Selfie and Instagram photos: Why do you dislike your own photos?

Looking at photos of yourself can sometimes be an uncomfortable experience. It can feel even worse when the photos make you look not as nice as you look while your friends and family insist the photos are nice. Even if you generally feel confident about your appearance, a bad photo can hurt your self-esteem and make you feel bad about how you look.  

Is it common to sulk when we see a photo of ourselves which is not great? Our discomfort is rooted in a psychological phenomenon known as the mere-exposure effect, “where people tend to prefer things they see repeatedly”, said Dr Matt Johnson, a neuroscientist and professor of consumer psychology at Hult International Business School, according to The Independent. 

“Since we see our mirror reflection far more often than photos, we become more comfortable with it,” Johnson stated. 

Sense of familiarity

If you look at yourself every day in the mirror, you get familiar with a particular image of yourself. “You’re normally seeing yourself in the same mirror with the same lighting, the same perspective and angle,” stated Eloise Skinner, a psychotherapist who has also worked as a commercial model since childhood.  

She added, “Then when a photo is taken, it can catch you at a moment where you’ve never seen your face or body from that perspective before, so it can be a bit of a disconnect”. 

'True' image

The image you see in a mirror is flipped from left to right compared to how you look. But in a photograph, the image is usually not flipped - it shows you the way others see you. This can make a difference, since your face may have some asymmetries that you notice more in a mirror than in a photo. Instead, it “presents our ‘true’ image, which feels unfamiliar and less attractive due to this lack of exposure”, Johnson added. 

Also read: Rise of Matcha Latte: Is it a show of wealth or fitness?

We usually see other people's true, unaltered appearance more often than we see ourselves in photos or mirrors. So, we get used to how they look. Unlike with ourselves, there isn't a big disconnect between how others look in photos versus how we expect them to look. Even though they may think they look bad in photos, we probably see them the same way we normally do.