Why we can not stand each other in photos
Actually, I like myself. On the whole. When I look in the mirror, I find the result even passable. Really! I'm not one who is constantly lounging around or in search of confirmation constantly throwing such meaningless questions in the room like "honey, do you think I'm too fat ?? or does the woman look at the next table not much better than me ??. Not even close.
And yet there is this phenomenon. That I always, when I see photos of me, think: "Oh God, who is this woman with this funny grin?! ?? If I were Heidi Klum, I would not take a picture and send myself to the next round. Correct: Sometimes the unsuccessful result is simply due to the photographer. This is mostly my husband. It almost always shuts off at the wrong moment. When the eyes are at half-mast and I look like I've been puking with Pete Dotherty for a week. Or if I just relish bite into a burger and the ketchup dripping from my chin as if I had just tipped a liter of blood on ex. But even if he were a highly paid professional photographer, I would probably think of the result: strangle, that's better, right?
Everything is better in the mirror
For years, I wondered why I can not stand myself in photos. Am I perhaps too self-critical? But now I finally found the explanation. ? Mere Exposure? namely psychologists call this effect. What that means? That we perceive things that we often see much more positively. For example, our reflection. That's something we really like. Because we have been eyeing it for decades several times a day. Why do we find ourselves stupid on photos? Because we do not see it mirrored? as we are used to it? but at the right time. And we find that strange, unfamiliar, and not as nice as usual.
What does that mean for us? That we can get used to everything. Even photos of us. The more often we stare at them, the better we find ourselves. Incidentally, this applies to all situations in life. The "Mere Exposure" effect is popular with marketing people. That is why jingles are repeated on the radio until vomiting. It works the same with smells, foods and trends. That's why mum's goulash is simply the best, and for the same reason we eventually got used to perms, cycling shorts and the Buffalo Plateau Turnis and eventually found them not even so bad. Man is just a habit animal. Did we always know.
