Abstract
According to previous reports, selfie takers in widely different cultural contexts prefer poses showing the left cheek more than the right cheek. This posing bias may be interpreted as evidence for a right-hemispheric specialization for the expression of facial emotions. However, earlier studies analyzed selfie poses as categorized by human raters, which raises methodological issues in relation to the distinction between frontal and three-quarter poses. Here, we provide converging evidence by analyzing the (extended) selfiecity database which includes automatic assessments of head rotation and of emotional expression. We confirm a culture- and sex-independent left-cheek bias and report stronger expression of negative emotions in selfies showing the left cheek. These results are generally consistent with a psychobiological account of a left cheek bias in self-portraits but reveal possible unexpected facts concerning the relation between side bias and lateralization of emotional expression.
Highlights
Self-portraiture is a well-established genre in the visual arts and it invites scientific scrutiny in many ways
The present results provide converging evidence for a natural, culture-independent preference to display the left cheek
Evidence that a robust left cheek preference can be observed in casual self-portraits created by individuals that are unlikely to have had much exposure to academic training in the arts is certainly consistent with this proposal
Summary
Self-portraiture is a well-established genre in the visual arts and it invites scientific scrutiny in many ways. We make a contribution to the study of factors affecting how portraitist arrange their subject in their created image, that is, the problem of composition. Our unusual interests originate from an intriguing bias that has been found to affect posing choices in painted self-portaits as well as in selfies. This bias has potential implications for our understanding of the lateralization of functions in the human brain. Before describing what these implications may be (fourth paragraph of this introduction), we will briefly summarize relevant findings in portraiture and self-portraiture
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