Instagram may be best known for users’ selfies and pictures of food, fashionable outfits and inspirational quotes. 

But if your friend is posting frequently on Instagram in darker colors, they may be exhibiting signs of depression, according to a new paper.

Researchers Andrew Reece of Harvard University and Chris Danforth of the University of Vermont analyzed close to 44,000 Instagram photos from 166 volunteers – recruited through an Amazon service called MTurk – to identify what constitutes an Instagram-coded call for help.

They discovered a correlation between mood and color by looking at hue, saturation and brightness of photographs.

“In studies associating mood, color and mental health, healthy individuals identified darker, grayer colors with negative mood and generally preferred brighter, more vivid colors,” the researchers wrote. 

“By contrast, depressed individuals were found to prefer darker, grayer colors.”

“Inkwell”, which turns color photos to black and white, was the most commonly used filter among depressed participants.

They were more likely to post on Instagram more frequently and upload pictures which included faces, albeit a smaller number of faces in each picture, indicating that they may “interact in smaller social settings”, the research found.

The fewer likes and comments on a post, the less engagement a participant enjoys and can also indicate depression.

“These findings suggest new avenues for early screening and detection of mental illness,” the researchers wrote.

Participants completed a clinical depression survey, shared information about their social media, like usernames, as well as report any history of depression
diagnosis.