Research suggests women are perceived as slimmer in selfies

Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A recent study suggests that observers see women as slimmer in selfie images as opposed to traditional photographs.

"This study compared the attractiveness and weight judgments that participants made of images of the same bodies taken from different visual angles over a series of four experiments," researchers Ruth Knight of York St. John University U.K., and Catherine Preston of the University of York U.K., wrote in their paper published in the journal Plos One.

The researchers incorporated "objectification theory" into their study.

"Objectification theory suggests that when someone is objectified, they are perceived as, and consequently behave as, an object instead of an individual person. Social media users may perceive those they see on social media as objects as opposed to people," Preston and Knight wrote.

The lens of social media plays a significant role in affecting perceptions, according to the researchers.

"Social media users perceive those they see on social media as objects as opposed to people. This could extend to the person posting the content, who begins to see themselves from the observers' view as an object leading to self-objectification," the researchers wrote.

Researchers also studied the differences between the kinds of selfies men and women post on social media.

"On social media, for example, men and women may use selfies taken from below or above respectively due to the role of partner height in attracting potential partners," the researchers said.

The researchers suggested social media plays a significant role in how women are perceived and perceive themselves.

"There is a substantial body of evidence indicating that there is a link between exposure to images of the thin-ideal, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Research indicates that this is the case not just for traditional media, like TV and magazine, but also for social media. It seems that being exposed to appearance related images on social media platforms like Instagram has a detrimental effect on body satisfaction, and is linked to disordered eating, particularly amongst women," the researchers said.

Experiments conducted by the researchers confirmed their prior assumptions that observers saw women as slimmer and more attractive in selfies as opposed to images taken from other angles.

"Selfies were judged to be both more attractive and slimmer than bodies photographed from an egocentric perspective, however there were no significant correlations between these differences in aesthetic judgements and disordered eating thoughts and behaviors," the researchers said.