You just took a selfie and you open a photo editing app to make any touch-ups before posting it to Instagram. You might be shocked by the size of your nose in the selfie. Don't worry, it's the front-facing camera that's to blame.
A research letter published in the JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery journal on Thursday suggests that your nose in selfies is bigger than what it actually is in real life.
The distortion in size has to do with the proximity of the phone to your face.
The team, from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and Stanford University, created a mathematical model of the average human head. According to their calculations, if a selfie is taken five feet away (regular portrait distance) from an individual's face, the nose in the picture won't be unreasonably enlarged. However, if the lens is placed at or within 12 inches (selfie distance) to the individual's face, the nose in the picture can look much larger – up to 30 percent for men and 29 percent for women.
Turns out, the closer you hold your phone, the bigger your nose could look.
According to a poll by American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, 42 percent of surgeons in 2016 reported patients seeking cosmetic procedures for improved selfies and pictures on social media platforms, said the research letter.
Knowing now that this could be an illusion, you can hold on the nose jobs and get a selfie stick instead.
