"I Found a More Attractive Deepfaked Self": The Self-Enhancement Effect in Deepfake Video Exposure

With the introduction of deepfake technology, which enables digital face-swapping between two individuals, young women are no longer passive viewers of attractive celebrities, but are able to become part of the perfect images. This study used the ZAO app as the apparatus to investigate the impact of viewing the self-celebrity deepfaked videos (SCDV) on young female users' appearance self-evaluation (i.e., body image and state appearance self-esteem). A sample of 128 young women 18-31 years of age was randomly assigned to view either 10 SCDV or 10 purely celebrity videos (PCV). All videos were sourced from the ZAO app. Results showed that participants in the SCDV condition perceived themselves as more physically attractive, experienced greater satisfaction with their own facial features, and reported marginally higher state appearance self-esteem than those in the PCV condition, whereas body shape satisfaction did not differ between the conditions. In addition, SCDV exposure increased perceived overall physical attractiveness and facial features satisfaction, but did not impact body shape satisfaction, whereas PCV exposure decreased facial features satisfaction, but did not impact perceived overall physical attractiveness or body shape satisfaction. "Attractive possible self" (APS) perception positively mediated the effect of SCDV exposure on perceived overall physical attractiveness, facial features satisfaction, body shape satisfaction, and state appearance self-esteem, while state appearance comparison only negatively mediated the effect of SCDV exposure on facial features satisfaction. This study reveals the potential of deepfake technology as an intervention technique for body image disturbances.

Self-presentation in Online Professional Networks: Men's Higher and Women's Lower Facial Prominence in Self-created Profile Images

Men are presented with higher facial prominence than women in the media, a phenomenon that is called face-ism. In naturalistic settings, face-ism effects could be driven by gender biases of photographers and/or by gender differences in self-presentation. The present research is the first to investigate whether women and men themselves create this different facial prominence. In a controlled laboratory study, 61 participants prepared a picture of themselves from a half-body photograph, allegedly to be uploaded to their profile for an online professional network. As expected, men cropped their photos with higher facial prominence than women did. However, women and men did not differ in the self-presentational motivations, goals, strategies, and personality variables under investigation, so that the observed face-ism effect could not be explained with these variables. Generally, the higher participants' physical appearance self-esteem, the higher was their self-created facial prominence.