自拍在社交媒體上極為流行。根據谷歌數據估計,2014年每天大約產生930萬張自拍照,而且這個數據還是只統計了安卓用戶。自拍桿等自拍配件如今和手機上的自拍攝像頭一樣常見,2013年“selfie”一詞甚至收入了牛津英語詞典。

While selfies are extremely common, opinions on selfies can vary significantly, with some seeing them as a creative outlet and a way to connect with other people and others seeing them as narcissistic, self-promotional and inauthentic.

雖然自拍十分流行,但人們看待自拍的態度卻大不相同,有的人將其看作一種創意手法,認為這是與他們互動的方式,其他人卻認為自拍意味著自戀和自我推銷,而且是不真實的。

As a contemporary cultural phenomenon, selfies are of interest to psychologists, in terms of how people think and feel when taking, posting and viewing both their own selfies and those posted by others. In a recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology, Sarah Diefenbach, a professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, conducted an online survey to assess people's motives and judgements when taking and viewing selfies.

作為一種當代文化現象,自拍引起了心理學家們的興趣,他們借此研究人們在拍照、擺姿勢、觀看自己和別人的自拍時會想些什么、有何感受。路德維希-馬克西米利安-慕尼黑大學教授莎拉•迪芬巴赫最近在《心理學前沿》雜志上發表了一篇研究論文,她通過在線調查評估人們自拍、看自拍照時的動機和評價。

A total of 238 people living in Austria, Germany and Switzerland completed the survey. The researchers found that 77% of the participants regularly took selfies.

238位生活在奧地利、德國和瑞士的人完成了這項調查。研究人員發現,77%的參訪者會定期拍自拍照

Interestingly, despite 77% of the participants taking selfies regularly, 62-67% agreed on the potential negative consequences of selfies, such as impacts on self-esteem. This negative perception of selfies was also illustrated by 82% of participants indicating that they would rather see other types of photos instead of selfies on social media. This phenomenon, where many people regularly take selfies but most people don't appear to like them has been termed the "selfie paradox" by Diefenbach.

有意思的是,盡管77%的參訪者定期自拍,卻有62-67%的人認為自拍有潛在負面影響,比如,它會影響人的自尊心。與這種對自拍的負面看法相伴的是,82%參訪者表示他們更愿意在社交媒體上看非自拍類型的照片。迪芬巴赫把這種現象——許多人定期自拍但大多數人好像不喜歡看自拍——稱作“自拍悖論”。

The key to the paradox may lie in the way the participants view their own selfies, compared with those of others. The participants attributed greater self-presentational motives and less authenticity to selfies taken by others, compared with those taken by themselves, which were also judged as self-ironic and more authentic. "This may explain how everybody can take selfies without feeling narcissistic. If most people think like this, then it is no wonder that the world is full of selfies," Diefenbach explains.

解釋這種悖論的關鍵點可能在于參訪者如何看待自己的自拍和別人的自拍。參訪者認為:相比別人的自拍,自己的自拍更具自我展示意義,但比較失真;而別的人自拍有自我嘲諷的意味,但較為真實。迪芬巴赫說:“這可能就解釋了為什么每個自拍的人都不感覺自己是自戀的。如果大多數人都這么想,這個世界上充滿自拍就不足為奇了。”