Study: Women Who Base Self Worth on Appearance Tend to Share More Photographs on Facebook

Posted on March 19, 2011

A study led by University at Buffalo researcher Michael A. Stefanone, PhD, found that females who base their self worth on their appearance tend to share the most photographs online. The results do seem to match what one would expect the behavior of these types of women to be on a social network. The study also found these women tend to maintain larger networks on online social networking sites. The study also found that women share five times as many photographs online as men.

In the study, 311 participants completed a survey measuring their contingencies of self worth. The participants had an average age of 23.3 years. Nearly 50% of them were female. The subjects were also queried as to their typical behaviors on Facebook.

Stefanone says, "Those whose self esteem is based on public-based contingencies (defined here as others' approval, physical appearance and outdoing others in competition) were more involved in online photo sharing, and those whose self-worth is most contingent on appearance have a higher intensity of online photo sharing."

Stefanone also noted that the women in this study who base their self worth on appearance were also are the most prolific photo sharers. It seems as if the women are looking for positive feedback on their looks through the photo sharing behavior. Take a look:






More from HowToWeb