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Beauty filters make us look smarter

Beauty filters not only make us more attractive: people with enhanced faces are also perceived as smarter, more trustworthy, more sociable and happier, according to a study published by the British Academy of Science. 

To avoid bias, each participant in the study only evaluated one version of a face, either 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, 2748 participants assessed the images of the faces of 462 different men and women.

But beauty filters harbor dangers
Despite some advantages, beauty filters are highly controversial and are often criticized, especially by scientists. "Beauty filters feed our sense of beauty with unrealistically embellished faces, which leads to the prototype becoming increasingly distant from real faces," says 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 considered less and less attractive, and the standards that must be met for a face to be considered beautiful are almost unrealistically high," he emphasizes. This means that not only other faces are perceived as less attractive, but also our own.

Consequences for the self-image
"When it comes to your own person, this can of course also have consequences for your self-image and the associated self-confidence," warns the researcher. For example, the filters could lead to more cosmetic surgery or similar procedures.