This is why you hate photos of yourself

Weird how nobody can take a good photo of you, right? Even though when you look in the mirror you’re all “YOOOOOOOOOOOO” and taking photos to send to your Snapchat crush, whenever someone else is behind the camera you look more Shrek than Gaston, more Ursula than Ariel. There’s a simple reason, apparently.

According to WIRED, it’s mostly to do with an effect called “mere-exposure”. Essentially, the more often you see something, the more favourably you respond to it. You see your face in the mirror heaps, so that becomes your self-image. But your mirror face is flipped, so when you see it unflipped by someone else’s camera, it looks out of wack with what you believe you should look like.

This wouldn’t be a problem if you had a symmetrical face like a weird living video game character, but you’re only human, and you’re beautiful even asymmetrical, so don’t worry about those dumb photos. Just untag yourself so nobody sees them.

Image via WIRED

Words by Jake Cleland