New research published in Computers in Human Behavior provides evidence that heightened self-objectification — where women view their bodies as objects for external judgment — is linked to hostile attitudes towards selfies posted by other women. This hostility is especially pronounced when the selfie posters are perceived as seeking attention.
Nearly 4.5 billion people worldwide are engaged with social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which serve as stages for self-expression and social interaction. Selfies, or self-portraits taken with a smartphone or camera, have become a fundamental part of these platforms, particularly among young women.
Prior studies have shown that the act of taking selfies can both influence and be influenced by self-objectification. However, less is known about how this self-perception affects women’s attitudes towards the selfies of others. The current study aims to fill this gap by exploring the nexus between self-objectification, perceived attention-seeking, and hostility in viewing other women’s selfies.
The new study, led by Xijing Wang of City University of Hong Kong and Lei Cheng of Fujian Normal University, aimed to fill this gap by exploring the relationships between self-objectification, perceived attention-seeking, and hostility in viewing other women’s selfies.
“The exponential growth of social network sites (SNSs), such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, has remarkably fulfilled users’ desires for self-expression and social interaction. Among the various aspects of the online social experience, sharing selfies has emerged as one of the most prominent activities,” explained Wang, an assistant professor of social and behavioural sciences.
“It is important to note that social media is highly interactive, allowing individuals not only to share their own selfies but also to explore and comment on others’ selfies. Given that social media content primarily originates from peers, SNSs actively encourage users to engage in commenting on photos, with these comments being publicly displayed below the image for all to see.”
“The potential impact of these comments on other SNS users and the overall online platform atmosphere cannot be underestimated. Consequently, comprehending how individuals respond to peer selfies is an intriguing and vital psychological inquiry.”
The researchers conducted a series of studies to explore both the psychological underpinnings and behavioral manifestations of self-objectification’s impact on social media interactions.
Studies 1a and 1b aimed to examine the cross-sectional relationship between women’s self-objectification and their attitudes toward peers’ selfies, specifically focusing on how perceived attention-seeking motivation might mediate this relationship. These studies employed a survey-based methodology to collect data.
In Study 1a, researchers gathered a sample of 217 heterosexual female participants from various communities in Hong Kong. Participants completed the 14-item Self-Objectification Beliefs and Behaviors Scale (SOBBS) to measure their level of self-objectification. The study also assessed hostility towards selfies using two methods: a scale that captured participants’ attitudes toward selfie posting and a photo-tagging task where participants assigned tags, ranging from hostile to complimentary, to women’s selfies that conformed to sociocultural beauty standards.
Study 1b expanded on this by including control variables like self-esteem and emotional state to test the robustness of the findings from Study 1a. This study involved 197 heterosexual women from the United States, who completed similar measures as those in Study 1a. Additionally, Study 1b introduced a scale for perceived attention-seeking motivation, which comprised three items designed to capture participants’ perceptions of the motivations behind women’s selfie postings on social media.
The results from Studies 1a and 1b provided evidence that self-objectification among women is positively correlated with hostility toward other women’s selfies. This was evidenced by more negative comments and a greater selection of hostile tags from the participants with higher self-objectification scores. In addition, perceptions of attention-seeking in selfie postings partially explained why women with higher self-objectification exhibited more hostility towards these selfies.
Study 2 was designed to explore the causal relationship between self-objectification and hostility toward peer selfies through the mechanism of perceived attention-seeking. This was a controlled experiment involving 190 heterosexual female participants from Hong Kong. The study manipulated self-objectification by exposing one group of participants to advertisements featuring physically attractive female models (self-objectification condition), while the control group viewed similar advertisements without models.
After the exposure, participants’ levels of state self-objectification were measured using a shortened version of the SOBBS. They also assessed perceived attention-seeking motivation and completed a selfie-tagging task similar to that used in Study 1a. The researchers aimed to see if heightened self-objectification would lead to an increase in negative tagging of selfies, mediated by the perception that these selfies were posted for attention-seeking purposes.
The findings confirmed the hypothesized causal path: participants in the self-objectification condition exhibited higher perceived attention-seeking motivation and subsequently more hostility towards other women’s selfies as evidenced by the selection of more hostile tags.
Study 3 sought to replicate the findings of Study 2 using a different method to manipulate self-objectification and to examine whether these effects were consistent across different types of selfie posters (attractive versus average-looking). This study involved 197 heterosexual female participants from China. Self-objectification was manipulated through a writing task where participants in the self-objectification condition wrote about viewing their bodies through someone else’s eyes, focusing on physical appearance. In contrast, the control group wrote about their activities in the last 24 hours without focusing on appearance.
Participants then completed measures of perceived attention-seeking motivation and engaged in a selfie-tagging task that included selfies classified as either attractive or average-looking. This setup allowed the researchers to examine not only the direct effects of self-objectification on hostility but also whether these effects were influenced by the physical attractiveness of the selfie poster.
Participants in the self-objectification condition not only perceived more attention-seeking in others’ selfies but also showed increased hostility toward both attractive and average-looking selfies. This suggests that the effects of self-objectification are robust across different contexts of selfie evaluation, not limited by the physical attractiveness of the person in the selfie.
Overall, the sequence of studies underscores a consistent pattern where self-objectification influences how women perceive and react to the selfies of other women, with perceived attention-seeking playing a key mediating role.
“Women who engage in self-objectification, characterized by attaching significant importance to their appearance and habitually monitoring their bodies as if under constant scrutiny by others, tend to exhibit heightened hostility towards other women’s selfies. This hostility manifests in actions such as attaching negative labels to someone’s selfie,” Wang told PsyPost.
“One of the reasons behind this behavior is that self-objectifying individuals often believe that the primary motive for posting selfies is to seek attention. It is worth noting that this effect is observed irrespective of whether the individuals posting the selfies are physically attractive or have an average appearance.”
One of the primary limitations of the study is its focus solely on heterosexual young women, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to other demographic groups. While this focus was chosen due to the high prevalence of selfie posting among young women, the specific dynamics of self-objectification and hostility towards selfies could vary significantly across different genders, ages, or cultural backgrounds. Future studies could include a broader range of participants to explore whether these patterns hold true in more diverse populations.
Future research could also explore other psychological mechanisms that might mediate or moderate the relationship between self-objectification and hostility, such as jealousy, competition, or internalized societal standards about beauty and attention-seeking. Understanding these factors could provide a more comprehensive view of the psychological processes at play.
The study, “She is seeking attention: Women’s self-objectification and hostility toward peer selfies,” was authored by Lei Cheng, Xijing Wang, and Jingyu Zhang.
