We consider the distribution of smartphone technology and social media a precondition for the sweeping success of photography, but insufficient to explain it, as not all smartphone features or technologies are widely used just because they are available. We examined the question why people take, view, own, share, and use personal photos, and why photos are important to them. This has rapidly shifted photography from an exclusive activity of socio-economically capable minorities toward engaging a majority of the world's 7.8 billion people. Smartphones integrate photography with many other functions, notably with access to the internet and social media ( Smith, 2011 GSMA and NTT DOCOMO, 2014). More than 90 percent of all photographs (henceforth photos) are taken with smartphones ( Carrington, 2020), and more than half of the world's population uses smartphones or mobile phones to take, view, and share photos ( Statista, 2019 Kemp, 2021). Photography is ubiquitous around the world, with the number of people taking and using personal photographs steadily increasing ( Lee and Stewart, 2016 Canon, 2018). We conclude that photography has become a human universal, which is based on context-sensitive mental predispositions and differentiates itself in the social and societal environment. Our framework comprises a range of testable predictions, provides a new theoretical basis for future empirical investigations into photography, and has practical implications. Including findings from multiple disciplines, we developed a novel conceptual framework-the “Mental Utilization Hypothesis of Photography.” It suggests that people adopt photography because it matches with core human mental mechanisms mainly from the social domain, and people use photography as a cognitive, primarily social coping strategy. We did this based on the four levels, which Nikolaas Tinbergen suggested for analyzing why animals behave in a particular way. We analyzed properties of human nature that have made taking and using photographs functional behaviors. Smartphone technology and social media have pushed the success of photography, but cannot explain it, as not all smartphone features are widely used just because they are available. These behaviors are still poorly understood. ![]() We analyzed why people take, share, and use personal photographs, independent of their specific cultural background. ![]() 3Domestication Lab at the Konrad-Lorenz Institute of Ethology, Wolf Science Center, University of Veterinary Medicine, Ernstbrunn, Austria. ![]() 2Department of Behavioral Biology and Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.1Independent Researcher, Leonding, Austria.Leopold Kislinger 1 * † Kurt Kotrschal 2,3 †
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