On average, women share five selfies and ten non-selfies per month, while men share two selfies and six non-selfies. However, there were a lot of selfie posts, with some people posting more than 40 selfies a month.
Self-Presentation Strategies on Social Media Are Different from Reality
For women, the strongest predictor of selfie posting was the degree to which they adopted intimidating self-presentation strategies. The more they posted selfies, the more inclined they were to broadcast actions in the real world with the intention of projecting a strong and dangerous personality to intimidate others.
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Men showed no relationship between real-world threatening self-presentation and selfie posting, but their desire to avoid punishment—that is, fit in and be accepted—predicted selfie sharing.
This finding contrasts with previous research conducted in real-world settings, where women did not show as strong a relationship between this aggressive characteristic and their behavior as men. When the usual social constraints operating in the “real world” are removed, it can facilitate the expression of this aggressive aspect of the female personality.
Intimidating self-presentation in selfie posting is more common among women
These results suggest that traditional androcentric views of aggression need to be changed. Thinking that female aggression in these females is a result of slightly male physiology or a mating strategy directed at other females will not make sense.
Conversely, digital behavior suggests that women are not programmed to be passive, but are just as actively aggressive as men, and in some cases more so—and not just when it comes to getting a mate.
The data further revealed that although males were generally more assertive than females in the real world, there were no gender differences in the use of aggressive self-presentation strategies in the real world; in fact, males tend to exhibit higher levels of ingratiation strategies than females.
Although men reported being more assertive in the real world, these behaviors did not always correlate with their online behavior. This may reflect the operation of a different set of social-role norms, or their absence, in online settings.
Source: Eurekalert
