Real faces at a disadvantage Beauty filters also make people look more intelligent

According to a study, people not only appear more attractive in pictures with beauty filters, but also more intelligent. But despite all the advantages: The filters also come with dangers.

DPA

27.11.2024, 04:37

27.11.2024, 05:24

dpa

Beauty filters really do work: according to a study, when they are used for photos, the faces on them appear more attractive. But that's not all: people with enhanced faces are also perceived as more intelligent, more trustworthy, more sociable and happier, according to the study published by the British academy of science "The Royal Society".

To avoid bias, each participant in the study only evaluated one version of a face, either the original or enhanced with a common filter. However, there was no evidence during the trials that altered images were used. For the study, which was conducted by Spanish researchers, 2,748 participants evaluated images of the faces of 462 different men and women.

Beauty filters harbor dangers

But despite all the advantages: Beauty filters are highly controversial and are often met with criticism, particularly in the scientific community. "Beauty filters feed our sense of beauty with unrealistically embellished faces, which leads to the prototype becoming increasingly distant from real faces," explains Helmut Leder, Professor of General and Cognitive Psychology at the University of Vienna, where he founded the research focus Empirical Aesthetics in 2004.

"In the long term, this leads to real faces being judged less and less attractive and the standards of what must be met for a face to be considered beautiful are almost unrealistically high," emphasizes Leder. It is not only other faces that are perceived as less attractive, but also our own. "When it comes to your own person, this can of course also have consequences for your self-image and the associated self-confidence."

The filters could also lead to more cosmetic surgery or similar procedures.