Study finds that selfies lower female self-esteem, heighten self-objectification

Chapman communication studies professor Megan Vendemia published a research study in November 2020 that focuses on the effects of women taking selfies. Unsplash

When she scrolls through Instagram, Audrey Kenefick, a senior sociology major at Chapman University, spreads love on others’ posts through likes, comments and emojis. But when it comes to sharing a photo of herself, that happiness evaporates. 

“There have been times in the past when I posted a selfie and I would think, ‘Is this too weird to post?’ or, ‘I’m not getting enough comments or likes,’” Kenefick said. “I just wonder, ‘Do people think I’m obnoxious or self-absorbed?’ and it goes into this spiral of a black hole and I start to blame myself. I would say, ‘I don’t look good enough,’ or, ‘There’s a problem with my body here,’ or, ‘My skin doesn’t look right.’”

Kenefick is just one of many other women who experience a whirlwind of emotions when posting a selfie on social media. And Megan Vendemia, a Chapman communication studies professor, is searching for the answer why. She and researchers Jesse Fox, Marisa Smith and Natalia Brehm had a study titled “Effects of taking selfies on women’s self-objectification, mood, self-esteem and social aggression toward female peers,” accepted to the academic journal “Body Image” in November 2020. The group sought to understand why women continue to snap selfies when previous research demonstrates its negative side effects.  

“Although selfies are a newer phenomenon that technology has enabled us to do and share, it’s based off of work that suggests anything that would briefly drive your attention toward yourself is usually linked to worse body image outcomes,” Vendemia said. “We wanted to expand on this area of work, knowing people tend to like taking selfies.”

The study, which commenced in 2015, involved a lab experiment with three groups of women. The first group took selfies knowing they would be posted, the second took selfies unaware that they would be posted and the third snapped photos of objects. Vendemia said the study exclusively examined women because they tended to self-evaluate their appearance more than men, due to the prevalence of the patriarchy.

“This goes back to evolutionary psychology, with the woman’s body being symbolic to reproductive value and men evaluating women based on their appearance,” Vendemia said. “This is called the objectifying male gaze ... It seems to be, as a whole, that women in general have had a long history of this being problematic with things like body image, having body dysmorphia and eating disorders.”

The results concluded that individuals who posted selfies expressed lower self-esteem and higher self-objectification, a theory that relates to self-evaluation based solely on appearance. 

“When you think about your body being an object or thinking only of yourself in terms of being an object, it reduces your focus on other attributes of yourself,” Vendemia said. “In this state of heightened self-objectification, you see yourself as an object and only see yourself through this third-person point of view.”

Meanwhile, women who took photos of objects did not show any change in self-esteem or higher susceptibility to self-objectification. Kenefick believed that could be due to a reprieve from the danger of posting a personal image, which creates the potential for criticism and instills panic. 

“If I take a picture of a plant, people aren’t going to look at that plant and say, ‘Oh, that plant isn’t very pretty,’” Kenefick said. “But, when it’s something on us, we know people will judge what they see. It's scary to put yourself out there in that raw form.”

Although taking selfies is a frequent activity for some, Sylvie Messing, a senior sociology major, has noticed a trend toward more relaxed and realistic posts on social media that stray away from the traditional self-capture.

“Instagram is kind of becoming less popular and becoming less consequential on how you portray yourself online,” Messing said. “There has been this phenomenon of ‘(expletive) posting,’ or ‘photo dumps’ where it’s random stuff and sort of taking down the smoke and mirrors of having to have this persona on the internet.”

Kenefick compared Vendemia’s study to how one enters an elevator: Everyone faces the front of the elevator, but nobody questions why we do that. 

“A lot of studies like this open people’s eyes to certain behaviors and patterns they do that are normalized in our society,” Kenefick said. “(They) unearth these social dilemmas and make us question why we do things, where the ideas come from … and the bigger issues in life.”