What is in your current profile picture?

Is it you carrying a cute baby or your pet? Is it you on vacation or in an exotic location like a mountaintop or an air balloon? Is it you before a mirror or making funny facial expressions? Or is it a picture of a natural scene or an object?

Do you wonder what sort of impression we try to give through our profile pictures? Does a profile picture simply show how good we look or does it tell people a lot more about us?

For the first instance it might seem like people use the profile pictures they like and that's it while in fact a profile picture is a communication message that people use to affirm a certain identity or to show something to others.

Many people actually don't know why they like certain pictures. Their subconscious mind just makes the pictures appeal to them because it knows that it will help them show people something that they really need to see.

Does a Profile Picture Carry a Message?

Researchers from The Ohio State University had 195 college students view a mock Facebook profile of a person who was supposed to be a fellow student. The profile included a photo and a written statement about the person.

The study found that people form first impressions from what you are doing in your photo, not from reading your text.

Psychologist Janet Hall reveals the hidden messages behind the most common profile pictures:

1) The Couple Shot: People whose profile picture shows them with their partners are trying to communicate the happiness of their relationship to their friends. In other words, they are proud that they ended together and they want to remind the world of this fact. They want to focus on that rather than their own personal identity. If only one of them posted this picture then this description applies to him only
2) The Action Shot: This profile picture could show you in the middle of a jump, diving into a pool or running on the beach. A person who uses such a picture usually tries to affirm a certain identity to the world such as "I am brave", "I am an active guy" or "i am not weak". (see also Why do people get Tattoos)
3) The Arty Shot: The arty profile picture may contain half a face, a close up on eyes or as one person writes: “In my profile picture, I’m holding a camera and taking a picture. I’m showing off my expertise.” The arty shot shows people your creativity and uniqueness. In addition people who are more interested in arts might be more sensitive than other people
4) The Friend Shot: If a person’s profile picture shows him with a Friend or friends, then he believes that his social interactions define him. This person might also be proud of the fact that he belongs to a certain group of people. He wants the rest of his friends to know what good friends he has and how much of a good friend he is. (see also 5 weird reasons people have friends)

5) The belongings shot: If your profile picture is of your expensive car or of yourself in a boat or on vacation then you are the type of person who wants to show off wealth or a certain life style. (see also What your car says about you)

Why Did You Choose That Picture?

17 year old Nina Jones is a participant at a psychology competition. She designed an experiment to look at the psychology behind the photos people choose to represent themselves on their Facebook profile. (See Facebook addiction psychology)

Nina says, “I spend a disproportionate amount of time on Facebook each evening, looking at the profile pictures of people I don’t know. I found it quite interesting the motivations behind certain people’s choices”.

Nina started a Facebook page for her experiment, gathering over 3,500 members who shared their reasons for choosing their profile pictures including:

That’s not me. That’s Pitbull Explanation: I admire him and i believe people should.
I never show myself on my profile picture Explanation: I don’t want to make it easy for people to find me, because of work issues.
Mine is of me while I am singing at a karaoke performance Explanation: I want to be like Michael Jackson one day.
I’m posing with my baby Explanation: I’m proud of having this baby and I want to share my joy.
I’m posing with my pet Explanation: My pet is part of my family and an extension of my identity.

The experiment also found that men are 50% more likely than women to make changes to their pictures (change them using Photoshop) before they post them but they are 20% less likely to be smiling in them. A picture with a romantic partner raised the chances of a smiling photo by 35%. Also, only 1% showed themselves smoking and 5% showed themselves drinking.

Therefore, when choosing a profile picture, it’s best to ask yourself what message you would like to convey to people.

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