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You're not fooling anyone, lady.
We all know that smiling faces sometimes tell lies, even without the Motown song there to remind us. But now there’s proof that those fake smiles may not be worth as much as the genuine article.
In a study conducted at Bangor University in Wales, researchers had 36 undergrads play a game in which they won money from four opponents, each of whom would indicate the participants’ wins by displaying either a genuine or a polite smile. In a later phase of the game, participants chose which opponent they wanted to play.
“The really surprising finding was that they preferred genuinely smiling opponents to politely smiling ones even when the politely smiling ones had a greater chance of paying out,” says psychologist Erin Heerey, lead author of the study. “Our research has found that genuine smiles are worth more to us than polite smiles.”
But how can we tell a real smile from a fake one (unless of course, you’re watching an episode of the Real Housewives)? According to Heerey, it’s all in the eyes – or at least the area around the eyes.
“The key feature differentiating these types of smiles is the presence of so-called ‘laugh lines,’ the tiny wrinkles that appear at the corners of the eye during smiling,” she says. “These are produced by the action of a muscle called the orbicularis oculi, which rings the eye and contracts when people produce genuine, but not polite smiles.”
Differentiating between the two can be difficult, though, says Dr. Paul Ekman, a professor emeritus of UC San Francisco who helped develop the Facial Action Coding System to help scientists distinguish between genuine and fake smiles.
“If it’s a very large smile and the lip corners are pulled up intensely then all of those signs will be produced by either a genuine or a non-genuine smile,” says Ekman, author of numerous books about facial expressions and how they reflect our emotions.
“The only place that will reveal the difference in a broad intense smile is the skin between the eyebrows and the upper eyelid. That will move slightly down in the genuine smile and will not move in the social or false smile. Everybody can voluntarily make their lips smile, but very few people can contract the muscle that surrounds the eyes.”
Seattle photographer Lance Wagner says he thinks there’s one other thing that differentiates a fake smile from a real one.
“When you’re shooting someone you can tell when they’re doing a forced smile,” he says. “The mouth will go up but the eyes don’t tighten up, like when you laugh a little. With a real smile, you’ll see a sparkle in the eyes that you don’t get with a fake smile. You don’t smile with your mouth alone; the whole face is engaged in a real smile.”
Ekman, however, pooh-poohs the eye sparkle.
“It has nothing to do with a twinkle in the eyes,” he says. “It has to do with the skin around the eyes.”
What do you think? Is it the laugh lines? The twinkle? That little fold of skin between the eyebrow and the eyelid?
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I agree with the photographer, when you really smile, you do so with your whole face and it is noticeable. When you fake a smile or smile "politely", your face barely moves. And the twinkle or spark in the eyes when you really smile is there but scientists can't admit to it because is not scientific, is something human, something that does not have an explanation. As for a laughter, even those can be fake and they are easy to spot if you pay enough attention. :D
What are you talking about LovelyTiff? They explained it in the article.
Oh, look who doesn't read the articles, but decides to comment on them anyway.
I think the biggest collection of fake smiles can be found in strip clubs, or any other situation where someone is trying to get your money. I'm not saying I ever went to a strip club.
Of course you didn't.
Not from personal experience but I understand that women "use" men in those strip joints. I know it sounds ugly but the women actually smile just to get bigger tips. As soon as the money dries up the simles dry up.
Article about smiles goes right to strip clubs. Yeah, lots of correlation there. :-)
Uh duh...anyone who thinks women truly enjoy stripping for complete strangers is fooling themselves. The girls in there do whatever they have to do to make money...back in the dressing room they do nothing but laugh at the idiots who spend their hard-earned money to see their bare breasts...yep, they laugh all the way to the bank.
Swarles- you got that right about Hooters- a bunch of fake smile to get the tips, lousy food, expensive drinks. I also hate the fake flirting to get more money at any restaurant. I tip on their service & quality of food; fakeness gets nada, ziltch, zero from me.
Fake smiles, fake boobs, fake nails. fair hair extensions. I fail to see the appeal in how non-human women have allowed themselves to become.
You think this is news? One of my grandsons is bi-polar and I can tell when he is depressed by his smiles. The other has a smile that everyone has always said lights up his entire face and can be seen in his eyes. He is 24 now and it is still true. Way behind times, you guys.
How can you tell with Botox?
Check out Nancy P in the US House. Rumor has it that her face is full of Botox.
I have a boss that has - what I call- the repitlian smile. Fake as all get out and it is usually directed at me.
"When you're shooting someone..."? WhoTF is going to be smiling when they're being shot at?
umm... shooting someone on film... he's a photographer... it's industry lingo
I suddenly feel better about myslf......an inner-twinkle smile
I just knew someone would post this comment. :-)
I believe he said about to fight. It is probably a smirk. People will do that to pi$$ the other one off.
This goes right alongside the Beverly Hills air kiss, the simulated laugh, and the feigned look of surprise when somone knows what's already happened. We have become so practiced at deception that for some it is hard to tell when they are faking even in their own thoughts.
Anybody who has ever had any relations with other humans could have told you this for free! Look at most of the Hollywood females - grinning ear to ear for the camera, but cover the bottom half of the picture and then say what they are doing! Most of them have a really angry look around their eyes. Exception - Mariah Carey - she has a real smile!
Wow! You really are a b!tch. How mean, lot of people put on extra pounds every now and then. Do you smoke to keep your weight down.
How much money was spent on this "study". Studies like this one ought to be abandoned. They really don't have better things to spend research money on?
God, shut up dude. I can only imagine the stupid and retarded sh!t you spend your money on.
Apply for a federal grant,you can get a grant to "study"almost any stupid thing.
And RANMAN87 you get to pay for that "study"out of your tax dollars! Providing YOU actually have a job.
duh. Another study from socially retarded scientists.
The photographer is right. I am also a photographer and have seen plenty who have the lines around their eyes with out it being a true smile. But a true smile involves your whole face, as well as the sparkle in your eyes.
I don't have an opinion...I just like to post.
Where does the smile after great sex fit into this study?
They probably have never seen it. 8)
Working hard!!with our tax money!! Anyone wants to really know the difference between smiles? Get off your computer and get to know people and their smiles. Body language tells you everything about a person. Once you figure that out we can focus on a more important subject, UNEMPLOYMENT RATES.
our tax money? when did we start giving money to Universities in Wales for studies?
Didn't you know Teapartiers can't read, mimdawn?
Or well, they don't like to read. It's common knowledge they hate academia.
Why are you still on your computer? Follow your own advise.
Geeez, how can you even tell in those that use Botox? Sometimes, muscles in the brow that have been weakened by the drug, make it impossible to even move anything besides your eyeballs? Millions use Botox now, where before, it was primarily Hollywood. That should be a research project in of itself--how to spot a smile in a person's eyes that have been frozen by Botox! Ha!
Good idea!
President Jack Kennedy and brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy jokingly said they have "sardonic smiles". But they kiddingly pointed out Teddy didn't, he really meant it when he smiled! Typical Jack Kennedy humor.
mikemather
Like you knew him- just another tea bagger kennedy hater.
lets talk about the strippers some more, that makes me smile!
So much is fake these days and there are a whole lot of fake smiles. The other thing is the people who do the fake smiles all the time so they can show off all their dental work. It's gross. Over white teeth and fake smiles scare me near to death.
So? We are taught to smile even when we don't feel it. People can't handle the truth, they want to be fooled, they want to be lie to. Without white lies, lives would be pretty dark.
Seems to me all a person has to do is say to themselves, "feel it", and not all but some could put on a good "genuine" act. Funny thing is, if you pretend it you may actually feel it as real so it is real in a sense. Isn't that what good acting is?
Is it really that hard for most people to fake a "genuine smile"? I've never had any problems creating those little lines around my eyes. I can even come up with a litte (scientifically unproven ;)) sparkle if I try real hard.
Now just why do you think a gambler would prefer playing someone who smiled genuinely over someone who didn't? As a gambler, if I sense that the other player is being totally open and honest in his facial responses, that's the guy I want in my game. I'll own his chips when the play ends!
Stone faces win tournaments; any uncontrolled movements--a tremor in the hand, a blink, a lipping of the lips--are known as "tells" and gives the opponent(s) a real advantage. And an "honest smile" when an opponent loses also tells me something else, that I'm playing with a real fish! Yum Yum!
Did they really need a study to confirm this? DUH!