Table 2.
A sample of testable predictions along the 4 levels of Tinbergen based on the mental utilization hypothesis of photography.
| 1. Making sense |
| 1a. Mechanisms: Studies of the neural substrates of taking photos will find that photographers make early basic decisions quickly and non-consciously. Researchers will also observe that photography-related behaviors and brain activity will utilize mechanisms that integrate external, emotionally positive information and internal, threatening information. The neural substrates of cognitive control and the regulation of emotions play a crucial role in this |
| 1b. Ontogeny: Children will preferentially be interested in photos of environments, behaviors, and events that they will soon face and that have both positive and threatening traits, and will prefer social contexts with humans and animals. Parents will take photos of their children especially in contexts where there are both positive and negative predictions. Older people will prefer photos in which their decisions and lives appear meaningful and successful |
| 1c. Evolutionary history: Despite increasing knowledge of fake photos, people will tend to believe that pictured events really did take place, as long as the events make sense in relation to their desires and experiences |
| 1d. Functions: People will prefer to take and use personal photos in situations in which they perceive emotionally positive events that they also associate with stress or threat. That way, taking photos will help people cope with social stress. If people want to convince others of the special importance of an object or event they will use photos more often than video clips |
| 2. Appropriating an image |
| 2a. Mechanisms: Neuroscientific studies will find that photographing involves activities of brain structures that form the neural basis of appropriation and possession |
| 2b. Ontogeny: People will prefer photography-related behaviors when they are non-consciously processing the appropriation of a resource. In connection with identity, the importance of owning personal photos increases with age |
| 2c. Evolution: Collecting personal photos of events that the owners associate with beauty and/or success will enhance the owners' well-being |
| 2d. Functions: People will prefer ownership of self-made personal photos to photos taken by others of the same object or event, even if their own photos are of inferior quality |
| 3. Establishing and supporting social connectedness |
| 3a. Mechanisms: Neurobiological studies will find that taking and using personal photos involves nodes and activities in the social behavior network in the brain—not only “wanting” and “liking” responses, but also mechanisms that are related to the processing of representations of being connected, alone, isolated, or abandoned |
| 3b. Ontogeny: Children will prefer to take and use photos of events that are relevant to their natural and social environment, especially family. Young people and adults will prefer to take, possess and use photos that show animals and people with whom they are, or want to be, emotionally connected. Older people will surround themselves in their home with photos of people who are or were important to them |
| 3c. Evolution: Viewing photos of close relatives and friends will have a positive effect on the well-being of the viewers at times when the pictured people are absent. This will entail a supportive effect on societal and biological fitness. Photos that evoke associations of pictured individuals or groups with social attachment, supportive relationships, and cooperation in viewers, will support the success of the pictured individuals or groups in societies. Variations in photography-related behaviors will change the environments in which they are performed, for example, as the increasing presence of cameras in public spaces influences people's behavior |
| 3d. Functions: Seeing photos depicting people with whom the viewers are connected by a close emotional relationship will strengthen the sense of social connectedness and provide a sense of security and calmness. Photos of oneself will be more efficient than verbal descriptions or video clips when the goal is influencing or controlling the characteristics that other people associate with oneself |
| 4. Courtship and mating |
| 4a. Mechanisms: In the brains of people who are looking for sexual or romantic partners, seeing photos of potential partners will elicit intense motivational reactions, which are related to partner attraction and sexual arousal. There will be quantitative gender differences in this |
| 4b. Ontogeny: Sexually mature individuals of all ages will want to appear attractive in photos |
| 4c. Evolution: A stock of personal photos associated with beauty and success that a person owns will be recognized by potential partners as a valuable resource and directly or indirectly support the reproductive success of the owner |
| 4d. Functions: In a mating competition in social environments, in which information is exchanged without direct personal encounters, people who use photos to represent themselves as mates will be more successful than people who use words or video clips |