There’s a reason that photo of Anthony Weiner’s pecs
will be etched in our brains for way too long
—
and it isn’t just because he’s ripped. It’s because, according to a new study
by MIT, images of people stick in our brains much longer than other types of photos.
Researchers pulled together a database of 10,000 images of all kinds and tested to see which images subjects would remember seeing. The greatest indicator of whether a photo was memorable was not color or composition, but whether there was a person in it. This seems rather obvious when you think about what types of photos generally draw your interest on your friends’ Facebook pages. What’s a bit more surprising, however, is that people had a much easier time remembering man-made objects and spaces (like grocery stores) than natural spaces. Pleasant landscapes
—
forget it! They were proven to be the least memorable.
Doesn’t taste, age, or gender play a role in what types of photos people remember? Perhaps. But overall, researchers found people’s tendencies to remember certain types of images to be so consistent that they were able to develop an algorithm predicting an image’s memorability. In their paper, they suggested that this formula could be used to help select book covers and edit photos. It’s an interesting idea, but how useful would such a program be? The gallery above includes the images used in the study. Take a look for yourself. Did you need math to determine which ones participants were most likely to find memorable, typical, or forgettable? Probably not
—
though you might find a few surprises. (We regret the images aren’t bigger, but these were the photos given to us by MIT.)
The broader lesson? If you want people to remember your summer vacation photos, stop posting nature shots. And don’t feel bad if no one comments on your beautiful landscapes
—
it’s not that you’re a bad photographer; they’re just scientifically proven to be boring.
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