There might be a good reason to let a stranger choose your profile pic
When’s the last time you closely examined your social media profile pics? Be honest: Are they as slay-tastic as you think, or are they more meh than you’d care to admit? TBQH, your opinion matters naught because you should be letting a stranger choose your profile picture, according to a recent study.
We appreciate science serving us with unadulterated findings on all things social media (who knew posting peace sign selfies could be dangerous?), so we’ll hold off on side-eyeing this advice for now. If it helps us better understand the logic behind the Gilmore Girls‘ new Facebook profile picture, we’re all ears.
C’mon, who doesn’t wanna put their best social media profile photo forward? Clearly, the folks running the Gilmore Girls account know just how to do that because the updated photo = FEELSSS.
So, precisely what do these experts know about our photo-selecting methods that we don’t? As it turns out, A LOT.
As Mashable reports, researchers at UNSW Sydney in Australia asked 102 students to choose their best two potential profile pics out of 12 possible options, presumably to be used for sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Match. Then the subjects were asked to do the same with photos of a group of strangers who had previously taken part in the study. Afterwards, random people online viewed the students’ selected photos and determined that the ones picked by others were more flattering than the self-selected pics.
So basically, we don’t know jack about picking photos that portray us in the best light.
Of the findings published in Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, lead author David White said in a statement:
"Our findings suggest that people make poor choices when selecting flattering images of themselves for online profile pictures, which affects other people's perception of them.
Well, it looks like it’s way past time for us to update our list of profile pic dos and don’ts. But first we need to find a stranger who won’t mind scrolling through all bazillion of our selfies to select the best shot.
