What is in a Smile?

Abstract

Women have been observed to smile more than men in a variety of social contexts. In order to investigate the consequences of this sex difference for the way men and women are perceived, male and female college students rated the characteristics of men and women depicted in verbal descriptions accompanied by photographs in which they either smiled or did not smile. In control conditions these targets were rated without accompanying photographs. The findings showed that the absence of smiles had a greater impact on perceptions of women than on perceptions of men. When not smiling, women were perceived as less happy, less carefree and less relaxed than were men. Moreover, nonsmiling women were rated less happv, less warm, less relaxed and less carefree than the average woman, whereas smiling men were rated more favorably on those traits than the average man. These results suggest that different standards are applied to men and women. If women fail to perform expressive and warm nonverbal behavior, they will be evaluated more harshly than men.

Gender differences in temperament: A meta-analysis.

“…Smiling is crucial in areas such as interpersonal interactions and impression formation. For example, experimental research shows that raters react negatively to women who do not smile (Deutsch et al, 1987). Hall and Halberstadt (1986) found no gender differences in childhood and hypothesized that the differences emerged in adolescence.…”

Social stances by virtual smiles

“…The smiling behavior, i.e. when and which types of smiles are expressed during an interaction, may determine the perceived stances [4,5].…”

A User Perception--Based Approach to Create Smiling Embodied Conversational Agents

“…Women smile more than men and are also expected to do so [Deutsch et al 1987;LaFrance and Hecht 1995]. For instance, [Deutsch et al 1987] revealed that the absence of smile can be detrimental to a woman's image in comparison to a man, whereas there is no significant difference in image perception between smiling men and women. Non-smiling women are perceived less happy and relaxed than non-smiling men.…”

“…Several studies have shown that individuals who smile are perceived more positively than nonsmiling persons. Smiling people are viewed as more relaxed, kind, warm, attractive, successful, sociable, polite, happy, honest, having more of a sense of humor, and less dominant [Deutsch et al 1987;Edinger and Patterson 1983;Lau 1982;Moore 1985;Reis et al 1990].…”

“…The smile social signal is "profoundly influential" [Knapp et al 2013]; a smile expression can have a strong impact on how an individual is perceived by another person. In particular, smiling behavior, that is, when a smile occurs and which type of smile is expressed during an interaction, may determine the perceived interpersonal stances [Deutsch et al 1987;Edinger and Patterson 1983;Lau 1982;Moore 1985;Reis et al 1990;Bernstein et al 2010;Ketelaar et al 2012;Otta et al 1996;ODoherty et al 2003]. An interpersonal stance corresponds to an attitude, spontaneously or strategically expressed, that conveys the relationship of a person to the interlocutor (for example "warm" or "polite") [Kielsing 2009;Scherer 2005].…”