Researchers at MIT recently published a study and online demo about trying to understand and predict image memorability. The study used 60,000 images and a few thousand participants.
A goal of this research was “[u]nderstanding why certain things are memorable…” so that it might someday be possible to create better images thereby “allowing people to consume information more efficiently.” (If you’re a photographer, please stop laughing.)
Researchers found that the most memorable pictures usually included – wait for it – faces or other human body parts. The least memorable pictures were those of generic scenes, especially landscapes and other types of nature. The researchers called their results a “trend.” Most photographers know that this “trend” has been around for 170 years.
Memorable does not mean good or artistic. It simply refers to the chances that a photo might be remembered. But images are not remembered so much for their specific content but rather for the emotional connection between viewer and subject matter. This emotional connection can be influenced by the photographer’s technique and style.
An earlier 2013 study (link to PDF) came to the same conclusions. This study found that the most memorable pictures tended to include people. Average memorable photos often contained man-made objects. The least memorable images were pictures of nature.
This 2013 study also stated that aesthetically pleasing pictures were more memorable than non-aesthetically pleasing images; interesting pictures were more memorable than uninteresting images. (Photographers, stop laughing.)
It also found that a non-aesthetically pleasing picture of a person was more memorable than an aesthetically pleasing picture of nature. An uninteresting picture of a person was more memorable than an interesting picture of anything generic. Notice the “trend”?
These researchers concluded that, “Photos of people are among the most memorable in our dataset…” (Again, photographers, stop laughing).
Human Interest
Neither of these two studies broke new ground. But they again confirmed that, to create the most memorable pictures, you must use human interest. The corollary is that a business should use human interest for its marketing and public relations.
Human interest is exactly what it says. It interests humans.
If you want to interest humans then you have to show real people doing real things. It’s not using stock pictures of generic smiling people because viewers have learned to ignore stock photos. Readers know that stock photos aren’t real and aren’t worth their time.
The second necessary ingredient is a photographer who can compose the image into an interesting and aesthetically pleasing picture. Human interest + aesthetically pleasing.
This isn’t rocket science. It’s just proven human behaviour.
