Yearbook Photos: A Memory Lane and a Crystal Ball, All in One

Out of all the photos you’ve had taken of yourself, chances are your yearbook photo is at least a little bit embarrassing. In high school and college, we’re still very much finding ourselves, and looking back at our smiles of yesteryear can be an entertaining source of laughs and jokes amongst friends.

But did you know that your yearbook photo can predict a lot about your future? It’s true, according to a recent study.

Matthew Hertenstein, associate professor of psychology at DePauw University, reviewed the following yearbook photo facts in a recent Wall Street Journal article:

It turns out that those who smiled least in their photographs were about five times more likely to divorce at some point in their lives compared with those who smiled most.

• People who remained in their relationships tended to smile more warmly and brightly compared with their divorced counterparts.
• Future divorcées were more likely to look somewhat stoic-faced. They either didn't smile or, if smiling, tended not to contract their orbicularis oculi, producing the sort of look you might find on the face of someone who is tired of talking to you at a cocktail party.
• A 2001 study by LeeAnne Harker and Dacher Keltner in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that women flashing bright, warm smiles in their college yearbook photos reported experiencing less anxiety, sadness and despair in the 30 years after graduating.
• In a study published in Psychological Science in 2010, researchers Ernest Abel and Michael Kruger even showed that professional baseball players who smiled warmly in photos taken in the early 1950s lived, on average, until the age of 80, compared with age 73 for their non-smiling counterparts.

Whether you’re happy or unhappy with your yearbook photo, people of all ages have a range of orthodontic treatment options when it comes to fixing that smile—call Reed Orthodontics today for a consultation, at (412) 421-8565.