While people might think that stopping to take photos during their vacations might make the experience less enjoyable because they don't take advantage of the beauty they encounter, a new study shows that people who take photos of their experiences enjoy them more. more than those who do not do this.
Conducted by a joint team of psychologists from the University of Southern California, Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania, the research is the first large-scale investigation to examine how photography affects people's enjoyment of their experiences.
"We show that, relative to not taking photos, photography can heighten enjoyment of positive experiences by increasing engagement,"
The researchers presented a series of nine experiments involving over 2.000 participants in the field and the laboratory designed to examine the effect of taking photographs following experiences.
In each experiment, individuals were asked to participate in an activity and were either instructed to take photos during the activity or not. Afterwards, participants completed a survey designed to measure not only their enjoyment, but their engagement in the experience. In almost every case, people who took photos reported higher levels of happiness.
"One critical factor that has been shown to affect enjoyment is the extent to which people are engaged with the experience,"
In one experiment, individuals were trained to be their own guide to a museum exhibit while wearing glasses that tracked and analyzed eye movements.
The researchers found that those who photographed the exhibits spent more time examining the artifacts in the exhibits than those who simply observed them without photographing them.
However, there are also situations in which those who tend more to photograph than to observe, were not exactly happy, because, for example, some, those who like to take professional photos, were too concerned with bulky equipment and heavy cameras to handle.
