If you are a guy and follow in the selfie-fanatic footsteps of Justin Bieber, posting regular snaps of yourself on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, the picture is not pretty – you could be on the line to antisocial trait central.

Share on Pinterest Men in the study who took selfies regularly and posted to social media scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy, and were prone to self-objectification.

A new study conducted by Jesse Fox, assistant professor of Communication at The Ohio State University, with Margaret Rooney a graduate student at Ohio State, shows that men in the study who posted more photos of themselves online than the rest of the group, scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy.

Additionally, men, who tended to edit their selfies before posting, scored higher up the scale in narcissism and self-objectification, which measures the extent to which they prioritize their appearance.

“It’s not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study,” says Jesse Fox, lead author of the study.

“The more interesting finding is that they also score higher on this other antisocial personality trait, psychopathy, and are more prone to self-objectification.”

Narcissism is demonstrated by a belief that you are more intelligent, more attractive and generally better than others, although with some level of underlying insecurity. Psychopathy involves a lack of empathy and regard for others and a tendency toward impulsive behavior.

The participants included 800 men aged between 18-40, who took part and completed an online survey asking questions regarding their posting behavior on social media sites. The individuals were also asked to complete a standard questionnaire for antisocial behaviors and self-objectification.

Women were excluded from this study due to the dataset, which Fox received from a magazine, not containing comparable data for women.

In addition to asking how regularly the group members posted photos, the survey inquired as to whether the men edited their photos before posting by cropping, using filters or utilizing photo-editing software.

“Most people don’t think that men even do that sort of thing, but they definitely do,” Fox comments.