disordered	ea'ng	and	body	monitoring,	and	lower	well-being	(Fredrickson	et	al.,	1998)	•  Body-objec'fying	situa'ons	can	increase	self-objec'ﬁca'on	(SO)	(Daniels,	2009;	Frederickson	&	Roberts,	1997;	Gay	&	Castano,	2010;	Harper	&	Tiggemann,	2008)	•  With	the	inven'on	of	smartphones,	selﬁe	taking	has	increased,	which	poses	the	risk	that	a	person	may	come	to	adopt	an	externalized	view	of	him	or	herself	•  Although	research	has	found	that	pos'ng	photos	(including	selﬁes)	on	social	media	is	associated	with	SO	(Meier	&	Gray,	2013),	it	is	unclear	whether	the	act	of	taking	a	selﬁe	is	objec'fying		Ques%on:	Does	taking	a	selﬁe,	especially	if	one	is	allowed	to	take	an	unlimited	number	of	selﬁes,	lead	to	higher	levels	of	self-objec'ﬁca'on	than	either	having	a	photo	taken	or	no	photo	taken?					  107	female	college	students:		•  Mean	age:	19.21	(SD=	1.07)		•  Primarily	White/Caucasian	(63.8%),	Mul'ple	Races	(14.3%),	Asian	(9.5%),	La'no	or	Hispanic	(8.6%),	Na've	Hawaiian	or	Paciﬁc	Islander	(2.9%),	American	Indian	or	Alaskan	Na've	(1%)					Introduction & Aims Method (Participants) 	•  No	diﬀerences	across	condi'ons	in	trait	self-objec'ﬁca'on	or	demographics	were	found,	sugges'ng	that	random	assignment	was	successful			•  Overall	self-objec'ﬁca'on	levels	were	low,	but	a	marginal	eﬀect	of	condi'on	on	appearance-based	statements	was	found,	F(3,	100)=	1.61,	p=.192		•  Planned	comparisons	revealed	that	women	in	the	selﬁe	unlimited	condi'on	made	signiﬁcantly	more	appearance-based	statements	than	those	in	the	no	photo	condi'on,		t	(100)=	2.18	p=.03	•  None	of	the	other	planned	comparisons	were	signiﬁcant		•  No	signiﬁcant	diﬀerences	were	found	across	condi'ons	for	number	of	body-shape	statements	or	for	valence	(coded	or	self-report)	of	either	other	physical	appearance	or	body	shape/size	statements		•  Interes'ngly,	there	was	only	moderate	agreement	in	self-reported	valence	ra'ngs	and	consensus	valence	ra'ngs	made	by	coders	(average	kappa	=	.6)		 •  This	study	represents	one	of	the	ﬁrst	afempts	to	understand	the	eﬀects	of	taking	a	selﬁe	on	levels	of	self-objec'ﬁca'on			•  The	results	are	in	accordance	with	past	research	showing	that	greater	amounts	of	'me	spent	speciﬁcally	on	photo	ac'vity	is	associated	with	self-objec'fying	thoughts	(Meier	&	Gray,	2013)	•  Given	the	ﬁnding	of	higher	appearance-based	statements	in	the	unlimited	selﬁe	condi'on,	there	may	be	a	rela'onship	between	the	number	of	selﬁes	taken	and	levels	of	self-objec'ﬁca'on		Future	Research	•  Future	research	should	extend	this	work	to	evaluate	condi'ons	that	amplify	objec'ﬁca'on,	especially	in	the	real-world	context	of	selﬁes	posted	in	social	media		•  The	moderate	level	of	agreement	between	par'cipants’	self-ra'ngs	of	valence	and	those	made	by	blind	coders	suggests	that	addi'onal	research	focusing	on	the	validity	of	the	TST	(speciﬁcally	for	ra'ngs	of	valence)	would	be	beneﬁcial	•  Future	research	should	extend	this	work	to	evaluate	the	use	of	ﬁlters	and	picture-edi'ng	tools	Conclusion Results 			A	cover	story	was	used	to	lead	par'cipants	to	believe	that	they	were	par'cipa'ng	in	a	study	about	impression	forma'on.	At	the	beginning	of	the	study,	they	were	asked	to	rate	a	photo	of	a	ﬁc''ous	par'cipant	and,	if	they	were	randomly	assigned	to	one	of	the	selﬁe	or	photo	condi'ons,	they	were	told	to	choose	a	photo	that	they	believed	would	be	viewed	by	a	subsequent	par'cipant	as	part	of	an	impression	forma'on	task			 		 	 																	Objec'ﬁed	Body	Consciousness	Scale	(OBCS;	McKinley	&	Hyde,	1996):	This	is	a	self-report	measure	of	body	consciousness	with	24	items	rated	on	a	7-point	scale	(1	=	strongly	disagree	to	7	=	strongly	agree)	yielding	three	subscales,	where	higher	scores	reﬂect	greater	body	consciousness:		•  Body	surveillance	(e.g.,	“during	the	day,	I	think	about	how	I	look	many	'mes”)	•  Body	shame	(e.g.,	“when	I	am	not	the	size	I	think	I	should	be,	I	feel	ashamed”)	•  Appearance	control	beliefs	(e.g.,	“I	can	weigh	what	I’m	supposed	to	when	I	try	hard	enough”)		Ten	Statement	Test	(TST;	Kuhn	&	McPartland,	1954):	This	measure	is	a	modiﬁed	version	of	the	Twenty	Statement	Test,	in	which	par'cipants	complete	10	"I	am..._____"	statements.	Each	statement	was	independently	coded	(kappa	=	.73)	by	three	raters,	who	were	blind	to	condi'on	and	study	hypotheses,	into	one	of	6	categories:	1)	body	shape/size,	2)	other	physical	appearance,	3)	physical	competence,	4)	traits/abili'es,	5)	states/emo'ons,	and	6)	uncodable.	Addi'onally,	each	statement	was	also	coded	for	valence	(posi've,	nega've	or	neutral).	Par'cipants	were	also	asked	to	rate	each	of	the	10	statements	they	produced	on	valence	 Self-Objec'ﬁca'on	Ques'onnaire	(SOQ;	Noll	&	Fredrickson,	1998):	This	was	a	modiﬁed	version	of	the	SOQ,	that	asked	par'cipants	to	rank	10	afributes	of	their	physical	self-concept	in	that	moment,	in	terms	of	importance	on	a	9-point	scale	(0=least	to	9=most).	The	diﬀerence	between	5	appearance-based	(e.g.,	afrac'veness)	responses	and	5	competence-based	(e.g.,	strength)	responses	were	computed	with	higher	scores	reﬂec'ng	higher	levels	of	trait	self-objec'ﬁca'on																Anastasia	C.	Reynolds,	Margaret	S.	Abeles,	Mariah	J.	DeWeese,	Maren	E.	Geesey,		Megan	Kozak	Williams,	Tanya	L.	Tompkins,	&	Jennifer	R.	Linder		Linﬁeld	College	0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 Selﬁe-Limited	 Selﬁe-Unlimited	 Photo	Taken	 No	photo	Average	Number	of	TST	Appearance	Based	Statements	Results Method (Measures) Method (Procedure)   Selﬁe	Limited	(N=27)	 Selﬁe	Unlimited	(N=25)	Photo	Taken	(N=22)	 No	Photo	(N=30)	•  Takes	5	selﬁes	•  Chooses	one	to	“show	to	next	par'cipant”	•  Takes	unlimited	number	of	selﬁes	(M=5.28,	SD=	4.27)	•  Chooses	one	to	“show	to	next	par'cipant”	•  Experimenter	takes	5	photos	of	par'cipant	•  Par'cipant	chooses	one	to	“show	to	next	par'cipant”	•  No	photos	taken	hfp://'nyurl.com/APS2017selﬁe	Selﬁe-objec%ﬁca%on:	Does	Taking	One’s	Own	Picture	Increase	Levels	of	State		Self-Objec%ﬁca%on	Among	College	Females?		TST	SOQ	 Addi'onal	Fillers	 Demographics	OBCS	Filler	Task	 Self-Rated	Valence	of	TST	 

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

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

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