An article in Scientific America has pointed out that empirical research says that, actually, you think you're more beautiful than you are. We have a deep-seated need to feel good about ourselves and we naturally employ a number of self-enhancing strategies to research into what the call the "above average effect", or "illusory superiority", and shown that, for example, 70% of us rate ourselves as above average in leadership, 93% in driving and 85% at getting on well with others--all obviously statistical impossibilities.
《科学美国人》中的一篇文章指出：实证研究表明，事实上，你总是认为自己比真正的自己要漂亮。让自我感觉良好对我们来说是一种根深蒂固的需要。因此，我们很自然的会采用一些自我增强（心理术语）的策略来达到这一目标。社会心理学家已经对"超过平均效应"或者"虚幻的优越感"（的现象）积累了大量的研究。结果显示，举例来说，70%的人认为自己的领导水准是高于平均水平的，体现在驾驶（各个年龄段和性别）水平上，这个数字达到了93%，而更有85%的人觉得自己的交际能力在平均水平之上--都是听起来不可能的数据统计。
We rose-tint our memories and put ourselves into self-affirming situations. We become defensive when criticised, and apply negative stereotypes to others to boost our own self-esteem. We stalk around thinking we're hot stuff.
我们会美化自己的记忆，并总是自我肯定。对批评我们逐渐变得急于防护，并将负面刻板的印象强加于别人来维护我们自己的自尊。我们招摇过市并自以为我们是非常受欢迎的角色。
Psychologist and behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley oversaw a key studying into self-enhancement and attractiveness. Rather than have people simply rate their beauty compared with others, he asked them to identify an original photograph of themselves from a line-up including versions that had been altered to appear more and less attractive. Visual recognition, reads the study, is "an automatic psychological process occurring rapidly and intuitively with little or no apparent conscious deliberation". If the subjects quickly chose a falsely-flattering image – which most did – they genuinely believed it was really how they looked.
心理学家和行为科学家尼古拉斯·埃普利监测到了一个关于自我增强和吸引力的关键性研究。除了单纯让人们对自己的长相进行心理排序，尼古拉斯普利准备了一系列照片，其中包括了一些被多多少少处理得更加美观的照片，然后他让受验者从一组自己的照片中辨识出哪个是原来的版本。"视觉识别"，据其研究成果介绍，是"一个自动的心理过程，是迅速而直接地发生的，很少或者没有明显的熟思意识。"在实验中，如果受验者迅速选择了一个虚假的美化图像--事实上很多人都这么做了--那么说明他们真诚地相信他们本来就是那个样子的。
Epley found no significant gender difference in responses. Nor was there any evidence that those who self-enhanced the most (that is, the participants who thought the most positively doctored picture were real) were doing so to make up for profound insecurities. In fact, those who thought that the images higher up the attractiveness scale were real directly corresponded with those who showed other makers for having higher self-esteem. "I don't think the findings that we having have are any evidence of personal delusion", says Epley. "It's a reflection simply of people generally thinking well of themselves." If you are depressed, you won't be self-enhancing.
除此之外，埃普利在实验结果中没有发现显着的性别差异。同样，也没有任何证据表明那些自我增强感最强的人（也就是，会选择修改后最美观的图片的人）这样做是为了弥补其深深的不安全感。事实上，那些选择更有吸引力图片的人与那些被标识为具有更高自尊心的人直接相关。"我并不认为我们得到的这个结论能证明个人妄想，"埃普利说，"这只是人们自我感觉良好的一个简单反应。"如果你很沮丧，你就不会有自我增强的偏向。
Knowing the results of Epley's study, it makes sense that why people hate photographs of themselves so viscerally – on one level, they don't even recognize the person in the picture as themselves. Facebook therefore, is a self-enhancer's paradise, where people can share only the most flattering photos, the cream of their wit, style, beauty, intellect and lifestyles. "It's not that people's profiles are dishonest", says Catalina Toma of Wisconsin-Madison university, "but they portray an idealized version of themselves."
知道了埃普利的研究结果，也就不难理解为什么那么多人发自内心地讨厌自己的照片--到某种程度，他们根本并不认为图片里的人就是他们自己。因此，脸书就是一个实现"自我增强"的天堂。在Facebook上，人们可以只分享虚伪而最美的照片，他们智慧、美丽、天分和生活方式的精华在这里得到了完美的展现。"这并不是说他们展现的都是不诚实的资料，"威斯康星·麦迪逊大学的卡特琳娜·托马说，"他们塑造了一个理想化版本的自己。"