Brescia Psychology Undergraduate Honours Theses

Date of Award

Spring 4-6-2017

Program

Psychology

Supervisor

Dr. Leslie Janes

Abstract

The current study investigated factors (i.e., confidence, gender, attractiveness) influencing participant’s perceptions of social media postings. 89 female Psychology 1000 Brescia University College students participated in this study. There were 4 levels of confidence captions: low confidence, average confidence, high confidence, and arrogance. Photos, with captions similar to those that are shown on social media, were of males and females of either low attractiveness, average attractiveness, or high attractiveness. Participants rated favourability and level of confidence of individuals in the captioned photos. Key hypotheses were that arrogant captions would be perceived less favourably by participants than those postings that had lower levels of confidence captions, and that male postings would be perceived more favourably at high levels of confidence than those of females. Although the hypotheses were not confirmed, it was found that confidence level, attractiveness, and gender had some significant effects on perceptions of social media postings. Although these findings were not consistent with previous findings, they may still help provide evidence that this area of research is not yet complete.

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