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Your Favourite Instagram Filter Could Reveal If You’re Depressed

[Photo: Pexels]

We all have preferences when it comes to choosing Instagram filters for our latest snap. There’s the cool Perpetua, washed-out Gingham, or warming Juno to name a few.

And apparently, this choice says a lot more about you than you might think, as a new study from Harvard and the University of Vermont has revealed that your choice of Instagram filter might provide insight into the state of your mental health.

Researchers analysed more than 43,000 pictures from 166 volunteers’ Instagram accounts and asked them to complete a clinical depression survey.

And they found a link between depression and certain filters, subjects and colours in their photos - that images that were darker in colour, for example (bluer or greyer), predicted depression.

Interestingly, so did having posts that lacked faces in them.

[Photo: Giphy/PBS]

One filter was a particular preference of those with depressive tendencies - the monochrome Inkwell.

So what could this mean for those with mental health issues? Well, the researchers believe analysing Instagram posts like this could become a valid way of screening mental illness in patients.

“Instagram members currently contribute almost 100 million new posts per day, and Instagram’s rate of new users joining has recently outpaced Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and even Facebook,” the researchers told ELLE.

It’s an interesting idea, but for now, it’s best to be diagnosed by a professional - and in the meantime we’ll be using Inkwell howsoever we please.

Do you think Instagram posts can reveal information about our mental health? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.

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