Body Language of Smiling
Cue: Smiling.
Synonym(s): N/A
Description: The lips are stretched toward the ears and curled upwards in a u-shape.
In One Sentence: Smiling is a sign of submission and happiness.
How To Use it: Various smiles create various impressions in others. A smile should suit the context as well as your desired end goal. See Variant for the types of smiles and their associated use. However, understand that generally speaking, the smile is a universally signal of submission and appeasement.
Context: a) General b) Dating.
Verbal Translation: “I’m stretching my lips out and upward in a u-shape because I’m happy, fearful, or stressed.”
Variant: See Smiling, Fear Smile, Friendly Smile, Frown (the) or Downturned Smile, Honest Smile or Duchenne Smile, Jaw Drop Smile, Nervous Smile, Polite Smile (the), Uneven Smile Or Lopsided Smile, Upper Lip Smile, Artificial Smile or Fake Smile, Nervous Smile, Honest Smile or Duchenne Smile, Contempt Facial Expression.
Cue In Action: a) Two strangers passed on the street, smile at each other to show that they acknowledge each other, and continued on their way. b) She had a big grin on her face each time she saw her new boyfriend. He made her feel special.
Meaning and/or Motivation: Many biologists think smiles have roots as a fearful gesture, as a sort of “fear grin.” Today though, human smiles are a universally submissive gesture but they can also symbolize pleasure, amusement, aggression, or anxiety (grimace). These other emotions never truly supersede the most common purpose of the smile, which is to show submission.
Smiles are controlled by two sets of muscles: the zygomatic major muscles, that run down the side of the face to connect to the corners of the mouth and the orbicularis oculi muscles that pull the eyes back.
Smiles are our way we to show that we are non-threatening and wish to maintain peace. Those that lack smiles altogether or who smile infrequently are much more dominant and want to be seen as such. Today smiles usually indicate happiness, but they can also be present during fear and stress.
Smiling frequently can sometimes be sexual, but accompanying signals, coupled with the proper context, must be assessed to create certainty. Women will smile for a great variety of reasons and will smile regularly to appease men for no other reason besides habit. Smiling is a natural part of being a woman and while smiling alone is submissive, it doesn’t necessarily indicate sexual interest. Accompanying signals must adjoin smiling for it to be a true sexual signal. However, smiles due tend to appear most from happiness, and as a result of genuine feelings of optimism. They also indicate confidence and hopefulness. Smiling has also even been shown to be infectious.
Cue Cluster: a) Smiling can be a stand-alone signal of appeasement or submission i.e. that a person is no threat which requires no additional cues. b) If smiling is done over a shoulder, with pouting lips and partly closed eyes, as in the sideways glance, it should be taken as a sexual cue, but absent, should be construed only as a regular appeasement gesture and nothing more.
Body Language Category: Amplifier, Appease, Courtship displays, Fearful body language, Indicators of sexual interest (IOsI), Nonthreatening body language, Readiness to submit postures, Stressful body language, Submissive body language.
Resources:
Aggarwal, P., & Mcgill, A. (2007). Is that car smiling at me? Schema congruity as a basis for evaluating anthropomorphized products. Journal of Consumer Research, 34, 468–479.
Abel, Ernest L. and Michael L. Kruger. Smile Intensity in Photographs Predicts Longevity. Psychological Science. 2010. 21(4): 542-544.
Seder, J. Patrick and Shigehiro Oishi. Intensity of Smiling in Facebook Photos Predicts Future Life Satisfaction. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2012. 3(4): 407-413.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/facebook-smile-predicts-life-satisfaction/
Colonnesi, Cristina; Susan M. Bogels; Wieke de Vente and Mirjana Majdandzic. What Coy Smiles Say About Positive Shyness in Early Infancy. Infancy. 2013. 18(2): 202–220. ISSN: 1525-0008 print / 1532-7078 online
DOI: 10.1111/j.1532-7078.2012.00117.x
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-meaning-coy-smiles-infants/
Cashdan, Elizabeth. Smiles, Speech, and Body Posture: How Women and Men Display Sociometric Status and Power. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 1998. 22(4): 209-228.
Centorrino, Samuele ; Djemai, Elodie ; Hopfensitz, Astrid ; Milinski, Manfred ; Seabright, Paul. Honest smiles as a costly signal in social exchange. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2010. 33(6): 439-439.
Ekman, P., Davidson, R., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). The Duchenne smile: Emotional expression and brain physiology II. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 342–353.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1982). Felt, false and miserable smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 6, 238–252.
Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., & O’Sullivan, M. (1988). Smiles when lying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 414–420.
Ekman, P., Roper, G., & Hager, J. C. (1980). Deliberate facial movement. Child Development, 51, 886–891.
Frank, M. G., & Ekman, P. (1993). Not all smiles are created equal: The differences between enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 6, 9–26.
Frank, M. G., Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1993). Behavioral markers and recognizability of the smile of enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 83–93.
Fairbairn, Catharine E.; Michael A. Sayette; Odd O. Aalen and Arnoldo Frigessi. Alcohol and Emotional Contagion: An Examination of the Spreading of Smiles in Male and Female Drinking Groups. Clinical Psychological Science. 2014. DOI: 2167702614548892
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/alcohol-social-lubricant-male-smiles/
Gehricke, Jean-Guido ; Fridlund, Alan J. Smiling, frowning, and autonomic activity in mildly depressed and nondepressed men in response to emotional imagery of social contexts. Perceptual and motor skills. 2002. 94(1): 141-51.
Gosselin, Pierre; Reem Maassarani; Alastair Younger and Mélanie Perron. Children’s Deliberate Control of Facial Action Units Involved in Sad and Happy Expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour. 2011. 35:225–242. DOI 10.1007/s10919-011-0110-9.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/childrens-control-facial-actions-improve-age-create-accurate-emotional-expressions/
Gunnery, Sarah D.; Judith A. Hall and Mollie A. Ruben. The Deliberate Duchenne Smile: Individual Differences in Expressive Control. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013. 37:29–41. DOI 10.1007/s10919-012-0139-4
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/can-probably-fake-honest-smile-deliberate-duchenne-smile/
Golle, Jessika; Fred W.; Mast and Janek S. Lobmaier. Something to Smile About: The Interrelationship Between Attractiveness and Emotional Expression. Cognition and Emotion, 2014. 28:2: 298-310. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2013.817383.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/smiles-arent-just-cameras/
Guéguen, Nicolas. The Effect Of A Woman’s Smile On Men’s Courtship Behavior. Social Behavior and Personality. 2008. 36(9): 1233-1236.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/how-women-can-use-a-simple-smile-to-attract-men/
Guéguen, Nicolas, & Fischer-Lokou, J. (2004). Hitchhiker’s Smiles And Receipt Of Help. Psychological Reports. 94: 756-760.
Hertenstein, Matthew J.; Carrie A. Hansel; Alissa M. Butts and Sarah N. Hile. Smile Intensity In Photographs Predicts Divorce Later In Life. Motiv Emot. 2009; 33:99-105
DOI 10.1007/s11031-009-9124-6
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/small-smiles-predicts-divorce/
Guéguen, Nicolas. Weather and Smiling Contagion: A Quasi Experiment With the Smiling Sunshine. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013. 37:51–55. DOI 10.1007/s10919-012-0140-y
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/weather-smile-not-contagion-smile-linked-weather-conditions/
Guéguen, N., & Fischer-Lokou, J. (2004). Hitchhiker’s Smiles And Receipt Of Help. Psychological Reports. 94: 756-760.
Grandey, Alicia A. ; Fisk, Glenda M. ; Mattila, Anna S. ; Jansen, Karen J. ; Sideman, Lori A. Is “service with a smile” enough? Authenticity of positive displays during service encounters. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 2005. 96(1): 38-55.
Harker, L. A., & Keltner, D. (2001). Expressions of positive emotion in women’s college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 112–124.
Hall, Jeffrey A. and Chong Xing. The Verbal and Nonverbal Correlates of the Five Flirting Styles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2015. 39:41–68. DOI 10.1007/s10919-014-0199-8
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/first-12-minutes-flirting-using-nonverbal-communication-study-reveals-26-body-language-cues-attraction/
Harker, L., & Keltner, D. (2001). Expressions Of Positive Emotion In Women’s College Yearbook Pictures And Their Relationship To Personality And Life Outcomes Across Adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(1), 112–124. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.80.1.112.
Ichikawa, Hiroko ; Makino, Junshiro. Function of congruent facial responses to smiling and frowning. Perceptual and motor skills. 2007. 105(3 Pt 1): 838-51.
Johnson, Kareemj. ; Waugh, Christiane. ; Fredrickson, Barbaral. Smile to see the forest: Facially expressed positive emotions broaden cognition. Cognition & Emotion. 2010. 24(2): 299-321.
Johnston, L., Miles, L., & Macrae, C. N. (2010). Why are you smiling at me? Social functions of enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles. British Journal of Social Psychology, 49, 107–127.
Krumhuber, Eva ; Likowski, Katja ; Weyers, Peter. Facial Mimicry of Spontaneous and Deliberate Duchenne and Non-Duchenne Smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2014. 38(1): 1-11.
Krumhuber, E., Manstead, A., & Kappas, A. Temporal Aspects of Facial Displays in Person and Expression Perception: The Effects of Smile Dynamics, Head-tilt, and Gender. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2007. 31(1), 39-56.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/slow-onset-smile-best/
Krause, Michael W. and Teh-Way David Chen. A Winning Smile? Smile Intensity, Physical Dominance, and Fighter Performance. Emotion. 2013. 13 (2): 270–279. DOI: 10.1037/a0030745
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/smile-lose-smile-intensity-predicts-fighting-ability
Krumhuber, Eva G.; Manstead and Antony S. R. Can Duchenne smiles be feigned? New evidence on felt and false smiles. Emotion. 2009. 9 (6): 807-820.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/can-fake-real-smile-practice/
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
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/head-tilt-and-slow-onset-smile-nonverbals-trust-attraction-dominance-and-flirting-a-brief-report/
LaFrance, M. (2002) ‘Smile Boycotts and other Body Politics’, Feminism & Psychology. 12: 319–23.
Labroo, Aparna A.; Anirban Mukhopadhyay; Ping Dong. Not Always the Best Medicine: Why Frequent Smiling Can Reduce Wellbeing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2014. 53:156-162.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/why-too-much-smiling-can-be-bad-for-you/
Lockard, J. S., McVittie, R. I., & Isaac, L. M. (1977). Functional Significance Of The Affiliative Smile. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 9, 367-370.
Lobmaier, Janek S ; Fischer, Martin H. Motivational aspects of recognizing a smile. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2010. 33(6): 452-453.
Liu, Chao ; Ge, Yue ; Luo, Wen-bo ; Luo, Yue-jia. Show your teeth or not: The role of the mouth and eyes in smiles and its cross-cultural variations. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2010. 33(6): 450-452.
Moore, Monica. Courtship Signaling and Adolescents: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Journal of Sex Research. 1995. 32(4): 319-328.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/girls-just-want-to-have-fun-the-origins-of-courtship-cues-in-girls-and-women/
Mehu, Marc ; Grammer, Karl ; Dunbar, Robin I.M. Smiles when sharing. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2007. 28(6): 415-422.
Mehu, M., Little, A. C., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2007). Duchenne smiles and the perception of generosity and sociability in faces. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, 5, 133–146.
Neuhoff, Charles C ; Schaefer, Charles. Effects of laughing, smiling, and howling on mood. Psychological reports. 2002 91(3 Pt 2): 1079-80.
Okubo, Matia; Akihiro, Kobayashi and Kenta Ishikawa. A Fake Smile Thwarts Cheater Detection. Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour. 2012. 36:217–225. DOI 10.1007/s10919-012-0134-9
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/fake-till-make-cheaters-fake-smile-make-lies-difficult-detect/
Otta, E., Lira, B. B. P., Delevati, N. M., Cesar, O. P., & Pires, C. S. G. (1994). The effect of smiling and of head tilting on person perception. The Journal of Psychology, 128,
323–331.
Otta, E ; Folladore Abrosio, F ; Hoshino, R L. Reading a smiling face: messages conveyed by various forms of smiling. Perceptual and motor skills. 1996. 82(3 Pt 2): 1111-21.
Petrican, Raluca; Christopher T. Burris and Morris Moscovitch. Shame, Sexual Compulsivity, and Eroticizing Flirtatious Others: An Experimental Study. Journal of Sex Research. 2015. 52(1), 98–109, 2015. DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2013.829796
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/coy-flirtatious-smile-eye-contact-leads-shame-sex/
Prkachin, Kenneth M. ; Silverman, Barbara E. Stone, Arthur A. (editor) Hostility and Facial Expression in Young Men and Women: Is Social Regulation More Important Than Negative Affect? Health Psychology. 2002. 21(1): 33-39.
Quadflieg, Susanne ; Vermeulen, Nicolas ; Rossion, Bruno. Differential Reliance on the Duchenne Marker During Smile Evaluations and Person Judgments. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. 2013. 37(2): 69-77.
Reed, Lawrence Ian; Katharine N. Zeglen and Karen L. Schmidt. Facial Expressions as Honest Signals of Cooperative Intent in a One-Shot Anonymous Prisoner’s Dilemma Game. Evolution and Human Behavior. 2012. 33: 200-209.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/facial-expressions-honest-signals-smiling-contempt-predict-cooperation-defection/
Reissland, Nadja; Brian Francis, James Mason, Karen Lincoln. Do Facial Expressions Develop before Birth? August 2011. 6(8): e24081. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024081.g001
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/the-cry-and-laugh-face-in-the-human-fetus/
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.2014.08.001.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/smile-great-gain-smiling-key-negotiation/
Sturman, Edward D. Invluntary Subordination and Its Relation to Personality, Mood,
and Submissive Behavior. Psychological Assessment. 2011. 23(1): 262-276 DOI: 10.1037/a0021499
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/nonverbal-submission-men-women-depression-critical-examination-use-disuse-submission/
Schmidt, K. L., Bhattacharya, S., & Denlinger, R. (2009). Comparison of deliberate and spontaneous facial movement in smiles and eyebrow raises. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33, 35–45.
Surakka, V., & Hietanen, J. K. (1998). Facial and emotional reactions to Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 29, 23–33.
Simpson, Elizabeth ; Fragaszy, Dorothy. Can we really leave gender out of it? Individual differences and the Simulation of Smiles model. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2010. 33(6): 459-460.
Sauter, Disa A ; Levinson, Stephen C. What’s embodied in a smile? Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2010. 33(6): 457-458.
Thibault, Pascal ; Gosselin, Pierre ; Brunel, Marie – Lise ; Hess, Ursula. Children’s and Adolescents’ Perception of the Authenticity of Smiles. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 2009. 102(3): 360-367.
Teixeira Fiquer, Juliana; Paulo Sérgio Boggio and Clarice Gorenstein. Talking Bodies: Nonverbal Behavior in the Assessment of Depression Severity. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2013. 150: 1114-1119.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/using-nonverbal-behaviour-to-assess-depression-severity/
Tidd, K., & Lockard, J. (1978). Monetary Significance Of The Affiliative Smile: A Case For Reciprocal Altruism. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 11, 344-346.
Vazire, S., Naumann, L.P., Rentfrow, P. J., and Gosling, S. D. (2009). Smiling reflects different emotions in men and women. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32:5, 403–405.
http://bodylanguageproject.com/articles/smiling-reflects-different-emotions-men-women
Vigil, J. M. (2009). A socio-relational framework of sex differences in the expression of emotion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 32, 375–428.
Walsh, D. G., & Hewitt, J. (1985). Giving Men The Come-On: Effect Of Eye Contact And Smiling In A Bar Environment. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 61, 873-874.
Woud, Marcella L. ; Becker, Eni S. ; Lange, Wolf – Gero ; Rinck, Mike. Effects of approach-avoidance training on implicit and explicit evaluations of neutral, angry, and smiling face stimuli.(Relationships & Communications). Psychological Reports. 2013. 113(1): 1211(18).