title: Composition in portraits: Selfies and wefies reveal similar biases in untrained modern youths and ancient masters.
abstract: Previous analyses suggest that artists prefer poses showing the left side of the subject's face when composing a portrait, but showing the right side when composing their own self-portrait. There is also some evidence that artists may prefer compositions with key features on the right of the picture. Do these findings generalize to spontaneous, pseudo-artistic productions by individuals with no formal training in painting and art history? To investigate this issue, we tested a sample of 104 British schoolchildren and teenagers (mean age = 13.8 years; 80 females). We analysed posing biases in individual photographic self-portraits ("selfies") as well as of self-portraits including also the portrait of a friend ("wefies"). Our results document a bias for showing the left cheek in selfies, a bias for placing the selfie-taker on the right in wefies, and a bias for showing two left cheeks over two right cheeks, again in wefies. These biases are reminiscent of what has been reported for selfies in adult non-artists and for portraits and self-portraits by artists in the 16th-18th centuries. Thus, these results provide new evidence in support of a biological basis for side biases in portraits and self-portraits independently of training and expertise.
authors.affiliation: a Dipartimento di Neuroscienze , Università di Parma , Parma , Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.affiliation: b School of Psychology , University of Liverpool , Liverpool , UK.
authors.forename: Carole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bode
authors.affiliation: b School of Psychology , University of Liverpool , Liverpool , UK.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bertamini
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002610:Cheek; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010151:Paintings; D010781:Photography; D011173:Portraits as Topic / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D000068997:Smartphone; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: Self-portraits; portraits; selfies; side bias; wefies