Screen Shot 2015-01-12 at 10.13.55 AM
Photo via Flickr/Magnus Fröderberg

Talk about needing to clean up your digital footprint. A new study from Ohio State University reveals that the more selfies men post, the more likely they are to exhibit narcissistic and even psychopathic behaviors.

Yowser.

An extreme selfie stick in action at CES this week.
An extreme selfie stick in action at CES.

The study asked 800 men between 18 and 40 to fill out an online questionnaire about their photo-posting habits on social, including how often they posted and if they edited the photos before. Participants also took standard tests on anti-social behaviors and self-objectification. “Results showed that posting more photos was related to narcissism and psychopathy, but psychopathy was not related to editing photos,” according to the study.

“It’s not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study,” said Jesse Fox, the study’s lead author. “The more interesting finding is that they also score higher on this other anti-social personality trait, psychopathy, and are more prone to self-objectification.”

Fox did point out that the results don’t necessarily mean that men who post a lot of selfies are narcissists or psychopaths, they just scored higher than average on these anti-social traits. Narcissism is the “belief that you’re smarter, more attractive and better than others, but with some underlying insecurity. Psychopathy involves a lack of empathy and regard for others and a tendency toward impulsive behavior,” the study says.

Fox says that the study didn’t include women because “the dataset, which [she] received from a magazine, did not have comparable data for women.” However, she did say the ladies were not exempt, as “women who post more selfies also show higher levels of narcissism and psychopathy.”

The study, which Fox conducted with graduate student Margaret Rooney, is published in the journal Personality and Individual DifferencesIt’s part of their ongoing research about how self-objectification online and personality relate: “With the growing use of social networks, everyone is more concerned with their appearance,” Fox said in the statement.”That means self-objectification may become a bigger problem for men, as well as for women.

“We are all concerned with our self-presentation online, but how we do that may reveal something about our personality.”

Makes you think twice about taking that selfie, doesn’t it?

Previously on GeekWire: Ashamed of my selfie stick: Hating on a hot new trend

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.