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Apr 10, 2017 · But the truth is far more sinister. Of 19 different types of smile, only six occur when we’re having a good time. The rest happen when we’re in pain, embarrassed, uncomfortable, horrified or ...
- Overview
- The social functions of smiling
- The 10 types of smiles
- 1. Reward smiles
- 2. Affiliative smiles
- 3. Dominance smiles
- 4. The lying smile
- 5. The wistful smile
- 6. The polite smile
- 7. The flirtatious smile
Human beings smile for a number of reasons. You may smile when you spot your long-lost bestie in baggage claim, when you engage your co-workers during a presentation, or when you imagine your ex’s lawyer tripping on the way into the courthouse.
People are fascinated by smiles — all of them. From Mona Lisa to the Grinch, we’re captivated by those both genuine and fake. This enigmatic facial expression has been the subject of hundreds of studies.
One of the most useful ways to categorize smiles is according to their social function, or the purposes they serve in groups of people.
Broadly speaking, there are three kinds of smiles: smiles of reward, smiles of affiliation, and smiles of dominance.
A smile may be among the most instinctive and simple of expressions — just the hoisting of a couple of facial muscles. But as a form of social interaction and communication, a smile is complex, dynamic, and powerful.
Studies have shown that people are incredibly perceptive when it comes to reading and recognizing these smiles in social situations.
Here are the 10 most common types of smiles:
Many smiles arise from a positive feeling — contentment, approval, or even happiness in the midst of sorrow. Researchers describe these as “reward” smiles because we use them to motivate ourselves or other people.
Reward smiles involve a lot of sensory stimuli. Muscles in the mouth and cheeks are both activated, as are muscles in the eye and brow areas. More positive input from the senses increases the good feelings and leads to better reinforcement of the behavior.
People also use smiles to reassure others, to be polite, and to communicate trustworthiness, belonging, and good intentions. Smiles like these have been characterized as “affiliation” smiles because they function as social connectors.
A gentle smile is often perceived as a sign of compassion, for example.
These smiles involve the upward pull of the lips, and according to researchers, often trigger dimpling in the cheeks.
According to research, affiliative smiles can also include a lip pressor, where the lips remain closed during the smile. Keeping the teeth hidden might be a subtle reversal of the primitive tooth-baring aggression signal.
People sometimes smile to show their superiority, to communicate contempt or derision, and to make others feel less powerful. You might call it a sneer. The mechanics of a dominance smile are different than reward or affiliative smiles.
A dominance smile is more likely to be asymmetrical: One side of the mouth rises, and the other side remains in place or pulls downward.
In addition to these movements, dominance smiles may also include a lip curl and the raising of an eyebrow to expose more of the white part of the eye, both of which are powerful signals of disgust and anger.
Studies show that the dominance smile works.
Researchers tested the saliva of people on the receiving end of a dominance smile and found higher levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, for up to 30 minutes after the negative encounter.
The study also found that the sneer raised heart rates among the participants. This kind of smile is a nonverbal threat, and the body responds accordingly.
If you’re looking for a foolproof lie detector, the face isn’t it. According to research, even the most experienced law enforcement officials only spot liars about half the time.
Nevertheless, there have been studies that revealed smile patterns among people who were actively trying to deceive others in high-stakes situations.
A 2012 study conducted a frame-by-frame analysis of people filmed while publicly pleading for the return of a missing family member. Half of those individuals were later convicted of killing the relative.
Among the deceivers, the zygomaticus major muscle — the one that pulls your lips into a smile — repeatedly fired. Not so with those who were genuinely grief-stricken.
Anyone who has seen the 1989 movie classic “Steel Magnolias” will recall the cemetery scene when M’Lynn, played by Sally Fields, finds herself laughing raucously on the day she buries her daughter.
The sheer dexterity of human emotion is astonishing. So, we’re able to smile in the midst of both emotional and physical pain.
Experts at the National Institutes of Health think that the ability to smile and laugh during the grieving process protects you while you recover. Interestingly, scientists think we might smile during physical pain for protective purposes, too.
Researchers monitored the facial expressions of people who were undergoing painful procedures and found that they smiled more when loved ones were present than when they were alone. They concluded that people were using smiles to reassure others.
You dispense a polite smile surprisingly often: when you first meet someone, when you’re about to deliver bad news, and when you’re concealing a response you believe someone else won’t like. The list of social situations requiring a pleasant expression is a long one.
Most of the time, a polite smile involves the zygomaticus major muscle, but not the orbicularis oculi muscle. In other words, your mouth smiles, but your eyes don’t.
Polite smiles help us maintain a kind of discreet distance between people. Whereas warm smiles sparked by genuine feeling tend to draw us closer to others, that closeness isn’t always appropriate.
Lots of social situations call for trustworthy friendliness but not emotional intimacy. In those situations, researchers have found the polite smile is as effective as a heartfelt one.
Dating, psychology, and even dental websites offer advice on how to use your smile to flirt with someone.
Some tips are subtle: Keep your lips together and lift an eyebrow. Some are coy: Smile while tipping your head down slightly. Some are downright comical: Smile with a little whipped cream or coffee froth on your lips.
While there’s a lot of cultural influence on these tips and comparatively little evidence to back their effectiveness, there’s proof that smiling makes you more attractive.
One study found that attractiveness is heavily influenced by smiling, and that a happy, intense smile can “compensate for relative unattractiveness.”
A grin is typically wider and more exaggerated than a smile, often involving the showing of teeth. It is often associated with a mischievous or playful mood. On the other hand, a smile is a more subtle and gentle expression, usually involving the upturning of the corners of the mouth without necessarily showing teeth.
- The Duchenne smile. A Duchenne smile is a smile of true enjoyment. It's a truly genuine smile, identified by the way it reaches a person's eyes. "Smiles of true enjoyment are the ones that have the smiling muscle that brings the lip corners up but also the muscle around the eye is activated," explains David Matsumoto, Ph.D., body language expert and founder of Humintell.
- Reward smiles. A reward smile is any smile that expresses positive affect and rewarding self and others, according to research1. Duchenne smiles can be thought of as a type of reward smile.
- Social smiles. Social smiles can also be called non-enjoyment smiles or affiliative smiles. "On the broadest level, you've got smiles that are of true enjoyment and then you have smiles of non-enjoyment," Matsumoto notes.
- Dominance smiles. In the aforementioned research by the University of Wisconsin and Queen's University Belfast in Ireland, the third classification of smiles is known as dominance smiles, and they're used to manage social hierarchies and status.
Nov 30, 2018 · Examples, please! Again, you can use it as a verb. Like most of the verbs in this post, use “at” if you want to add an object: “Stop grinning at me like that and just tell me what happened!” When we use “grin” as a noun, we can go for the phrase “ear-to-ear.” “She ran around with an ear-to-ear grin on her face, holding her new ...
Feb 4, 2021 · Read on for 12 common types of smiles that will help you understand these nonverbal cues and better communicate within your relationships and in your workplace — or jump straight to the infographic. Duchenne smile. Dampened smile. Forced smile. Qualifier smile. Sneer. Embarrassed smile. Contempt smile. Polite smile.
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Jan 22, 2022 · 19. Pie-Eating Grin. Meaning: an overly pleased smile that tends to irritate other people. Use In A Sentence: Megan has been walking around with that same pie-eating grin ever since she got that new promotion. 20. To Grin And Bear it. Meaning: to endure an unpleasant situation while remaining in a good mood.
