The Only Excuse You Need to Take Pictures of Food

Bad news: we have to stop rolling our eyes when some dude holds up brunch to snap a picture of the table while standing on his chair. And then again after making a runny egg ooze over perfect toast. And one more of maple syrup falling over a stack of Nutella, banana, chocolate chip pancakes. It turns out taking pics of food actually makes you enjoy the food more.

Ugh. You can’t fight with science. 

According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, taking photos of a positive experience made participants enjoy that experience more. Wandering through a museum with a selfie stick? It made study participants linger over art and examine artifacts more closely. Taking a bus tour? Participating in arts and crafts? (Yeah, researchers studied those too.) Participants also enjoyed those activities more when asked to take pictures.

As the study authors wrote: “one critical factor that has been shown to affect enjoyment is the extent to which people are engaged with the experience.” Busting out your iPhone to grab a quick selfie automatically involves you more. Hence, increased enjoyment.

Though there are a few caveats: photo-taking did not make things better if it interfered with the experience (like carrying around a heavy camera) or if you were already having a bad time. An excruciating and awkward family dinner won’t get better no matter how many times you take a picture of Mom’s arroz con pollo. And it can actually make you feel worse.

So while we’ve lost some moral high ground with this study, we’ve learned two important lessons: not all is as it seems. Just because your ex-college roommate’s cousin who you follow on SnapChat is posting pictures of “#thebesttacocrawlEVER”, it doesn’t actually mean they’re having the best taco crawl ever.

And the effect isn’t limited to actual pictures. Researchers found that participants reported “higher levels of enjoyment” after taking mental pictures. So if you really are having the best taco crawl ever, take a moment to remember the scene, make a mental note of the details, the tortilla, the tangy slaw, the vibrant and half-drunk margaritas on the table.

Then take a quick pic for Instagram.