(PS6-B34) Manipulating the “selfie”: The Relationship Between Selfie Manipulation and Factors Related to Body Image Concerns

Posting selfies on social networking sites is a popular activity, with 82% of US adults reporting taking and posting a photo of themselves to social media (Dixon, 2022). Increasingly, individuals are manipulating these images to improve their appearance prior to posting, with up to 90% of people reporting editing their selfies (Science Daily, 2021). Previous studies have found that selfie photo editing is associated with body dissatisfaction (McLean et al., 2015). The current study explored what other factors related to body image concerns may be related to selfie manipulation.

Using snowball sampling, 83 adults (mAge = 22.06, SD = 6.62) from the US completed a study via SurveyMonkey. 85.5% of participants were female, 71.1% were Caucasian, and 94% were not of Latinx origin. Participants completed questions about whether and how often they manipulated their selfies, the Social Media Appearance Preoccupation Scale (SMAPS; Zimmer-Gembeck et al., 2021), Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-4r; Schaefer et al., 2017), Self-Objectification Behaviors and Beliefs Questionnaire (SOBBS; Lindner & Tantleff-Dunn, 2017), Physical Appearance Comparison Scale (PACS-3; Schaefer & Stice, 2017), Culture-Specific Body Monitoring Scale (Kim et al., 2014) and Body Image Concerns Inventory (BICI; Littleton, 2005).

Independent-samples t-tests showed that those who manipulated their selfies (n = 54, 65.1%) scored significantly higher than those who do not (n = 29, 34.9%) on social media appearance preoccupation (t = 2.26, p = .027), online self-presentation (t = 3.89, p < .001), media pressures (t = 2.21, p = .030), general appearance internalization (t = 2.36, p = .021), social comparison direction (t = 2.23, p = .029) and effect of comparison (t = 2.19, p = .033), and body image concerns (t = 2.36, p = .021).

Correlations showed that increased frequency of manipulation of selfies was unsurprisingly correlated with social media appearance preoccupation (r = .35, p < .001), particularly online self-presentation (r = .51, p < .001) and appearance comparison online (r = .22, p = .04). This manipulation was also related to making more upward comparisons in general (r = .38, p = .002) and with negative effects of these comparisons (r = .35, p = .004), although not with frequency of comparisons. More selfie manipulation was associated with more media pressures (r = .34, p = .002) and resulting internalization of both the general appearance (r = .26, p = .019) and thin ideals (r = .24, p = .035). Selfie editing was linked to more self-objectification (r = .22, p = .048), specifically taking an outside observer’s perspective (r = .24, p = .033). Increased frequency of selfie manipulation was also associated with more body monitoring (r = .28, p = .015) and body image concerns (r = .32, p = .003).

These findings emphasize the potentially negative consequences of editing one’s selfies prior to posting them online. Individuals who do so feel more pressure from the media, internalize unrealistic ideals, are more preoccupied with their appearance, experience more self-objectification, make upward comparisons with deleterious effects, and struggle with body image concerns. Future prevention and intervention programs should take selfie manipulation into account.