Do Facebook profile pictures reflect user’s personality?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.014Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We investigate the motivations behind choice of Facebook profile picture.

  • Users tend to choose profile pictures that make them look attractive.

  • Profile picture has an influence on their choice of profile picture.

  • Facebook profile picture reflects user’s personality.

Abstract

Facebook has been gaining popularity ever since it was first introduced and offers the user the chance for self-presentation. This study examines the motivations behind the choice of a profile picture and the image of the user that it gives out. The research was conducted in the form of an on-site visual study evaluating the profile pictures of Facebook’s users. Relations between profile pictures and user’s personality were examined. User personalities were found to have an influence on choice of profile pictures and profile pictures were found to reflect the user’s personality. Our study supports the theory of collaborative learning through learning from peers as results shows that other’s choice of profile pictures affects viewer’s own future choice of profile picture. If they like the impression made by a particular type of profile picture, they are likely to learn from it and upload the same type of profile picture with the aim of sending the same positive impression.

Introduction

Social Media is now ubiquitous in today’s world. Almost everyone is involved in social media and the platforms that exist currently are numerous. With the advent of smartphones and tablets, social media usage has also become mobile. Social media platforms like Facebook have provided a new platform for people to share their stories, express their opinions and share information that transcends conventional boundaries such as countries or society groups. Facebook is the largest social networking website with over one billion users as of 2012 and 98% of college/university students are found to possess a Facebook account (Lee, 2011). Zhao, Grasmuck, and Martin (2008) suggested a shift from relative anonymity toward “nonymity” when it comes to online self-presentation. In such an environment there is less actual face-to-face interaction between the user and his/her online friends. Joinson (2008) found evidence that suggest that Facebook profiles are an important tool for self-representation and is used for social capital gratification. Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007) found that Facebook serves a vital role in students forming and maintain social capital. Users use Facebook to maintain contact with people who they are no longer in physical interaction with in order to keep the relationship alive. Raacke and Bonds-Raacke (2008) found that friend-networking sites, which includes Facebook, has many uses and gratifications that are met by users.

Therefore, the user has an online identity that he projects through his online actions that is distinct from his/her actual identity. One of the most important ways of doing just that is of course the choosing of a profile picture. This is the accompanying picture that appears with his/her name and the first picture that potential new friends see before they sent a friend request. As such, the profile picture is different from other pictures that the user uploads in the sense that they are available for both existing friends and people outside the user’s accepted friend group. Coupled this with the fact that this picture appears for every comment, chat or friend request the user makes, it is easy to understand why a profile picture occupies a prominent position in shaping the user’s online identity. In fact some applications such as Wechat has been known to use profile picture to verify a user’s account when they forget their password.

There exists several social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat and the question can arise, as to why Facebook is the chosen social media platform for this research. The most obvious factor lies in the fact that Facebook is the most ubiquitous social media platform and boasts a user base that far exceeds other media platform. Then a case can be made that Facebook is a less specialized social media platform that is used for a wide variety of reasons. Facebook attracts a global audience of over 606 million people (Gonzalez, 2011). For instance, Linkedin is mostly use by professionals for professional reasons, Snapchat is used by those concerned with personal privacy, Instagram is essentially a photo-sharing social media platform whose profile picture is a small thumbnail, and so on. Previous studies have also shown that Facebook has a publicly open structure, looser behavioral norms and greater scope for members to leave cues for each other compared to social platforms like LinkedIn which produced tighter spaces and offers lesser scope for spontaneous interaction and network generation (Papacharissi, 2009).

Although several studies exists that examines the motivation behind the usage of social media platform in general and Facebook in particular, very few exist that looks into the reasons behind the choice of profile picture and to the best of our knowledge, none that links Facebook profile picture with the various personality traits of the users. The purpose of this study is to examine the impression that a profile picture gives to viewers and the thought process that goes behind the choice of a profile picture. Although there exist previous research on whether narcissism can be used as a predictor of motivations behind Facebook Profile Picture selection (Kapidzic, 2013), this research will be looking beyond just narcissism as a factor. This study will attempt to determine the common profile picture types that are used, the motivation behind its choice and the impressions that choice of such profile pictures sends out to viewers. This study will explore the co-learning derived from peers’ profile pictures and whether choice of profile picture can influence the viewer’s prevalent image of the user. Finally, the link between user’s personality and their choice of profile picture will be tested.

Section snippets

Social media

More and more people are now using social media and there is a distinct reason for it (Mónica, Luís, Carlos, & António, 2013). People are able to express their “true selves” more easily online as compared to the real world (Marriott & Buchanan, 2014). Turkle (1997) suggested that people use the internet to explore themselves. That everyone has two different entities; ‘true’ self and ‘actual’ self have been proposed before (McKenna, 2007). The user is highly motivated to project himself in the

Participants and recruitment

A sample of 109 participants selected were taken from the researchers’ Facebook friend list of 534 friends and are all graduate or post-graduate students. Participants are from over twenty countries to ensure that factors like local cultures, ethnicity, religious beliefs, and traditional norms of different countries do not affect the research. With such a diverse background, it is the hope of this study to ensure that the results of the research will reflect the global world as a whole.

Results

Table 2 indicates the participants’ impression of the user of each picture category in the cases of people who are strangers to them. The table showcases the impressions of the participants that each picture category gives. The row depicts the various categories of profile pictures and the column depicts the impression derived from the profile picture. The numbers in brackets indicates the percentage of participants with that particular impression. The mean indicates how much the participants

Conclusion

The study found that a majority of the users are aware of the impressions sent by a particular type of picture and often select a certain type of picture in order to send a desired image of themselves to potential viewers. This is in line with previous research that states that Facebook use is motivated by two primary needs: (1) to belong and; (2) self-presentation (Nadkarni & Hofmann, 2012). The choice of profile picture has an impact on viewer’s impressions of the user and the choice of a

Acknowledgements

This work is jointly supported by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 100-2628-S-110-006-MY4) and by “Aim for the Top University Plan” of the National Sun Yat-Sen University.

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