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If you’ve been practicing your amateur sleuthing skills on a guy you’ve agreed to go on a date with, chances are you’ve taken a deep dive into his social media profiles. In fact, you probably already have a few no-brainer dealbreakers in mind when it comes to the pictures he posts.

My own list of images, Instagram specifically, that immediately raise a red flag includes pictures with weapons, profile pictures with sunglasses, an abundance of gym selfies, and the ubiquitous fish photo. In fact, according to psychology, a man’s selfies may even disclose signs of someone who has a dark personality. 

I know, I know. Sometimes we are all our own best photographers, and selfies are pretty much a way of life these days. But just because selfies are the norm doesn’t mean they can’t also be used to spot characteristics of people you should be extra careful to stay away from.

If you think I’m being paranoid, listen up, as science has my back. The researchers behind a study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences found that two factors to a man’s selfies can predict whether he has what they refer to as the “dark triad” of personality traits — narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.

If you aren’t familiar with those terms, here are the basic definitions:

Narcissism: a belief that you’re smarter, more attractive, and better than others, but with some underlying insecurity.

Machiavellianism: a person so focused on their own interests that they will manipulate, deceive, and exploit others to achieve their goals.

Psychopathy: a lack of empathy and regard for others and a tendency toward impulsive behavior.

These three characteristics are signs of someone who may have a narcissistic or antisocial personality disorder, i.e., narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths.

The team of researchers from Ohio State University conducted an online survey of 800 men in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 40, all of whom were asked about their selfie-snapping and social media posting habits. Participants also completed personality questionnaires to evaluate them for tendencies toward narcissistic, psychopathic, and antisocial personality traits.

: You Know Someone’s A Sinister Presence In Your Life If They Have One Of These ‘Dark Triad’ Personality Traits

If a man’s Instagram has these 2 subtle clues, psychology says he may have a dark personality:

1. He posts tons of selfies

Does this really surprise you? Tons of selfies just feel wrong without even knowing the why, right? What the researchers found is that the more a guy takes and posts pictures of himself on socials, the more narcissistic and psychopathic tendencies he has.

Lysenko Andrii | Shutterstock

It’s probably important to make a distinction here. Solo bucket list trip? Yes. Take lots of selfies! Sure, even post lots of said selfies. Weird collection of “this is how I look every morning as I’m getting out of bed” selfies? Nope. It’s one thing to take those pics. Posting them is where the red flags start flying.

While it’s not that surprising that the guys who post their solo pics are more narcissistic (though this is the first study to prove it), researchers definitely found it interesting that they’re scoring high on psychopathy, which indicates a lack of empathy for others and more impulsive behavior.

: Why People Can’t Help But Stalk Their Exes On Social Media, Even When They Don’t Really Care What They’re Doing Anymore

2. He frequently edits his selfies

As for the aspiring photo editor out there who removes his blemishes and gives himself a Miami tan before posting on Instagram? Rest assured, he is not a psychopath.

“Psychopathy is characterized by impulsivity. They are going to snap the photos and put them online right away. They want to see themselves. They don’t want to spend time editing,” said Jesse Fox, lead author of the study and assistant professor of communication at Ohio State.

Instead, your kissy face fella in sepia ranks pretty high on the narcissism and self-objectification scales! Of course, this doesn’t mean your oversharing boyfriend or the guy with the bad mirror selfie on Insta is necessarily a full-blown psychopath. The men in the study all scored within the normal range of behavior, but with higher-than-average levels of these antisocial traits. I think we can all agree, though, that they’re definitely not sending a good message.

This is also one of the first times self-objectification (aka valuing your appearance over all other positive traits) has been studied in heterosexual men, the researchers pointed out. “We know that self-objectification leads to a lot of terrible things, like depression and eating disorders in women,” Fox said. “With the growing use of social networks, everyone is more concerned with their appearance. That means self-objectification may become a bigger problem for men, as well as for women.”

You’re probably wondering about where women fall on these scales. Well, this study only looked at American males, and there’s no comparable data for us yet either. So, until there is, keep posing loud and proud with that selfie stick, ladies.

: The Differences Between How Boomers, Millennials, And Gen Zers Post Instagram Stories

Michelle Toglia is an Executive Editor at Elite Daily and Bustle with over 15 years of media experience. Her work has appeared in publications like Huffington Post, Yahoo, and Thought Catalog, among others.