Scientific research commissioned by RealPlayer Cloud and conducted with The University of Portsmouth reveals Brits believe we are more trustworthy, friendly and attractive in video than photos. Both sexes perceive people more positively in video, although women are far less positive about their own sex.
Men are overtly more willing to see improvements in other men. Teaming up with leading psychologist Dr Ed Morrison, RealPlayer Cloud conducted the first mass-participation social experiment into the emotional engagement of video versus images when shared online. Videos and photographs of volunteers were used to develop an interactive psychology-driven study of 2,000 UK consumers. Participants were tasked with judging men and women in video and images based on their appearance, trustworthiness, friendliness, and strength, as well as probed on their own online sharing habits. According to the data, men find other men more trustworthy than they do women in video than they do in photo. When women were asked the same question, they again found men more trustworthy than they found other women.
This pattern continues to occur when men and women were asked to rate each other on friendliness and attractiveness. When men judge other men they found them significantly friendlier and more attractive in video over photo. Women, however, did not rate other women as highly, and contrastingly, men felt the same when judging the opposite sex. Psychologist, Dr Ed Morrison explains, “Our findings show clear judgements are made when we see someone's face in a video as opposed to a photograph. A video potentially reveals more about a person, because the way somebody moves and behaves is telling of their character or mood, and we react to that. Our results indicate that judgements made towards others are more positive when we see them in film than still images: people appear more attractive, friendly and trustworthy.”
“It is very interesting to see that gender bias also plays a role in the way we encounter people online. Women appear to be much more critical of other women on all fronts than they are of men, and indeed men are far more positive towards members of the same sex,” he continued. Johan Hansen, Head of RealPlayer EMEA and LATAM says, “The aim of our research was to establish how effective video is becoming at engaging people and what level of influence it can have over how we perceive others. Despite women being less positive about the same sex when judging them online, the results clearly demonstrate that both sexes are believed to be more genuine and trustworthy in video than they are in photos.”
“These findings are reflective of the growing volumes of video people are sharing – but also the response people are having to encountering endless over-edited images on peoples social profiles. Videos are seen as more genuine and honest. We appear our best self in video, and people should consider scrapping that picture in lieu of sharing a more genuine video moment. This kind of understanding informs the products we develop at RealPlayer Cloud. Now we know you are more engaging, friendly and trustworthy perhaps social platforms like LinkedIn and Tinder will look to integrate video, as making the right first impression for that date or job clearly doesn’t lie in a picture – but a video,” he continued.
