You are depressed? Instagram filter knows the answer – Daily News – Lisbon

A study states that it is possible to detect mental illness of Instagram users analyzing filters to choose

Filters Instagram can help detect cases of depression and mental illness users. This is because, according to a US study from Harvard University and the University of Vermont, there is a link between the predominant colors in photos posted on social networks and the mental health of those who the public.

The study led by Andrew Reece and Chris Danforth points out the clear relationship between colors and emotions and concludes that, for example, users depressed tend to choose filters with darker shades like ‘Inkwell’ – that puts the photos in black and -White – as the happiest choose the filter ‘Valencia’ – which gives more light to your photos

for this research, publications were analyzed in the social network Instagram 170 employees of a US company.. Of these, 70 had been diagnosed with depression.

Andrew Reece and Chris Danforth said that the algorithm correctly identified 70% of patients who were depressed, according to the MIT Technology Review.

” These findings may prove major changes in individual psychology are reflected in the use of social networks and can be detected using computational methods “

researchers analyzed the latest 100 photos posted by healthy employees and the latest 100 photos published by depressed employees before diagnosis.

the researchers looked at the pictures on a scale from 0 to 5 to assess how interesting, happy, sad, attractive each era. Measured parameters such as saturation and contrast of the photographs to determine the predominant colors and the images were vivid and colorful and had more gray tones.

They also had in mind the number of people in the photos and how many likes and comments received, to realize how social were users.

Putting together all the data, and using an algorithm to determine the relationship between depression and images, the researchers concluded that depressed people tend to publish images shades of blue, gray and darker shades and usually have less taste than healthy individuals.

for researchers, the important thing is to help detect mental illness at an earlier age, so they can be treated more quickly.