What is your good profile for photos?

The digital world increasingly enhances the importance of the image: selfies, photos of vacations, the gym and gala dinners, etc. Perhaps that is why some people attach such importance to the question: "what is my good profile?" That of the face, it is understood, not the psychological facet.

It may not be important to some, but the asymmetries that naturally appear in all faces humans make a certain interest appear in knowing how to better pose for those portraits that once they were posted on the Internet will become part of one's public image. However, when it comes to estimating which half looks better in the eyes of others, we are quite clumsy, according to a study.

Choosing the wrong half of the face

The research, carried out by Face Research Lab for the Nikon brand, reveals that we're pretty bad at choosing the best side of the face that we prefer to show in a portrait, at least if we compare our criteria with the opinion of others.

In addition, the results found could be applied to marketing techniques, promoting the most flattering side of the face of the models associated with the product or service.

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How was the study done?

The Face Research Lab team had a group of 100 men and women of various age ranges and ethnicities and asked them what they thought was their most flattering side of the face. With these data in hand, photographs were taken of each profile of the face of the participants and these were passed to the others so that they could choose which one they thought was the best from the point of view of the others.

Of course, in 50% of the occasions the inverted image (horizontally rotated) of each half so that personal preferences as to which side is best would not influence the results.

The results were very curious: in general we tend to make so many mistakes thinking about the side of our face that is more Nice for the rest of us that we get it right more or less half the time or even less, as if it were a simple matter of chance.

In fact, women were significantly worse than men in this respect. 36% of the time, they showed a preference for the profile that others perceived as less attractive. The men got it right 57% of the time, a percentage that is still relatively low if we assume that it is not a simple random choice.

This means that either there is a curious discrepancy between our self-image and the way others value our appearance, or many people pose showing the wrong side believing that this way they will impress others more.

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We prefer the left side

Another of the curious conclusions reached by the research is that the majority of people he thinks his left profile is prettier, even taking into account the cases in which the image had been inverted. In fact, it turned out to be chosen as the best 61% of the time.

A possible explanation for this is that statistically the left profile is usually more marked, that is, it shows more distinctive and characteristic features that make it more memorable. This result had already been suggested by other investigations on the subject, but with a nuance; previously it was believed that the fact that the left half was more expressive increased its chances of being appreciated positively.

However, in this investigation it has been seen that the preference remains the same regardless of whether in the photo he appears smiling or not. It is that side of the face, and not the way the smile is reflected on it, that attracts. Although other investigations reveal that we find faces more attractive when they smile, comparing two profiles that maintain the same expression, the left one continues to win.