To examine how food styling affects social media engagement, the researchers collected approximately 54,000 photos from the Instagram accounts of 90 food influencers and used machine learning to analyze color We explored everything from brightness and complexity to repetitions in the image. We also measured the average caloric density of the foods pictured. Researchers then analyzed how much engagement each photo generated online.
The food photos with the most likes and clicks had several characteristics.
Images containing “exciting, warm colors like red, orange, and yellow” were more likely to generate online engagement, as were images with repetition. Instead of a picture of a single piece of fruit, think of a tray of macaroons.
Photos with more complex features, defined by researchers as element richness and perceptual detail, were also more likely to generate likes and comments.
In contrast, photos with more complex compositions, where the visual elements were concentrated in specific segments of the photo, generated less engagement. Images that were brighter and more colorful than average also received fewer likes and comments.
Researchers have found that the more calorie-dense a food image is, the more likely it is to get more likes and comments.
This may seem like bad news for those looking to promote healthy foods online. And it suggests that with a few simple tweaks, even healthy food images could be more palatable to social media users.
“There are several neurological studies that show that when people visually process high-calorie meals, they process them faster than low-calorie images,” said study co-author and Ph.D. data scientist Muna Sharma said.University of Georgia School of Family and Consumer Sciences news release“So when we’re looking at low-calorie images, we pay more attention to all these visual features. That is, if we want to draw people’s attention to these low-calorie foods, we emphasize certain factors.” You must be careful.”
By showcasing foods in warm colors, repetitive features, and clean backgrounds, she says, you can increase interest in low-calorie foods, and perhaps even help with healthy food trends.
