If you use dating apps like Hinge, Tinder, or Bumble, you probably already have a few no-brainers to consider when it comes to someone’s profile photos.
You know, swipe left before you bother reading their name, let alone the rest of their profile. It’s normal behavior for anyone wading through these cyber cesspools… I mean for anyone trying to find the love of their life online.
My list of photos that require an immediate left swipe includes profile photos with weapons, profile photos with sunglasses, gym profile photos, and profile photos that consist of just selfies.
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After all, selfies taken by a man can raise major red flags that reveal signs of a narcissist, sociopath, or psychopath.
I know I know. Sometimes we’re all our own better photographers, and selfies have pretty much become a way of life these days. But just because selfies are ubiquitous, doesn’t mean they can’t also be used to spot characteristics of people you should be extra careful to stay away from.
If you think I’m being paranoid, listen up, because science backs me up again.
Researchers who conducted a study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences found that two factors associated with a man’s selfies can predict whether he has what they refer to as the “dark triad” of personality traits — narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.
If you’re not familiar with these terms, here are the basic definitions:
Narcissism: The belief that you are smarter, more attractive, and better than others, but with some feelings of insecurity.
Machiavellianism: A person so focused on his interests that he manipulates, deceives, and exploits others to achieve his goals.
Psychopathy: lack of empathy and respect for others and a tendency toward reckless behavior.
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These three characteristics are signs of someone who may have narcissistic or antisocial personality disorder, i.e. narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths.
The team of researchers from Ohio State University conducted an online survey of 800 men in the US between the ages of 18 and 40, all of whom were asked about their habits for taking selfies and posting them on social media. Participants also completed personality questionnaires to assess their tendencies toward narcissistic, psychopathy, and antisocial personality traits.
How to easily check a man’s selfies for signs that he’s a sociopath, psychopath, or narcissist:
- If a guy posts a lot of selfies
What the researchers found was that the more a man took pictures of himself and posted them on Facebook, Instagram, etc., the more his narcissistic and psychopathy tendencies increased.
While it’s not surprising that men who post solo photos are more narcissistic (although this is the first study to prove this), researchers certainly found it interesting that they score high on psychopathy, which indicates a lack of empathy—with others and more impulsive behavior.
- If the man frequently edits his photos
As for the aspiring photo editor who erases blemishes and gives himself a Miami tan before posting on Instagram? Rest assured, he is not mentally ill.
“Psychopathy is characterized by impulsivity. They take pictures and put them online right away. They want to see themselves. They don’t want to spend time editing,” says Jesse Fox, lead author of the study and an assistant professor. Communications in Ohio.
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Instead, your sepia-toned tribal face ranks very high on the narcissism and self-objectification scale!
Of course, this doesn’t mean that your over-sharing boyfriend or the guy with a bad mirror selfie on Hinge is necessarily a complete psychopath. All of the men in the study scored within the normal range for behavior but with above-average levels of these antisocial traits. I think we can all agree that they don’t send a good message.
This is also one of the first times self-objectification (aka valuing your appearance over all other positive traits) has been studied in heterosexual men, the researchers noted.
“We know that self-objectification leads to a lot of terrible things, like depression and eating disorders in women,” Fox said. “With the increasing use of social networks, everyone is becoming more concerned with their appearance. This means that self-objectification may become a bigger problem for men, as well as for women.”
You’re probably wondering where women fall on these scales.
Well, this study only looked at American males and there is no comparable data for us yet. So, until then, keep pretending loud and proud with that selfie stick, ladies.
If you think you may be suffering from depression or anxiety as a result of ongoing emotional abuse at the hands of a narcissist, you are not alone.
