Let's put a smile on that face—A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs
In today's age of social media and smartphones, portraits—such as selfies or pictures of friends and family—are very frequently produced, shared and viewed images. Despite their prevalence, the psychological factors that characterize a ‘good’ photo—one that people will generally like, keep, and...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230413 |
| _version_ | 1797650429719347200 |
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| author | Christian Valuch Matthew Pelowski Veli-Tapani Peltoketo Jussi Hakala Helmut Leder |
| author_facet | Christian Valuch Matthew Pelowski Veli-Tapani Peltoketo Jussi Hakala Helmut Leder |
| author_sort | Christian Valuch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In today's age of social media and smartphones, portraits—such as selfies or pictures of friends and family—are very frequently produced, shared and viewed images. Despite their prevalence, the psychological factors that characterize a ‘good’ photo—one that people will generally like, keep, and think is especially aesthetically pleasing—are not well understood. Here, we studied how a subtle change in facial expression (smiling) in portraits determines their aesthetic image value (beyond a more positive appearance of the depicted person). We used AI-based image processing tools in a broad set of portrait photographs and generated neutral and slightly smiling versions of the same pictures. Consistent across two experiments, portraits with a subtle smile increased both spontaneous aesthetic preferences in a swiping task as well as improving more explicit aesthetic ratings after prolonged viewing. Participants distinguished between aspects associated with image beauty and the depicted person's attractiveness, resulting in specific interactions between variables related to participant traits, image content, and task. Our study confirms that a subtle—and in this case fully artificial—smile reliably increases the aesthetic quality of portraits, illustrating how current image processing methods can target psychologically important variables and thereby increase the aesthetic value of photographs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T16:01:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a8353c93520746a0bb7ec258ae75959a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T16:01:17Z |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-a8353c93520746a0bb7ec258ae75959a2023-10-25T07:05:49ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032023-10-01101010.1098/rsos.230413Let's put a smile on that face—A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographsChristian Valuch0Matthew Pelowski1Veli-Tapani Peltoketo2Jussi Hakala3Helmut Leder4Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaFaculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaHuawei Technologies Oy (Finland) Co. Ltd, Tampere, FinlandHuawei Technologies Oy (Finland) Co. Ltd, Tampere, FinlandFaculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, AustriaIn today's age of social media and smartphones, portraits—such as selfies or pictures of friends and family—are very frequently produced, shared and viewed images. Despite their prevalence, the psychological factors that characterize a ‘good’ photo—one that people will generally like, keep, and think is especially aesthetically pleasing—are not well understood. Here, we studied how a subtle change in facial expression (smiling) in portraits determines their aesthetic image value (beyond a more positive appearance of the depicted person). We used AI-based image processing tools in a broad set of portrait photographs and generated neutral and slightly smiling versions of the same pictures. Consistent across two experiments, portraits with a subtle smile increased both spontaneous aesthetic preferences in a swiping task as well as improving more explicit aesthetic ratings after prolonged viewing. Participants distinguished between aspects associated with image beauty and the depicted person's attractiveness, resulting in specific interactions between variables related to participant traits, image content, and task. Our study confirms that a subtle—and in this case fully artificial—smile reliably increases the aesthetic quality of portraits, illustrating how current image processing methods can target psychologically important variables and thereby increase the aesthetic value of photographs.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230413image beautyfacial attractivenessindividual differencescultural contextartificial intelligence |
| spellingShingle | Christian Valuch Matthew Pelowski Veli-Tapani Peltoketo Jussi Hakala Helmut Leder Let's put a smile on that face—A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs Royal Society Open Science image beauty facial attractiveness individual differences cultural context artificial intelligence |
| title | Let's put a smile on that face—A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs |
| title_full | Let's put a smile on that face—A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs |
| title_fullStr | Let's put a smile on that face—A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs |
| title_full_unstemmed | Let's put a smile on that face—A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs |
| title_short | Let's put a smile on that face—A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs |
| title_sort | let s put a smile on that face a positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs |
| topic | image beauty facial attractiveness individual differences cultural context artificial intelligence |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230413 |
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