I am sure that you have seen some of these sorts of studies in the past where an eye-tracking software is used to extract general data about how users interact with media. Well this New York Times article is another such example only focused around how users interact with images specifically. I am not 100% sold on what they are selling (otherwise marketing really would not work…generic people who you are supposed to envision replaced by yourself or who you want to be like…), but the take away message is make your images more unique, which I do agree with. The full article can be viewed here: Study Shows People Ignore Generic Photos Online. I think that it is worth reading through.