The Smile

Smiles important in…

• Business (sales, marketing, management)

• Education

• Health

Basis for “fake” American smile

smiles used to sell products, connected to capitalism and manipulation

• frequency of smiles too often which arises doubt

When smiling, people perceived…

to be happier, attractive, kind, honest, competent, likable, trustworthy

When smiling, people receive…

more cooperation, responsiveness, affiliation

Smile leniency effect

When people smile they are attributed less responsibility for a transgression and get less harsh punishments

Candidates that smile in an interview are _____ likely to get the job

more

Guillaume Duchenne

interested in seeing what expression connected to which facial muscles

• placed electrical shocks on individual facial muscles to capture expression

• “the smile doctor”

Duchenne smile

“real” smile

• bilateral corners of mouth turned up and crinkles around eyes (high cheeks and crows feet)

• occurs when there is an underlying positive emotion

Non-Duchenne smile

“fake” smile

• only corners of the mouth are turned up

• underlying positive emotion is not present

Dynamic cues of a smile

• speed of on and off set of smile (smooth)

• length of apex (not holding smile excessively)

• symmetry (more even the more authentic)

Smile

a behavior regulator to solve social tasks (in daily life)

• 3 in total

Reward smiles

• reinforce positive behavior that you like

• communicates positive feelings

• primates: play face

mother’s reward system highest activation when seeing ____ baby’s ______ face

own; smiling

Affiliation smiles

• signal to others we are nonthreatening and alleviate sense of novelty

• not a result of happiness

• larger gesture of head tilt also involved

• primates: silent bared-teeth display

Smiling in small groups results in…

formation of cooperation and more trust

Domanince smile

• showcase you have the upper level and status (at that moment)

• maintains hierarchy in society

• negotiates status (who’s on top?)

_____ & ______ conveyed most dominance

lowered eyebrows; smile

Each smile uses…

different combos of muscles to create them (distinct)

• discovered via perception driven facial expression synthesis

Video Call Study (smiles as feedback)

speaker is asked 3 questions and judges response is recorded and sent to them

• confederate (judge) and participant (speaker)

• preprogramed to receive video with primarily one of the smiles

Dominance smile as feedback

increase in heart rate and spikes cortisol (doesn’t go back to baseline)

Reward smile as feedback

decrease in heart rate and no spike in cortisol

Affiliation smile as feedback

heart rate in-between other two and low cortisol

Smile motivation across cultures

shared three social tasks (happy, friendly, superior)

Variabilities in smiles across cultures

frequency and context