Scientists have figured out which side is most flattering for a selfie

Taking a selfie? Scientists have figured out which side is the most flattering.

A lecturer at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Dr Anukka Lindell, has published a study claiming your left hand side is the best angle to take a selfie of.

Dr Lindell started by searching the hashtag #selfie then analysed over 200 images. She discovered there were significantly more left side selfies than photos taken front on or from people’s right hand. She writes “92% of the sample showed an overall posing bias, with 41% favouring their left cheek, 31.5% preferring their right cheek, and 19.5% repeatedly posting midline selfies.”

Dr Lindell writes “Whilst research indicates that midline poses are perceived as being just as emotionally expressive as left-cheek poses, they are less-frequently adopted for a simple reason: they appear less flattering.

Tips for posing for the 'perfect portrait' and the 'perfect selfie' regularly include avoid facing the camera head on in a midline pose, unless one is aiming to look bigger; instead, adopting a 3/4 or 2/3 turn toward the camera is encourages as it introduces more angles, highlights the cheekbones, and makes the subject of the photo appear slimmer.”

She adds that the preference for posing with your left hand side is not new, and highlights historical paintings such as Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa adopting this stance: “the theory is that the left cheek poses are intuitively perceived as more emotionally open an expressive than right cheek poses.”

To the left to the left!