Beauty filters not only do what they are supposed to – make people look more attractive in photos – but they also make people appear more intelligent, trustworthy, sociable and happy, according to new research.

For a study published by the British scientific academy The Royal Society, participants were shown only one version of a face, either the original or a version enhanced with a common beauty filter, to avoid bias.

Participants, given no indication if an image had been altered or not, consistently rated software-modified faces more favourably across a variety of characteristic traits.

For the study, which was conducted by Spanish researchers, 2,748 participants evaluated images of the faces of 462 different men and women.