Instagram can be a good indicator of a person's mental health.

At least that's what two researchers, Harvard University's Andrew Reece and the University of Vermont's Chris Danforth, have written in a recent report. The study was based on 166 volunteers who were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, where you can make money by completing "Human Intelligence Tasks," and it looked at their entire Instagram histories, which came out to about 43,950 photos.

Participants' levels of depression were determined using a standardized clinical depression survey. They were then asked about their social media habits and history of depression diagnosis. The researchers then analyzed their Instagram photos by looking at colors, brightness, and faces.

Those who were depressed tended to post photos with increased hue, decreased brightness, and decreased color saturation. Overall, their photos were "bluer, grayer, and darker." They also tended to post more frequently and use more Instagram filters, the most popular one for depressed participants being Inkwell, which turns a photo black and white. The most popular filter for volunteers who weren't depressed was Valencia.

What do you think? Do you see any role for Photos in Moodscope? Record your picture alongside your score and comment?

Best

Adrian

The Moodscope team.