ArticleRoyal Society open science2023
Let's put a smile on that face-A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs.
Article in Royal Society open science, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- A smiling mouth expression modulates gaze appearance by enhancing how the eyes light up.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Beyond traditional stimuli: Validating AI-generated images for eliciting negative emotions in affect research.PloS one · 2026Article
- Aesthetic experiences across visual perception and mental imagery: Behaviorally indistinguishable, neurally distinct.iScience · 2025Article
- What is beautiful is still good: the attractiveness halo effect in the era of beauty filters.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Let's put a smile on that face-A positive facial expression improves aesthetics of portrait photographs.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In today's age of social media and smartphones, portraits-such as selfies or pictures of friends and family-are very frequently produced, shared and viewed images. Despite their prevalence, the psychological factors that characterize a 'good' photo-one that people will generally like, keep, and think is especially aesthetically pleasing-are not well understood. Here, we studied how a subtle change in facial expression (smiling) in portraits determines their aesthetic image value (beyond a more positive appearance of the depicted person). We used AI-based image processing tools in a broad set of portrait photographs and generated neutral and slightly smiling versions of the same pictures. Consistent across two experiments, portraits with a subtle smile increased both spontaneous aesthetic preferences in a swiping task as well as improving more explicit aesthetic ratings after prolonged viewing. Participants distinguished between aspects associated with image beauty and the depicted person's attractiveness, resulting in specific interactions between variables related to participant traits, image content, and task. Our study confirms that a subtle-and in this case fully artificial-smile reliably increases the aesthetic quality of portraits, illustrating how current image processing methods can target psychologically important variables and thereby increase the aesthetic value of photographs.
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Registered trials
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