Hung Kalai, Feldborg Michella, Moseley Rachel, Peng Kaiping, Sui Jie
Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Faculty of Health and Wellness, City University of Macau, Macau, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 24;15(1):14235. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-99056-y.
Digital technology has introduced a novel form of self-representation, the selfie. This study investigated the psychological effects of selfie editing and its relationship with well-being by measuring editing behaviors, subjective and objective evaluations of selfies, and life satisfaction. The objective assessment employed a speeded perceptual matching task where participants learned to associate selfies and stranger photos with geometric shapes, then judged the correctness of subsequent photo- shape pairings. Results demonstrated that image editing enhanced immediate selfie satisfaction across sexes. Hierarchical drift diffusion modeling revealed preferential processing of both edited and unedited selfies versus stranger photos, suggesting that edited selfies may function as an extended self-identity. Bayesian regression analysis identified significant associations between life satisfaction and individual differences in selfie perception. Women who processed unedited selfies faster, with higher drift rate, yet reported greater satisfaction with edited selfies, exhibited lower life satisfaction. In contrast, women who demonstrated preferentially processed and reported higher satisfaction with edited selfies, had greater life satisfaction. These associations were absent in men. The findings suggest that congruency of subjective self-evaluation and objective processing of selfies might influence psychological well-being, while indicating sex differences in editing behaviors, underlying cognitive processes, and life satisfaction associations.
数字技术引入了一种新的自我呈现形式——自拍。本研究通过测量编辑行为、对自拍的主观和客观评价以及生活满意度，调查了自拍编辑的心理影响及其与幸福感的关系。客观评估采用了一项快速知觉匹配任务，参与者学会将自拍和陌生人照片与几何形状联系起来，然后判断随后照片与形状配对的正确性。结果表明，图像编辑提高了男女对自拍的即时满意度。分层漂移扩散模型显示，与陌生人照片相比，编辑后的和未编辑的自拍都得到了优先处理，这表明编辑后的自拍可能起到扩展自我认同的作用。贝叶斯回归分析确定了生活满意度与自拍认知中的个体差异之间的显著关联。处理未编辑自拍速度更快、漂移率更高，但对编辑后自拍报告更高满意度的女性，生活满意度较低。相比之下，对编辑后自拍表现出优先处理并报告更高满意度的女性，生活满意度更高。男性不存在这些关联。研究结果表明，主观自我评价与自拍客观处理之间的一致性可能会影响心理健康状况，同时也表明在编辑行为、潜在认知过程和生活满意度关联方面存在性别差异。
