Self Presentation Part 2 Flashcards
Because we want to be liked by other, a bad reputation triggers
a desire to repair our image (difficult with words alone)
To compensate for a bad reputation, people tend to highlight their
positive qualities that are unrelated to the bad reputation
Can’t erase bad image so try to salvage the other’s overall impression of us
What is Self-monitoring?
a personality trait that reflects the extent to which people monitor their self-presentations
Assumption that high self-monitors care more about
Creating a good impression and thus try to come across as likeable and conform more to others’ expectations
low self-monitors are also seeking to create a particular impression
- Care less about being likeable
- Rather, trying to create impression of being independent, autonomous, and/or unique
Social media facilitates self-presentation
- More control over your public image
- Don’t have to worry about building reputation one person at a time
- Arguably social acceptance is more overt online than in real life
Social media also renders self-presentation more anxiety-provoking:
- With more control, comes more potential to be perfectionistic
- Self-presentations, whether good or bad, are perceived by a larger audience and are more permanent than in real-life
- More likely to receive criticism from strangers than in real-life
Moving Target Problem - Difficult to study social media since
It’s constantly changing
Social media takes many forms so hard to know
if effects can be generalized to all platforms or are restricted to just one
Idealized virtual reality hypothesis
profiles display idealized
characteristics that do not reflect who we really are
Extended real-life hypothesis
people use social media to communicate their real personalities
Measuring Accuracy of Social Media Profiles: “Real” personality
- Self-report
- Close other report
Measuring Accuracy of Social Media Profiles: Facebook personality
- According to coders that look at participant’s Facebook page
- Average of coders’ ratings
Define Accuracy
Extent to which coders’ ratings match the participant’s “real” personality
Evidence for Extended Real-Life Hypothesis - research shows a ? between people’s self- reports/close others’ reports of their personalities and coders’ ratings of their personality
positive correlation
Offline, accurate personality perception depends on: (2)
- A target making relevant cues of their personality available
- A perceiver detecting and using these cues to infer personality
Online personality perception functions the same way
Personality cues = individual differences in how social media is used
High extraversion associated with:
- Expressiveness in profile picture and other photos
- More Facebook friends
- More posts about current activities
High openness associated with:
- Posts about left-wing politics
- Creative picture
- Posts about cultural interests
High neuroticism associated with:
- Fewer positive posts and pictures
- Spend more time on social media, but more likely to use it passively
Moderators of Online Personality Accuracy: Visibility of trait
- Some traits are easier to detect by perceivers
- E.g. extraversion is more visible than neuroticism
- Visible traits are judged more accurately than less visible traits
- Extraversion perceived most accurately (r = 0.41)
- Neuroticism perceived least accurately (r = 0.11)
Moderators of Online Personality Accuracy: Extent of activity on social media
- People that are less active (e.g. post less, change their profile photo less often) are expressing fewer cues
- Leads to their personality being judged less accurately
Algorithm’s judgment of individual’s personality based on Facebook profiles was
More accurate than friends’ and family’s judgments of individual’s personality
RESULTS: Accuracy of Insta Personality
Perceivers’ judgments converged significantly with Instagram users’ personality self-reports and close others’ reports
- Highest positive correlation for extraversion and openness
- No correlation between self-reported agreeableness and conscientiousness
