You test your make-up within the lavatory mirror earlier than you head out. Good! Your hair is curling completely, and your eyeliner has by no means seemed higher.
You’re taking a selfie to immortalize your look eternally, however you do not have time to verify the selfie got here out OK since you’re already working late, moreover you know the way to pose and use lighting to your benefit. You’re taking your Tinder profile very severely.
Later, when a good friend asks to see a distinct image, you scroll by your earlier lavatory selfie and you are horrified. Your hair seems to be like a bees nest and also you would possibly as nicely have tried to decorate up as a raccoon with the way in which your eye make-up is trying.
The true cause you hate the way in which you look in footage
Is that how you actually look? What you thought was good is definitely an enormous mess. How may you’ve been so mistaken, and why do you hate the way in which you look in photographs? Why did not anybody inform you how horrendous you seemed?
The issue is that almost all of us are used to seeing ourselves in mirrors, and sadly, the mirror lies.
After we have a look at ourselves in a mirror, we would assume we’re seeing how we actually look, however we’re truly seeing an inverse picture.
Most individuals’s faces aren’t completely symmetrical, however that is OK; we get used to seeing how their left eye is barely bigger than their proper, or how their smile appears to show downward.
After years of trying within the mirror (pre-teens spend half of their lives doing this), we get used to the face staring again at us.
And that is the place mere-exposure is available in.
Mere-exposure (developed by a psychologist named Robert Zajonc) reveals that individuals react higher to issues they see extra typically.
Zajonc discovered that mere-exposure works on the whole lot from facial expressions to nonsense phrases.
We like what we’re used to seeing, so it is smart that we desire the picture of ourselves that we see on a regular basis — the picture with our flipped facial imperfections.
In keeping with the mere-exposure impact, whenever you see a photographic illustration of your face unflipped by the mirror, it seems to be odd to you, off-kilter, and form of unusual.
However earlier than you swear off selfies, make a promise to your self to solely take Snapchat selfies.
Why? As a result of Snapchat does not flip the picture to its inverse; it takes a photograph of you that you understand and love, and you may relaxation assured that you do not truly appear like a monster in actual life.
Christine Schoenwald is a author, performer, and frequent contributor to YourTango. She’s had articles featured in The Los Angeles Occasions, Salon, Bustle, Medium, Huffington Submit, Enterprise Insider, and Lady’s Day, amongst many others.
