自拍在社交媒体上极为流行。根据谷歌数据估计,2014年每天大约产生930万张自拍照,而且这个数据还是只统计了安卓用户。自拍杆等自拍配件如今和手机上的自拍摄像头一样常见,2013年“selfie”一词甚至收入了牛津英语词典。

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.

虽然自拍十分流行,但人们看待自拍的态度却大不相同,有的人将其看作一种创意手法,认为这是与他们互动的方式,其他人却认为自拍意味着自恋和自我推销,而且是不真实的。

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.

作为一种当代文化现象,自拍引起了心理学家们的兴趣,他们借此研究人们在拍照、摆姿势、观看自己和别人的自拍时会想些什么、有何感受。路德维希-马克西米利安-慕尼黑大学教授莎拉•迪芬巴赫最近在《心理学前沿》杂志上发表了一篇研究论文,她通过在线调查评估人们自拍、看自拍照时的动机和评价。

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位生活在奥地利、德国和瑞士的人完成了这项调查。研究人员发现,77%的参访者会定期拍自拍照

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,尽管77%的参访者定期自拍,却有62-67%的人认为自拍有潜在负面影响,比如,它会影响人的自尊心。与这种对自拍的负面看法相伴的是,82%参访者表示他们更愿意在社交媒体上看非自拍类型的照片。迪芬巴赫把这种现象——许多人定期自拍但大多数人好像不喜欢看自拍——称作“自拍悖论”。

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.

解释这种悖论的关键点可能在于参访者如何看待自己的自拍和别人的自拍。参访者认为:相比别人的自拍,自己的自拍更具自我展示意义,但比较失真;而别的人自拍有自我嘲讽的意味,但较为真实。迪芬巴赫说:“这可能就解释了为什么每个自拍的人都不感觉自己是自恋的。如果大多数人都这么想,这个世界上充满自拍就不足为奇了。”