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What Your Photo Says About You

Reviewed By: Varnada Karriem-Norwood,

SOURCES: 2010 Medical Reference from Medstar Television. Sam Gosling, PhD, Researcher/Psychologist, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology.

© 1999-2011 Medstar Television

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Narrator:

Alejandra Cervantes is a college student. She and her friends all use the social networking site, Facebook.

Alejandra Cervantes:

I use it a little more often than I should.

Narrator:

So when one of her friends started dating someone new, they checked him out online.

Alejandra Cervantes:

So right away, we were like, oh well, does he have a Facebook? So we log on and we looked at his pictures to see what he was, I guess, about.

Narrator:

And those pictures can be very telling. Research shows photos can provide a fairly accurate first impression, especially when the subject is, or isn't, smiling.

Sam Gosling, Ph.D. :

If they're not smiling in any photos, you'll think, well they're introverted. They're probably not very nice, they're probably not very responsible, maybe they're a bit tense. Maybe they're a bit closed minded.

Narrator:

In his study, Doctor Gosling had participants look at full-body photographs of people they'd never met, both in controlled poses with neutral facial expressions. Then, in impromptu, naturally expressive poses.

Sam Gosling, Ph.D.:

Typically the spontaneous, impromptu photos, those ones tell a lot about a person. They give clues about all kinds of personality traits.

Narrator:

When the study participants saw naturally expressive poses, their judgments were accurate for nine of these ten personality traits, everything from the person's emotional stability to their political leanings.

Sam Gosling, Ph.D.:

Maybe we see a photograph and that's enough and we never meet them again.

Narrator:

As for Alejandra and her friend's new boyfriend...

Alejandra Cervantes:

Judging his Facebook, I said he was, he was acceptable. He passed the Facebook test, I guess.

Narrator:

His photos garnered him a stamp of approval and a second date thanks to a good first impression. For WebMD, I'm Sandee LaMotte.

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