Head Tilt And Slow Onset Smile Nonverbals – Trust, Attraction, Dominance, and Flirting A Brief Report
Christopher Philip
U.K. Researchers Eva Krumhuber, Antony Manstead and Arvid Kappas conducted a study looking at the effects of head tilt or head canting and smiles.
In their study, the researchers produce animation with the help of software to represent a variety of conditions. They produce male and female models with right and left head tilt as well as neutral or open mouthed smiles.
The results showed that male and female models were rated more attractive, trustworthy and less dominant when the smiles were slow onset – appearing over a longer time rather than quickly flashed. Additionally, smile with long onset were also judged more flirtatiously and more authentic.
Overall, however, smiles shown by the female models were judged to be less authentic than those displayed by men, and men’s smiles were judged also rated as more flirtatious than women’s smiles.
The researchers make note of the fact that women usually smile more than men so women’s smiles may be discounted as less genuine and truthful when compared to the less frequent appearance of male smiles. In other words, when a man smiles, he likely means it, whereas when women smile, it might mean any great variety of emotions.
Women also rated the male smiles as more flirtatious than men did, for obvious reasons.
Head-tilt was also found to influence attractiveness and trustworthiness ratings over the neutral upright head condition.
The research indicates that head tilt and smiling is an effective way to create trust and attraction while simultaneously reducing perceived dominance.
Especially interesting is the success produced by slow onset smiles especially when done by men. The study shows that a slow onset smile done by men is an effective way to flirt.
Resources
Krumhuber, Eva; Antony S. R.; Manstead; and Arvid Kappas. Temporal Aspects of Facial Displays in Person and Expression Perception: The Effects of Smile Dynamics, Head-tilt, and Gender. Journal Nonverbal Behavior. 2007; 31: 39-56.
DOI 10.1007/s10919-006-0019-x