![]() ![]() But even bad photos - the ones that are poorly lit, blurry, out of focus, unflattering - are a memory worth preserving. Of course, the antidote to bad photo days is seamless filters. So when it looks to individual characteristics, it is more likely to scrutinize and find issues with it. The reason for the illusion may be instinctive: the human brain is programmed to look at the group as a whole. Regardless of gender, people found the group picture more flattering for the said individual. They were also shown pictures of individuals separately. In 2003, researchers presented 130 participants with group pictures of three female faces or three male faces. the group attractiveness effect), people think of themselves as more attractive if in a group picture. ![]() Because of the “cheerleader effect” (A.K.A. The composition of the photograph too alters one’s perception of themselves. A 2016 study found a correlation between scrolling and growing disparity with one’s expectations of how one looks. “People are comparing their appearance to people in Instagram images, or whatever platform they’re on, and they often judge themselves to be worse off,” Jasmine Fardouly, a postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, told BBC. Social media works like an echo chamber to amplify this feeling. In that, people with self-image issues will be inclined to confirm their bias against themselves. Alternatively, if someone already has a negative self-image - or thinks they aren’t attractive - they will be more inclined to believe the photograph is bad. If someone thinks they look very attractive in real life, a picture that shows a slightly watered-down version will disappoint them. If people think highly of themselves, the reality of a picture will always disappoint.Ī corollary to this idea comes in the form of “confirmation bias.” People will search for information that backs up our previously held beliefs. “It’s a tendency to evaluate our own traits and abilities more favorably than is objectively warranted,” researchers noted, calling this a “self-enhancement” of sorts. People chose the photo of themselves in which they looked more attractive - recognizing a more attractive, flipped version of themselves. In 2008, researchers asked people to pick themselves from a line-up of altered pictures - some edited to look less attractive. Some research shows people tend to think they’re more attractive than they are. People remember asymmetry more, but also tend to look down on it.Īdditionally, self-enhancement bias skews self-perception. “The little imperfections of her face can be as a sign of authenticity.” Interestingly, a 1970s study also found that other people - friends and family - always preferred the true image (the non-flipped) one of a person. “If you have a very symmetric, very easy to process face, then you have one problem: You won’t be remembered so well,” he told Nautilus, taking Meryl Streep’s example whose nose leans slightly to the left. Claus-Christian Carbon, a professor of psychology at the University of Bamberg, Germany, even notes people are more likely to note asymmetrical features like nose and ears. In other words, the camera version is like an unfamiliar portrait of ourselves that we neither recognize nor care to.Īnd truth be told: most faces aren’t symmetrical either. “According to the mere-exposure effect, when your slight facial asymmetries are left unflipped by the camera, you see an unappealing, alien version of yourself,” Wired explained. ![]() In 1968, a psychologist named Robert Zajonc argued people react more favorably to things they see more often - there’s a familiarity bias at play. He called this the “mere exposure effect.” People see themselves mostly via mirror images, which are flipped versions of themselves that become the preferred self-image. Three theories can help explain one’s hatred of self-portraits. In other words, there is a glaring ideological disparity between the mind’s eye and the camera lens. “Bad” pictures, which mean different things to different people, have little to do with how one looks and more with how one wants to look. Finding the “right light” is akin to solving a quest. It almost feels like a universal conspiracy that every picture is a bad one irrespective of how one poses. The outcome of “smile, please” or “say cheese” is never what one wants it to be. It is universally acknowledged that a person with vanity (or dignity), may always eye their own photograph with disappointing curiosity. ![]()
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