Smile For Great Gain – How Smiling Is Key In Negotiation
Christopher Philip
Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön and the Toulouse School of Economics devised a smile experiment to test its application.
Specifically, they wanted to know if smiling could induce trust and thus, if a smile could become profitable.
Researchers have long speculated that smiling arose during the course of evolution in order to signal submission. In apes for example when socially inferior animals draw their lips back and showed their teeth, it was a way to demonstrate their subservience to dominant members of their group.
In humans, smiling may signal the desire to wish to belong, to heed to the dominant forces – wherever they might arise.
That said, scientists still don’t have empirical support indicating whether smiling is a reflection of a person’s emotion or a communicative tool between people serving to boost task performance or cooperation.
Thus, the current study devised a procedure to test this.
In this study, participants were forced to cooperate in order to gain access to a small sum of money. The first trial involved 4 euros and the second 8 euros.
The trustees (the potential recipients) introduced themselves in a short video clip and then asked their partners to send the money to them which was supplied by the researchers.
Next, the sender had to decide whether to send the money to the trustee or not. If it was sent, the stakes were tripped and the trustee then had to decide whether to return 1/3 or ½ of the increased sum of money or simply keep it all. Over the course of the game, it was possible for a trustee to score up to 24 euros (but in turn leave the sender empty-handed). Thus, the smile and facial expressions, where major determinants in how best to cooperate with, or cheat their partner.
Videos were scored based on the person’s attractiveness, intelligence and trustworthiness and whether they felt their smiles were genuine.
The study found that “the people whose smiles were rated as genuine were also judged to be trustworthy. Senders could actually use the smile as a basis for predicting whether the trustee would share the stakes”, explains Manfred one of the studies co-authors.
Also, the results found that a genuine smile was also worthy of being trusted because the people who performed trustworthy smiles sent more money back on average.
“This means a smile perceived as genuine is an honest signal that displays a readiness to cooperate. It aims to encourage others to cooperate in situations that require justified trust”, says Milinski.
Additionally, when stakes where higher, trustees tended to produce smiles rated as more genuine. This says that people actually understand intuitively the value of smiling during negotiations.
The data is quite intuitive; while it may be that smiling may signal submission, it also signals the desire to cooperate. A genuine smile can play and important role during negotiations and when tasked with working in groups.
Turns out, yes, smiling is an “honest” signal to viewers. We see a person who smiles as more cooperative.
Image Credit: Moyan Brenn
Resources
Samuele Centorrino, Elodie Djemai, Astrid Hopfensitz, Manfred Milinski, Paul Seabright. Honest Signaling in Trust Interactions: Smiles Rated as Genuine Induce Trust and Signal Higher Earning Opportunities. Evolution and Human Behavior DOI:
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.08.001.