Abstract
Smiles are ubiquitous. We often think of them as facial expressions communicating joy and positive feelings but a closer examination reveals that people smile in a wide variety of situations – including stressful and negative ones. Moreover, a growing body of literature reveals that the meaning and the social consequences of smiles are largely influenced by the context in which these expressions appear. The present chapter explores what smiles can tell us about people and how smiles are perceived. We first review existing evidence on positive interpersonal effects of smiling. However, as we show in the second part of the chapter, these effects depend on the morphology of smiles and are especially strong for smiles perceived as genuine and rewarding. Finally, we discuss research documenting that the interpretation of smiles depends on the context, including the expresser, the perceiver, and the situation in which the smile is displayed. In sum, the chapter highlights the complexity of smiles as social signals and the necessity of considering context in research on smiles and their social consequences.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ambadar, Z., Cohn, J., & Reed, L. (2008). All smiles are not created equal: Morphology and timing of smiles perceived as amused, polite, and embarrassed/nervous. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33(1), 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-008-0059-5.
Ansfield, M. (2007). Smiling when distressed: When a smile is a frown turned upside down. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(6), 763–775. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206297398.
Arias, P., Belin, P., & Aucouturier, J. (2018). Auditory smiles trigger unconscious facial imitation. Current Biology, 28(14), R782–R783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.084.
Barrett, L., Mesquita, B., & Gendron, M. (2011). Context in emotion perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(5), 286–290. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411422522.
Berg, J., Dickhaut, J., & McCabe, K. (1995). Trust, reciprocity, and social history. Games and Economic Behavior, 10, 122–142. https://doi.org/10.1006/game.1995.1027.
Campos, B., Schoebi, D., Gonzaga, G. C., Gable, S. L., & Keltner, D. (2015). Attuned to the positive? Awareness and responsiveness to others’ positive emotion experience and display. Motivation and Emotion, 39, 780–794. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-015-9494-x.
Chakrabarti, B., Kent, L., Suckling, J., Bullmore, E., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2006). Variations in the human cannabinoid receptor (CNR1) gene modulate striatal responses to happy faces. European Journal of Neuroscience, 23(7), 1944–1948. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.04697.x.
de Melo, C. M., Carnevale, P. J., Read, S. J., & Gratch, J. (2014). Reading people’s minds from emotion expressions in interdependent decision making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106, 73–88. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034251.
Dimberg, U., & Thunberg, M. (1998). Rapid facial reactions to emotional facial expressions. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 39(1), 39–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9450.00054.
Ekman, P. (2009). Telling lies. New York: W.W. Norton.
Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. (1969). The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding. Semiotica, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1969.1.1.49.
Ekman, P., Friesen, W., & O’Sullivan, M. (1988). Smiles when lying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(3), 414–420. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.54.3.414.
Ekman, P., Sorenson, E., & Friesen, W. (1969). Pan-cultural elements in facial displays of emotion. Science, 164(3875), 86–88. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.164.3875.86.
Elfenbein, H., Beaupré, M., Lévesque, M., & Hess, U. (2007). Toward a dialect theory: Cultural differences in the expression and recognition of posed facial expressions. Emotion, 7(1), 131–146. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.1.131.
Ellsworth, P. C., & Scherer, K. R. (2003). Appraisal processes in emotion. In R. J. Davidson, K. R. Scherer, & H. H. Goldsmith (Eds.), Series in affective science. Handbook of affective sciences (pp. 572–595). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Forgas, J., & East, R. (2008). How real is that smile? Mood effects on accepting or rejecting the veracity of emotional facial expressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 32(3), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-008-0050-1.
Frank, M., & Ekman, P. (1993). Not all smiles are created equal: The differences between enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles. Humor – International Journal of Humor Research, 6(1), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.1993.6.1.9.
Friesen, W. V. (1972). Cultural differences in facial expressions in a social situation: An experimental test of the concept of display rules. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, San Francisco.
Fridlund, A. (1991). Evolution and facial action in reflex, social motive, and paralanguage. Biological Psychology, 32(1), 3–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-0511(91)90003-y.
Girard, J., & McDuff, D. (2017). Historical heterogeneity predicts smiling: Evidence from large-scale observational analyses. 2017 12Th IEEE international conference on automatic face & gesture recognition (FG 2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/fg.2017.135.
Golle, J., Mast, F., & Lobmaier, J. (2014). Something to smile about: The interrelationship between attractiveness and emotional expression. Cognition and Emotion, 28(2), 298–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2013.817383.
Greenaway, K., Kalokerinos, E., Murphy, S., & McIlroy, T. (2018a). Winners are grinners: Expressing authentic positive emotion enhances status in performance contexts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 168–180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.03.013.
Greenaway, K., Kalokerinos, E., & Williams, L. (2018b). Context is everything (in emotion research). Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 12(6), e12393. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12393.
Hareli, S., & Hess, U. (2010). What emotional reactions can tell us about the nature of others: An appraisal perspective on person perception. Cognition and Emotion, 24(1), 128–140. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930802613828.
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. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.80.1.112.
Hecht, M., & LaFrance, M. (1998). License or obligation to smile: The effect of power and sex on amount and type of smiling. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(12), 1332–1342. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672982412007.
Hess, U., Adams, R., & Kleck, R. (2009). The face is not an empty canvas: How facial expressions interact with facial appearance. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1535), 3497–3504. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2009.0165.
Hess, U., Adams, R., & Kleck, R. (2005). Who may frown and who should smile? Dominance, affiliation, and the display of happiness and anger. Cognition & Emotion, 19(4), 515–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930441000364.
Hess, U., Beaupré, M. G., & Cheung, N. (2002). Who to whom and why – Cultural differences and similarities in the function of smiles. In M. Abel & C. H. Ceia (Eds.), An empirical reflection on the smile (pp. 187–216). New York, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press.
Hess, U., & Hareli, S. (2017). The social signal value of emotions: The role of contextual factors in social inferences drawn from emotion displays. In J. Russell & J.-M. Fernandez-Dols (Eds.), The science of facial expression (pp. 375–392). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Hideg, I., & van Kleef, G. (2017). When expressions of fake emotions elicit negative reactions: The role of observers’ dialectical thinking. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(8), 1196–1212. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2196.
Izard, C. E. (1971). The face of emotion. East Norwalk: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Kalokerinos, E., Greenaway, K., Pedder, D., & Margetts, E. (2014). Don’t grin when you win: The social costs of positive emotion expression in performance situations. Emotion, 14(1), 180–186. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034442.
Knutson, B. (1996). Facial expressions of emotion influence interpersonal trait inferences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 20(3), 165–182. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02281954.
Kotchemidova, C. (2005). From good cheer to “Drive-By Smiling”: A social history of cheerfulness. Journal of Social History, 39(1), 5–37. https://doi.org/10.1353/jsh.2005.0108.
Kraft, T., & Pressman, S. (2012). Grin and bear it: The influence of manipulated facial expression on the stress response. Psychological Science, 23(11), 1372–1378. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612445312.
Krumhuber, E., & Kappas, A. (2005). Moving smiles: The role of dynamic components for the perception of the genuineness of smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 29(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-004-0887-x.
Krumhuber, E., & Manstead, A. (2009). Can Duchenne smiles be feigned? New evidence on felt and false smiles. Emotion, 9(6), 807–820. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017844.
Krumhuber, E., Manstead, A., Cosker, D., Marshall, D., & Rosin, P. (2008). Effects of dynamic attributes of smiles in human and synthetic faces: A simulated job interview setting. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-008-0056-8.
Krumhuber, E., Manstead, A., Cosker, D., Marshall, D., Rosin, P., & Kappas, A. (2007). Facial dynamics as indicators of trustworthiness and cooperative behavior. Emotion, 7(4), 730–735. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.7.4.730.
Krys, K., Vauclair, C. M., Capaldi, C., Lun, V., Bond, M., Domínguez-Espinosa, A., et al. (2016). Be careful where you smile: Culture shapes judgments of intelligence and honesty of smiling individuals. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 40(2), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-015-0226-4.
LaFrance, M., & Hecht, M. (1995). Why smiles generate leniency. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(3), 207–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167295213002.
Landis, C. (1924). Studies of emotional reactions. II. General behavior and facial expression. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 4(5), 447–510. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0073039.
Manstead, A. S. R., & Fischer, A. H. (2001). Social appraisal: The social world as object of and influence on appraisal processes. In K. Scherer, A. Schorr, & T. Johnstone (Eds.), Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, methods, research (pp. 221–232). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Maringer, M., Krumhuber, E., Fischer, A., & Niedenthal, P. (2011). Beyond smile dynamics: Mimicry and beliefs in judgments of smiles. Emotion, 11(1), 181–187. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022596.
Martin, J., Abercrombie, H., Gilboa-Schechtman, E., & Niedenthal, P. (2018a). Functionally distinct smiles elicit different physiological responses in an evaluative context. Scientific Reports, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21536-1.
Martin, J., Wood, A., Cox, W., Sievert, S., Nowak, R., Gilboa-Schechtman, E., & Niedenthal P. M. (2018b). Validating a social-functional smile typology: Insights from machine learning and computer-assisted facial expression analysis. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Martin, J., Rychlowska, M., Wood, A., & Niedenthal, P. (2017). Smiles as multipurpose social signals. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(11), 864–877. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2017.08.007.
Mehu, M. (2006). An evolutionary approach to human social behaviour: The case of smiling and laughing. PhD Thesis, University of Liverpool.
Miles, L., & Johnston, L. (2007). Detecting happiness: Perceiver sensitivity to enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 31(4), 259–275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-007-0036-4.
Montepare, J., & Dobish, H. (2003). The contribution of emotion perceptions and their overgeneralizations to trait impressions. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 27(4), 237–254. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1027332800296.
Niedenthal, P. (2007). Embodying emotion. Science, 316(5827), 1002–1005. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136930.
Niedenthal, P., Mermillod, M., Maringer, M., & Hess, U. (2010). The simulation of smiles (SIMS) model: Embodied simulation and the meaning of facial expression. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(06), 417–433. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x10000865.
O’Doherty, J., Winston, J., Critchley, H., Perrett, D., Burt, D., & Dolan, R. (2003). Beauty in a smile: The role of medial orbitofrontal cortex in facial attractiveness. Neuropsychologia, 41(2), 147–155. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0028-3932(02)00145-8.
Okun, M., Bowers, D., Springer, U., Shapira, N., Malone, D., Rezai, A., et al. (2004). What’s in a “smile?” Intra-operative observations of contralateral smiles induced by deep brain stimulation. Neurocase, 10(4), 271–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/13554790490507632.
Otta, E., Abrosio, F., & Hoshino, R. (1996). Reading a smiling face: Messages conveyed by various forms of smiling. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 82, 1111–1121. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1996.82.3c.1111.
Peace, V., Miles, L., & Johnston, L. (2006). It doesn’t matter what you wear: The impact of posed and genuine expressions of happiness on product evaluation. Social Cognition, 24(2), 137–168. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2006.24.2.137.
Phillips, K. (2017). The grins of others: Figuring ethnic difference in medieval facial expressions. Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies, 8(1), 83–101. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41280-016-0039-6.
Phillips, M., Bullmore, E., Howard, R., Woodruff, P., Wright, I., Williams, S., et al. (1998). Investigation of facial recognition memory and happy and sad facial expression perception: An fMRI study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 83(3), 127–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-4927(98)00036-5.
Pool, E., Brosch, T., Delplanque, S., & Sander, D. (2016). Attentional bias for positive emotional stimuli: A meta-analytic investigation. Psychological Bulletin, 142(1), 79–106. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000026.
Prochazkova, E., & Kret, M. (2017). Connecting minds and sharing emotions through mimicry: A neurocognitive model of emotional contagion. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 80, 99–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.05.013.
Reis, H., Wilson, I., Monestere, C., Bernstein, S., Clark, K., Seidl, E., et al. (1990). What is smiling is beautiful and good. European Journal of Social Psychology, 20(3), 259–267. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420200307.
Ruben, M., Hall, J., & Schmid Mast, M. (2015). Smiling in a job interview: When less is more. The Journal of Social Psychology, 155(2), 107–126. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2014.972312.
Rychlowska, M., Jack, R., Garrod, O., Schyns, P., Martin, J., & Niedenthal, P. (2017a). Functional smiles: Tools for love, sympathy, and war. Psychological Science, 28(9), 1259–1270. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617706082.
Rychlowska, M., Miyamoto, Y., Matsumoto, D., Hess, U., Gilboa-Schechtman, E., Kamble, S., et al. (2015). Heterogeneity of long-history migration explains cultural differences in reports of emotional expressivity and the functions of smiles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(19), E2429–E2436. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1413661112.
Rychlowska, M., van der Schalk, J., Gratch, J., Niedenthal, P. M., & Manstead, A. (2017b, July). Steal and smile: Emotion expressions and trust in intergroup resource dilemmas. Poster presented at 18th General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology, Granada.
Scharlemann, J., Eckel, C., Kacelnik, A., & Wilson, R. (2001). The value of a smile: Game theory with a human face. Journal of Economic Psychology, 22(5), 617–640. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-4870(01)00059-9.
Senior, C., Phillips, M., Barnes, J., & David, A. (1999). An investigation into the perception of dominance from schematic faces: A study using the world-wide web. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 31(2), 341–346. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03207730.
Shore, D., & Heerey, E. (2011). The value of genuine and polite smiles. Emotion, 11(1), 169–174. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022601.
Soussignan, R. (2002). Duchenne smile, emotional experience, and autonomic reactivity: A test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Emotion, 2(1), 52–74. https://doi.org/10.1037//1528-3542.2.1.52.
Strack, F., Martin, L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 768–777. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.5.768.
Surakka, V., & Hietanen, J. (1998). Facial and emotional reactions to Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 29(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-8760(97)00088-3.
Szarota, P. (2010). The mystery of the European smile: A comparison based on individual photographs provided by internet users. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 34(4), 249–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-010-0093-y.
Scherer, K. R., & Grandjean, D. (2008). Facial expressions allow inference of both emotions and their components. Cognition & Emotion, 22(5):789–801.
Talhelm, T., Oishi, S., & Zhang, X. (2018). Who smiles while alone? Rates of smiling lower in China than U.S. Emotion. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000459.
Thibault, P., Levesque, M., Gosselin, P., & Hess, U. (2012). The Duchenne marker is not a universal signal of smile authenticity – But it can be learned! Social Psychology, 43(4), 215–221. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000122.
Tsukiura, T., & Cabeza, R. (2008). Orbitofrontal and hippocampal contributions to memory for face–name associations: The rewarding power of a smile. Neuropsychologia, 46(9), 2310–2319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.03.013.
Tracy, J. L., & Beall, A. T. (2011). Happy guys finish last: The impact of emotion expressions on sexual attraction. Emotion, 11(6):1379–1387.
van der Schalk, J., Kuppens, T., Bruder, M., & Manstead, A. S. R. (2015). The social power of regret: The effect of social appraisal and anticipated emotions on fair and unfair allocations in resource dilemmas. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144, 151–157. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000036.
Van Kleef, G., van den Berg, H., & Heerdink, M. (2015). The persuasive power of emotions: Effects of emotional expressions on attitude formation and change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(4), 1124–1142. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000003.
Vrugt, A., & Vet, C. (2009). Effects of a smile on mood and helping behavior. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 37(9), 1251–1257. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2009.37.9.1251.
Wagenmakers, E., Beek, T., Dijkhoff, L., Gronau, Q., Acosta, A., Adams, R., et al. (2016). Registered replication report. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(6), 917–928. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616674458.
Woodzicka, J. (2008). Sex differences in self-awareness of smiling during a mock job interview. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 32(2), 109–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-007-0046-2.
Woodzicka, J., & LaFrance, M. (2001). Real versus imagined gender harassment. Journal of Social Issues, 57(1), 15–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00199.
Yang, A., & Urminsky, O. (2018). The smile-seeking hypothesis: How immediate affective reactions motivate and reward gift giving. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797618761373.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rychlowska, M., Manstead, A.S.R., van der Schalk, J. (2019). The Many Faces of Smiles. In: Hess, U., Hareli, S. (eds) The Social Nature of Emotion Expression . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32968-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32968-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-32967-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-32968-6
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)