When we look in the mirror, we see ourselves as beautiful. However, this confidence was quickly “extinguished” as soon as he saw himself in the photo. Why is it so different from the same person?
In fact, the image in the mirror is an inverted version of how we look in real life . When you regularly look in the mirror every day, you will feel familiar with this reversed image and automatically assume that it is you, experts call this phenomenon the frequent exposure effect. Therefore, when being able to really admire the real face (not reversed), through the photos, many people will feel a little surprised because the difference is also for this reason.
When looking at yourself in the mirror, you can completely instantly adjust factors such as light, tilt angle, facial expression so that the image appears to be the best. This is also the reason why the mirror version of a person is often more beautiful than in the photograph.
When looking at ourselves in the mirror, the brain will make us not notice the difference in light in positions, instead it will “process” itself to spread the light evenly over the entire image. On the contrary, the camera ensures the accuracy of light and dark of every detail in the frame and sometimes this makes you in the picture become “bad”.
Researcher Nolan Feeney has explained that we often look in the mirror when we are at home or at least in a place where we feel safe, this makes us more confident and comfortable, helps our face always stay in the state. most natural. On the contrary, when taking pictures, we will be a bit tense and awkward, because we have to try to focus on posing: stretching without blinking, deliberately smirking to create a fake smile. That’s not to mention the pressure from the photographer, the onlookers and the anxiety about everyone’s worth when the picture is posted on social networks.
When we look in the mirror, we usually only focus on some key parts of the face such as lips, nose, eyes… and rarely pay attention to the overall beauty. Meanwhile, when looking at photos, people evaluate their appearance comprehensively, and at the same time, they also look at factors that are often overlooked such as facial expressions or shooting posture…
Researchers from the University of Chicago have proven that people often think their appearance is better than they really are. Specifically, in this study, experts took photos of volunteers; next process them into two versions: “worse” and “beautiful” ; Then, the volunteers were asked to choose a photo that best represented their actual appearance. As a result, the vast majority of “better” versions of the photo were selected.