Likes and dislikes of a curious species

Somehow, regardless of our backgrounds, social status and bank balances, we tend to avoid conflict most of the time.

People who lose their temper are likelier to overestimate their own intelligence.

People are strange, unpredictable beasts. We are all unique — in our looks, in our personalities, in our temperaments — yet, individually and collectively, we keep changing.

Some of us believe in God; some of us have faith in science and want to know more; others don’t know what to believe in but are still happy to go along for the ride. We are vulnerable to mass marketing of products, internet clickbait, well-done movies or a song with a good beat, but you never could come up with a product offering that would suit everyone.

Often, our social connections grow almost organically through shared likes or dislikes — even beyond Instagram and Twitter. Somehow, regardless of our backgrounds, our social status and our bank balances, we tend to avoid conflict most of the time. We learn and explore, we forge relationships, build things, rear children and, collectively, do some good. That’s something to be thankful for.

People who lose their temper are likelier to over-estimate their own intelligence, possibly turning them into narcissists, according to a study from the University of Western Australia.

UWA researchers, together with colleagues from the University of Warsaw in Poland, examined trait anger, or a clear tendency to become annoyed at things, and its relationship with perceptions of intelligence.

“Trait anger, in some cases, may be a consequence of less emotional stability, such as anxiety,” UWA senior lecturer Gilles Gignac says.

“However, for others there is no anxiety fuelling the frustration, nastiness and angry outbursts. Instead, for them it looks like it may be narcissism. Consequently, when you ask this type of trait-angry person to rate their own intelligence, they tend to over-estimate it.”

Gignac says more research is needed into the so-called grandiose narcissist, who also has an inflated, positive self-image.

“It may be speculated that for many grandiose narcissists, trait anger develops over time, as they begin to gain some awareness of the difference between how important and good they think they are versus the reality of what they can do and what they have accomplished.”

Women are likelier to use sexy selfies to compete socially in countries where there is greater economic inequality, rather than simply gender inequality.

For a recent University NSW study published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), researchers analysed tens of thousands of social media posts across 113 countries, including whether they were tagged sexy or hot, and the environment in which that happened.

The results went against the traditional thinking that, academically speaking, women were likelier to be preoccupied with their appearance if society valued it above their other qualities.

“That income inequality is a big predictor of sexy selfies suggests that sexy selfies are a marker of social climbing among women that tracks economic incentives in the local environment,” says UNSW’s Khandis Blake.

“Rightly or wrongly, in today’s environment, looking sexy can generate large returns economically, socially and personally.

“In evolutionary terms, these kinds of behaviours are completely rational, even adaptive. The basic idea is that the way people compete for mates and the things they do to put themselves at the top of the hierarchy are really important.”

Prejudiced memes are likelier to be believed and shared if they receive “likes” among people who share similar political views, but that also demonstrates the dangers of social media.

For an experiment, Emily Read from the Australian National University created a meme with a prejudiced message — the Statue of Liberty in a burka — and told participants it was posted on a Democrat or Republican Facebook group page.

Separate ANU research has found claims likelier to be believed if accompanied by a related photo.

Read found the number of likes a meme received influenced how prejudiced people believed it was, as did the political persuasion of those who supposedly liked the meme and the person viewing it.

“Who has liked it and who has interacted with it influences whether it is perceived as truth or prejudice, and social media makes these factors very easy to manipulate,” she says.

“When our perception of truth is being shaped by content shared on Facebook, it is important that users are critical and know that content can be easily manipulated. I was able to create those memes in about 20 minutes.”

Roy Morgan research this year found 47 per cent of Australians distrust social media, with Facebook the most distrusted brand.