When we meet someone for the first time, we usually get a vague sense of what kind of person they are by the way they shake hands, talk, or walk. In the age of social networking, however, first impressions are sometimes made even before we actually meet someone in person – that is, by looking at their profile photo.

当我们和某人初次见面时，我们通常会从握手、谈话或者走路的方式，对这个人形成一些初步印象。然而，在社交媒体时代，第一印象有时甚至在人们见面之前就形成了 —— 通过看他们的个人头像。

According to a recent study, these social images say a lot about our personality.

一项近期研究表明，这些社交图像透露了不少我们的性格。

In the study, presented in a paper at the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in the US used software to analyze¹ the profile pictures of 66,000 users of US social platform Twitter and 3,200 of their tweets. At the same time, about 434 participants were asked to complete a survey about their personality type.

国际人工智能协会网络与社交媒体大会上的一篇报告对该研究进行了陈述。研究中，一组来自美国宾夕法尼亚大学的研究人员用软件分析了美国社交平台推特上的66000个用户以及他们的3200条推文。与此同时，约434名参与者受邀完成了一份关于自身性格类型的调查问卷。

The researchers wanted to find out if there was a connection between personality traits – like openness, extroversion², and neuroticism³ – and a person’s profile picture.

研究人员希望找到性格特点（如开放、外向、神经质等）与个人头像之间的关联。

According to the results, open people are more likely to pose in an unusual way and use objects such as glasses or a guitar in their profile photo because they enjoy new and exciting experiences.

结果表明，开朗的人更倾向于在头像中摆出别具一格的姿势，并用上眼镜、吉他等物件，因为这些人喜欢全新刺激的体验。

Meanwhile, neurotic⁴ people often hold back their negative emotions. They try to avoid showing their face；instead, they use an image of something like a pet, a car or a building. That’s because neurotic people are strongly influenced by the “strong social norm against a very sad or angry appearance in profile pictures,” Daniel Preoiuc-Pietro from the University of Pennsylvania wrote in the research paper.

与此同时，神经质的人常常掩饰自己的消极情绪。他们试着避免展示自己的面容，而是用宠物、汽车或者建筑物等物的图像来代替。那是因为神经质的人深受“强大的社会规范影响，不喜欢十分悲伤或者愤怒的表情出现在头像当中，”宾夕法尼亚大学的丹尼尔·普里奥克-彼得罗在研究报告中写道。

Apart from the objects in profile pictures, the colors used in them also give us some hints about the photo’s owner.

除了头像中出现的物体之外，头像颜色也向我们揭露了头像主人的一些信息。

For example, extraverts were found to have the most colorful profile images, as they want to emphasize their personality and show themselves off, the researchers wrote.

比如，外向者被发现头像颜色最为鲜艳，因为他们想要强调自己的个性，并且展示自己，研究人员写道。

Although social media photos “usually represent an extension of one’s self, they also allow a user to shape his or her own personality and idealized view,” according to the researchers.

研究人员们认为，尽管社交媒体照片“通常代表着个人自我的延伸，但它们也塑造了用户的个性以及理想化的观点。”

So, when choosing a profile photo, maybe we should ask ourselves first what kind of image we’d like to convey. After all, first impressions always last.

所以，当选择头像照片时，或许我们首先应该问问自己想要表现出什么样的形象。毕竟，第一印象最持久。