Is selfie-related behaviour motivated by sexual orientation and gender conformity
Dublin Core
Title
Is selfie-related behaviour motivated by sexual orientation and gender conformity
Creator
Wen Li
Date
2022-2023
Description
In the digital age, selfie culture has become an integral part of social media platforms. This globally widespread phenomenon created a distinctive form of self-expression, allowing selfie- makers to convey their identities, shape online personas, and build connections with others. Selfies are more than photos presented but also refer to a series of backstage to finally lead to creation and sharing. As research into selfies, gender differences in selfie-related behaviours have enabled further comprehension of selfies in terms of self-expression. Social Role Theory (SRT) explained the existence of gender differences in selfie culture that gender role norms and social expectations shape individuals' identity and behaviours. This study explored the concept of gender conformity among heterosexuals and non-heterosexuals and the impact on selfie-related behaviours. A total of 120 participants, categorized into heterosexual men, heterosexual women, non-heterosexual men, and non-heterosexual women, engaged in an online questionnaire, and contributed a total of 150 selfies. Data analysis involved one-way variance (ANOVA) to test the differences between the four groups, and multiple regression analysis to assess the influence of gender, the Traditional Masculinity-Femininity (TMF) scale and sexual attraction to me score. The results revealed no differences across the four groups in terms of the nine domains of selfie motives, as well as preoccupation. However, retention of moments and entertainment as the most prominent motives for selfies. For selfie behaviours, time spent on taking, editing, and selecting selfies, as well as taking amount and edit frequency differed significantly among the four groups. Specifically, both heterosexual women and non-heterosexual women tended to allocate more time on taking, editing, and selecting selfies for posting. Meanwhile, heterosexual women and non-heterosexual men displayed a higher trend for taking a greater number of selfies and editing selfies more frequently. These findings support the current studies indicating that women engage in selfie-related behaviours more actively than men, but more deeply that sexual orientation, especially the sexual attraction to men, also encourage some of selfie-related behaviours. While the results provide evidence for SRT as gender roles shape behaviours through socialisation, but also draw criticisms as TMF scale failed to predict the impacts on selfie-related behaviours and sexual orientation can break the traditional gender role expectations. Future research should keep exploring these relationships, offering deeper insights into gender conformity and gender non- conformity in the realm of self-presentation across diverse identity roles, thereby contributing to a more inclusive and diverse self-image narrative.
Subject
Selfie, Self-expression, Gender conformity, Sexual orientation
Source
Participants
This study recruited 120 normal adults as participants through a Qualtrics online questionnaire voluntarily and anonymously, of which 67 completed the questionnaire, including 22 men, 42 women and 3 self-identified as non-binary gender. However, since only binary gender was considered for the analysis of gender conformity, the three non-binary gender responses were removed. Additionally, in terms of sexual orientation, there were 48 heterosexuals, 6 homosexuals, 8 bisexuals and 2 others. The participants were divided into four sample groups, that is, 19 heterosexual men, 29 heterosexual women, three non-heterosexual men and 13 non-heterosexual women.
Materials
Sexual orientation and gender conformity were the two domains of prediction, and selfie- related behaviours were regarded as the outcomes. Sexual orientation was measured by self-rated sexual attraction to men and women, while gender conformity was measured by self-ascribed the Traditional masculinity/femininity (TMF) scale. As for selfie-related behaviour, it involves several aspects of selfie taking, editing, and posting. In addition, selfie motives and attributes of uploaded selfies were also be taken into account.
Sexual attraction score
Sexual orientation was self-identified by participants themselves as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and others. The participants were asked to self-rated two statements about their sexual attraction to men and women. The latter, with some adjustment to Lippa's (2002) methodology, included two questions: "I am sexually attracted to men" and "I am sexually attracted to women". In both cases, participants were asked to self-rated on a scale of 0-10, where a higher score indicated greater sexual attraction to men or women. This measure transformed sexual orientation from a categorical variable to a continuous variable for further analyses of differences and relationships. In particular, the separate assessment of sexual attraction to men and sexual attraction to women could help to better detect whether sexual attraction to men is more influential in selfie-related behaviours.
Traditional Masculinity-Femininity scale
Gender conformity was measured as a continuous variable by using the Traditional Masculinity-Femininity (TMF) scale from Kachel et al. (2016). This scale comprises of six questions which are self-rated on a scale of 1-7, with 1 represented very feminine and 7 represented very masculine. Example items include "I consider myself as...", "Ideally, I would like to be..." regarded their preferred gender role. The remaining four questions concerned identified gender roles in terms of interests, attitudes and beliefs, behaviours, and appearance from a traditional perspective, being asked respectively as "Traditionally, my... would be considered as...". Then, the mean score of these six items would eventually be used as the individual’s masculinity/femininity score.
Kachel et al.(2016) pointed out that the TMF scale had been proven to be a reliable one- dimensional construct tool to assess masculinity because it correlates well with another gender- related instrument, the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and successfully distinguishes between groups, such as females vs. males, lesbians/gays vs. heterosexual females and males,that are expected to be different (See Figure 2).
Figure 2
Mediation of the relation between BSRI and sexual orientation by the TMF (Kachel et al., 2016). Mean TMF scores separately for gender and sexual orientation (Kachel et al., 2016).
Selfie Coding
Participants were asked to upload 1-3 selfies that they would post on social media. All selfies were coded based on four aspects. First, participants were asked to whether their uploaded selfies had been edited or retouched. Then, the experimenter coded the number of people in the selfie (alone or in a group), the angle of the selfie (upward, horizontal, or downward), and the amount of body shown (face only, upper body, body without face, or whole body with face).
Meanwhile, a total of 150 portrait pictures were collected from the participants, although 17 of them looked like taken by others rather than selfies.
Selfie-related Behaviours
Selfie-related behaviours and motivations measures were taken from Bij de Vaate et al. (2018). For motivations, 33 items were used to reflect nine domains of motives, and each item was an agreement extent scale (1 = totally disagree to 5 = totally agree). The nine domains of motives included "Retention of moments" (e.g., "I make selfies to memorise a moment"), "Entertainment" (e.g., "Making selfies is enjoyable"), "Expressive information sharing" (e.g., "I tell others something about myself by using selfies"), "Social interaction" (e.g., "I make selfies to keep in touch with friends and family"), "Social use" (e.g., "I make selfies to show who I am and what I do"), "Habitual passing of time" (e.g., "Making selfies is a habit"), "Relaxation" (e.g., "Making selfies enables me to relax"), "Imaginary audience" (e.g., "I post selfies with a specific audience in mind"), and "Social pressure and identity" (e.g., "I make selfies because everybody does it"). Preoccupation (e.g., "I often share selfies") implied the degree to take part in selfie behaviours, was measured with six items by an agreement extent scale (1 = totally disagree to 5 = totally agree). See Appendix A for specific questions of items in the questionnaire.
Selfie-taking behaviour was measured by taking frequency, time spent and amount in the last three months, each of them was designed as an ordinal variable depending on an increasing degree. For instance, frequency referred to how often taking selfies, time spent referred to how long it taken within a selfie session, whereas amount referred to how many photos taken within a selfie session. Selfie-editing behaviour only accounted for two aspects, editing frequency and time spent, and selfie-posting behaviour used to select spend time instead of posting spend time.
Additionally, four items were designed to collect feedback on related concerns and feelings about selfies with a Likert scale that ranged from 0 (totally unconcerned) to 10 (totally concerned), including the attractiveness of their online image, the attention and comments of others on their selfies post on the social platform, the comparison with other people's selfies. Finally, 3 questions were designed to reflect participants’ satisfaction degree on their appearance in real life, before retouching and after retouching by the same 11-point Likert scale (0 = extremely uncomfortable to 10 extremely comfortable).
Procedure
This study had been reviewed and approved by a member of the Psychology department from the Lancaster University Board of Ethics. At the beginning of the survey, participants were provided with a participant information sheet, informing them that the study is about selfie- related behaviours in terms of sexual orientation and gender conformity. Anonymity and confidentiality were ensured because of sensitive information such as selfies and sexual orientation. After the confirmation of the consent, all participants complete the same questionnaire which is conducted on Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com).
The survey questionnaire (See Appendix A) was designed to collect information through six key sections. In the first section, some demographic information was asked, such as age,
relationship status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual attraction. Then, it was a six- item self-ascribed Traditional Masculinity/Femininity (TMF) scale. For the third section, participants were expected to upload three different selfies that would be posted on social media and state whether these selfies have been retouched. This section was optional and if a selfie were uploaded, a specific selfie consent would be required to confirm. The last three sections involved a series of questions on selfie-motives and preoccupation, selfie-related behaviours and feelings. At the end of the survey, participants were given a debrief sheet upon completion and were allowed the chance to ask any questions after the survey was undertaken. Meanwhile, information consent would be confirmed to get the final approval about all responses before submitting the questionnaire.
Analysis
Pre-Tests
Firstly, two pre-tests were conducted by one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) to analyse differences in Traditional Masculinity/Femininity (TMF) score and sexual attraction to men score for each of the four sample groups, with corresponding post-hoc multiple comparison tests, to examine expected differences in TMF scale and sexual attraction to men score by the four sample groups.
Main Tests
Subsequently, selfie motives in nine domains, and preoccupation were examined for each of their differences across the four sample groups by ANOVAs with corresponding post-hoc multiple comparison tests.
In the context of selfie behaviours, we tested three relevant stages: selfie-taking, editing and posting. For each of these behaviours, we conducted ANOVAs with corresponding post-hoc
multiple comparison tests to assess differences across the four sample groups, and Multiple Linear Regression analyses to investigate the influences by self-identified gender, TMF score
and sexual attraction to men score. In particular, we delved into three aspects of taking selfies, involving frequency, time spent, and amount. Similarly, we analysed two aspects of selfie editing, frequency and time spent, as well as three aspects of selfie posting , which included frequency, time spent on selection, and amount.
In addition, in order to examine whether selfie content itself was affected by gender conformity and sexual orientation, a total of 150 uploaded selfies were coded according to four attributes: editing usage, selfie format, the shown part in the selfie, and the taking angle. Each of the attributes was firstly tested by a chi-square test to examine the association between attribute and the four sample groups because both were categorical variables. Furthermore, we conducted two separate ANOVAs, each followed by post-hoc multiple comparison tests. One used the TMF scores and the other used sexual attraction to men scores, with each of the four attribute of these selfies as independent variables to test for differences. In these analyses, the TMF scores and sexual attraction to men scores, as interval data, were regarded as dependent variables.
This study recruited 120 normal adults as participants through a Qualtrics online questionnaire voluntarily and anonymously, of which 67 completed the questionnaire, including 22 men, 42 women and 3 self-identified as non-binary gender. However, since only binary gender was considered for the analysis of gender conformity, the three non-binary gender responses were removed. Additionally, in terms of sexual orientation, there were 48 heterosexuals, 6 homosexuals, 8 bisexuals and 2 others. The participants were divided into four sample groups, that is, 19 heterosexual men, 29 heterosexual women, three non-heterosexual men and 13 non-heterosexual women.
Materials
Sexual orientation and gender conformity were the two domains of prediction, and selfie- related behaviours were regarded as the outcomes. Sexual orientation was measured by self-rated sexual attraction to men and women, while gender conformity was measured by self-ascribed the Traditional masculinity/femininity (TMF) scale. As for selfie-related behaviour, it involves several aspects of selfie taking, editing, and posting. In addition, selfie motives and attributes of uploaded selfies were also be taken into account.
Sexual attraction score
Sexual orientation was self-identified by participants themselves as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and others. The participants were asked to self-rated two statements about their sexual attraction to men and women. The latter, with some adjustment to Lippa's (2002) methodology, included two questions: "I am sexually attracted to men" and "I am sexually attracted to women". In both cases, participants were asked to self-rated on a scale of 0-10, where a higher score indicated greater sexual attraction to men or women. This measure transformed sexual orientation from a categorical variable to a continuous variable for further analyses of differences and relationships. In particular, the separate assessment of sexual attraction to men and sexual attraction to women could help to better detect whether sexual attraction to men is more influential in selfie-related behaviours.
Traditional Masculinity-Femininity scale
Gender conformity was measured as a continuous variable by using the Traditional Masculinity-Femininity (TMF) scale from Kachel et al. (2016). This scale comprises of six questions which are self-rated on a scale of 1-7, with 1 represented very feminine and 7 represented very masculine. Example items include "I consider myself as...", "Ideally, I would like to be..." regarded their preferred gender role. The remaining four questions concerned identified gender roles in terms of interests, attitudes and beliefs, behaviours, and appearance from a traditional perspective, being asked respectively as "Traditionally, my... would be considered as...". Then, the mean score of these six items would eventually be used as the individual’s masculinity/femininity score.
Kachel et al.(2016) pointed out that the TMF scale had been proven to be a reliable one- dimensional construct tool to assess masculinity because it correlates well with another gender- related instrument, the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and successfully distinguishes between groups, such as females vs. males, lesbians/gays vs. heterosexual females and males,that are expected to be different (See Figure 2).
Figure 2
Mediation of the relation between BSRI and sexual orientation by the TMF (Kachel et al., 2016). Mean TMF scores separately for gender and sexual orientation (Kachel et al., 2016).
Selfie Coding
Participants were asked to upload 1-3 selfies that they would post on social media. All selfies were coded based on four aspects. First, participants were asked to whether their uploaded selfies had been edited or retouched. Then, the experimenter coded the number of people in the selfie (alone or in a group), the angle of the selfie (upward, horizontal, or downward), and the amount of body shown (face only, upper body, body without face, or whole body with face).
Meanwhile, a total of 150 portrait pictures were collected from the participants, although 17 of them looked like taken by others rather than selfies.
Selfie-related Behaviours
Selfie-related behaviours and motivations measures were taken from Bij de Vaate et al. (2018). For motivations, 33 items were used to reflect nine domains of motives, and each item was an agreement extent scale (1 = totally disagree to 5 = totally agree). The nine domains of motives included "Retention of moments" (e.g., "I make selfies to memorise a moment"), "Entertainment" (e.g., "Making selfies is enjoyable"), "Expressive information sharing" (e.g., "I tell others something about myself by using selfies"), "Social interaction" (e.g., "I make selfies to keep in touch with friends and family"), "Social use" (e.g., "I make selfies to show who I am and what I do"), "Habitual passing of time" (e.g., "Making selfies is a habit"), "Relaxation" (e.g., "Making selfies enables me to relax"), "Imaginary audience" (e.g., "I post selfies with a specific audience in mind"), and "Social pressure and identity" (e.g., "I make selfies because everybody does it"). Preoccupation (e.g., "I often share selfies") implied the degree to take part in selfie behaviours, was measured with six items by an agreement extent scale (1 = totally disagree to 5 = totally agree). See Appendix A for specific questions of items in the questionnaire.
Selfie-taking behaviour was measured by taking frequency, time spent and amount in the last three months, each of them was designed as an ordinal variable depending on an increasing degree. For instance, frequency referred to how often taking selfies, time spent referred to how long it taken within a selfie session, whereas amount referred to how many photos taken within a selfie session. Selfie-editing behaviour only accounted for two aspects, editing frequency and time spent, and selfie-posting behaviour used to select spend time instead of posting spend time.
Additionally, four items were designed to collect feedback on related concerns and feelings about selfies with a Likert scale that ranged from 0 (totally unconcerned) to 10 (totally concerned), including the attractiveness of their online image, the attention and comments of others on their selfies post on the social platform, the comparison with other people's selfies. Finally, 3 questions were designed to reflect participants’ satisfaction degree on their appearance in real life, before retouching and after retouching by the same 11-point Likert scale (0 = extremely uncomfortable to 10 extremely comfortable).
Procedure
This study had been reviewed and approved by a member of the Psychology department from the Lancaster University Board of Ethics. At the beginning of the survey, participants were provided with a participant information sheet, informing them that the study is about selfie- related behaviours in terms of sexual orientation and gender conformity. Anonymity and confidentiality were ensured because of sensitive information such as selfies and sexual orientation. After the confirmation of the consent, all participants complete the same questionnaire which is conducted on Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com).
The survey questionnaire (See Appendix A) was designed to collect information through six key sections. In the first section, some demographic information was asked, such as age,
relationship status, gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual attraction. Then, it was a six- item self-ascribed Traditional Masculinity/Femininity (TMF) scale. For the third section, participants were expected to upload three different selfies that would be posted on social media and state whether these selfies have been retouched. This section was optional and if a selfie were uploaded, a specific selfie consent would be required to confirm. The last three sections involved a series of questions on selfie-motives and preoccupation, selfie-related behaviours and feelings. At the end of the survey, participants were given a debrief sheet upon completion and were allowed the chance to ask any questions after the survey was undertaken. Meanwhile, information consent would be confirmed to get the final approval about all responses before submitting the questionnaire.
Analysis
Pre-Tests
Firstly, two pre-tests were conducted by one-way analyses of variance (ANOVA) to analyse differences in Traditional Masculinity/Femininity (TMF) score and sexual attraction to men score for each of the four sample groups, with corresponding post-hoc multiple comparison tests, to examine expected differences in TMF scale and sexual attraction to men score by the four sample groups.
Main Tests
Subsequently, selfie motives in nine domains, and preoccupation were examined for each of their differences across the four sample groups by ANOVAs with corresponding post-hoc multiple comparison tests.
In the context of selfie behaviours, we tested three relevant stages: selfie-taking, editing and posting. For each of these behaviours, we conducted ANOVAs with corresponding post-hoc
multiple comparison tests to assess differences across the four sample groups, and Multiple Linear Regression analyses to investigate the influences by self-identified gender, TMF score
and sexual attraction to men score. In particular, we delved into three aspects of taking selfies, involving frequency, time spent, and amount. Similarly, we analysed two aspects of selfie editing, frequency and time spent, as well as three aspects of selfie posting , which included frequency, time spent on selection, and amount.
In addition, in order to examine whether selfie content itself was affected by gender conformity and sexual orientation, a total of 150 uploaded selfies were coded according to four attributes: editing usage, selfie format, the shown part in the selfie, and the taking angle. Each of the attributes was firstly tested by a chi-square test to examine the association between attribute and the four sample groups because both were categorical variables. Furthermore, we conducted two separate ANOVAs, each followed by post-hoc multiple comparison tests. One used the TMF scores and the other used sexual attraction to men scores, with each of the four attribute of these selfies as independent variables to test for differences. In these analyses, the TMF scores and sexual attraction to men scores, as interval data, were regarded as dependent variables.
Publisher
Lancaster University
Format
.xlsx
Identifier
Li2023
Contributor
Mshary Al Jaber
Rights
Open
Relation
None
Language
English
Type
Data
Coverage
LA1 4YF
LUSTRE
Supervisor
Jaime Benjamin
Topic
Developmental
Sample Size
120
Statistical Analysis Type
ANOVA, Chi-sqaured, Regression
Files
Collection
Citation
Wen Li, “Is selfie-related behaviour motivated by sexual orientation and gender conformity,” LUSTRE, accessed May 4, 2024, https://www.johnntowse.com/LUSTRE/items/show/202.