These experiments highlighted how people interact with photographs and trying to visualize aspects of themselves. When asked what reflected them, individuals chose events and described how they informed their perspective or displayed certain characteristics. This allowed us to see what characteristics were either easiest to find in a photo or most salient to each individual. It seemed that if their camera roll was taken away, they might have come up with different responses since the captions were very event based.
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When asked what symbolized them, each individual thought of a main characteristic, then found a photo that best represented that. This reversed the original process, as each person went beyond their own photos to find an image that accurately portrayed this trait. Again, the individuals chose a couple traits that were most salient. Why didn't they find a photo that represents them as a whole? Do we tend to think of ourselves by our most obvious traits? If we were picking out pictures for other people, would we do the same thing? Connecting our sense of self to a photo can be difficult, especially if we haven't spent much time thinking about our personalities and how they would appear visually.
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If I'm asked to describe myself, I'd probably say a lighthearted person that finds comedy in almost anything. However, if someone else were to say those were my defining characteristics, I'd think they had an incomplete picture. When asked to reflect ourselves as a photo, we go back to the default of simplifying ourselves down to a couple traits.
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This might be because finding a photo that represents a person is extremely difficult. Since people are so dynamic, finding an image that is able to capture that might take a substantial amount of time.