It's a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Shocking selfie news!

I know you will find this hard to believe but men who take more selfies have higher than average traits of narcissism [No! Surely not!] and psychopathy, a study from academics at Ohio State University has found.
The research, published in the journal of Personality and Individual Differences, looked at 800 men between the ages of 18-40 who completed an online survey about how many photos they posted on social media, and another questionnaire looking at their personality traits.
It also found men who edited their selfies before posting them were more likely to have traits of narcissism but editing selfies was not linked to psychopathic traits. Full story here!

Source: Wicked Gay Blog

Damien's note: Okay, it is no surprise that guys who post tons of photos of themselves are, shall we say, a wee bit narcissistic. The psychopathy bit is more disturbing, since that is traditionally defined as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior. But two points -- which is the reason one should read the entire article or study and not be misled by headlines -- are important. One, the mere fact that one posts all those photos (especially the racier ones) is clearly "bold behavior" and lets you fall within that definition. More importantly, two, the study notes that while some of the men in the study had higher than average traits of these characteristics, they all scored within normal ranges of human behavior. In other words, no actual axe murderers.

And since posting selfies is all the rage, that falls well within the normal -- if not necessarily desirable -- range of human behavior.

And what about people who post other people's selfies on their blog? That is a sign of singular and purely scientific interest in the quirks of the human person -- especially of the hot human person.
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3 comments:

  1. Ur-spoJanuary 10, 2015 at 4:44 PM

    I am seeing a fascinating psychological phenomena; The men with chiseled abs, great muscles and large penises are the ones posting on line, which leaves 'the rest of them' more ashamed of themselves and less likely to post/selfies etc.

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  2. Michael DoddJanuary 11, 2015 at 7:35 AM

    An interesting observation. As those of us who are less magnificent physical specimens opt not to compete by posting images of our ordinary appearance, the remaining images that are out there continue to reinforce the idea that "everyone else looks like that but me." It becomes a vicious cycle and one that is not good for anyone's mental health in the long run. Even the beautiful begin to look to upgrade, and that is a pursuit ultimately doomed to failure for the majority, just on statistical grounds.

    I can recall wondering some years back why I never ran into these beautiful men. I did encounter perfectly lovely individuals, many of whom were quite nice-looking. But the online world would make me expect to be surrounded by male beauty in astounding numbers and to be one of the few plain dudes walking around in public. Yet that is not the case.

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  3. DanielJanuary 11, 2015 at 7:41 AM

    Recently David on Wicked Gay Blog did a post about having received complaints/comments that he posted only pictures of very attractive hotties and ignored the ordinary Joes. It drew a lot of comments and made it onto his most popular post list.
    http://www.wickedgayblog.com/2015/01/are-average-joes-being-overlooked-in.html

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