SCIENCE & NATURE: Can you spot the fake smile ?

21/2/2011

A smile, one of the most basic elements of human interaction, says so much about how we feel inside. Wikipedia notes, "A smile is a facial expression formed by flexing the muscles near both ends of the mouth. The smile can also be found around the eyes. Among humans, it is customarily an expression denoting pleasure, happiness, or amusement...Cross-cultural studies have shown that smiling is a means of communicating emotions throughout the world. But there are large differences between different cultures. A smile can also be spontaneous or artificial (when people feel obliged to smile). Happiness is most often the motivating cause of a smile." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile)

But can you spot the difference between a real smile and a fake one. Try this psychology test from the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml.

I'm happy to say I got 18 out of 20. Let's see if anyone can beat me.

21 Comments

Marco

22/2/2011 05:29:16 am

I got 16 out of 20.....not bad, this time you won!

Mino link

22/2/2011 07:33:01 am

I got 13 out of 20... At least the 50% of the smiles that i meet are true!

Roberta

22/2/2011 08:54:18 pm

Terrible.....
I got 10 out of 20, this means that I can not decifher the fake smiles from real ones.I am a very genuine girl who likes very smile.I suggest you read the poetry" THE VALUE OF SMILE" (FABER)

Federica S.

23/2/2011 01:42:25 am

Dear Raj,

I got 17 out of 20... not bad, isn't it?! :-) I think to be a good judge of human nature, even if sometimes I made some terrible mistakes! My personal criteria to understand if a smile is a real smile or a fake smile is to look at the eyes of the person who smiles. I noticed that, unless one is a very good actor/actress, it's very difficult to pretend to smile, as when a real emotion born from the heart, and that a real smile involves always the eyes. We can recognize a sincere smile even without seeing the mouth, I think,but if you look with attention at the eyes of the people often you can see that their smiles don't reach the eyes...so you can understand that perhaps, and often,they are only pretending to smile..only pretending to show good feelings. It's true that sometimes we smile only to show our politeness, or toward people we don't care... but even if we aren't involved with them if our desire to be kind and polite is sincere a little of our smiles involve also the eyes...Nowadays people go around always angry, especially in Milan everyone is neurotic (my husband always says that Milan is the capital of neurosis...) and there are really few people who feels like smiling. It's a sin, because actually a smile or a friendly gesture don't cost anything but can give a lot to a person. A kind word, not only a smile, a little understanding toward the others always bring peacefulness to everyone...sometimes you go to pay a bill, or to buy something in a supermarket... and it's bad when you see only grunting and snorting people, and soon you begin to grunt and snort too!I try always to be kind with the others and I try to teach to my daughters to be generous and polite toward everyone. Even if sometimes our wish are different, and often people don't deserve our good manners, I think it's always the best way to act... not always, but often even the grumpiest could melt a little...and smile you back!

Federica B.

23/2/2011 08:06:47 pm

Dear Raj
I got 18 out of 20, like you. It's great!!!
I usually don't trust unknown and so, when I talk with a stranger I look at the eyes and I understand if he has fake or genuine smile.
The mounth is not important; the eyes talk for us.

To study the face of a person is a kind of defence for me.

Fulvia

24/2/2011 12:50:18 am

Dear Raj,
I got 13 out 20.... no comment!
I think that the eyes are the most important part when you smile, but, as you can see, I wasn't able to understand very well which ones were real or fake!
I love to smile and if I receive a smile I feel happy!

I protest

25/2/2011 12:45:58 am

Dear Raj
I’m sure that with my nickname I made you smile (or may be you are just thinking that I’m very stupid!).
Anyway… I got 15, but honestly, when I meet someone, I never think that this person can be false, I offer my trust easily to people and I’m not a good observer of nonverbal communication, may be because it’s very strange for me to think that our body can communicate more sincerely than our words or may be because I’m usually a genuine person and a little bit naive, so… my score is better than I thought!!!
Have a nice week end!

Walter

25/2/2011 11:40:59 pm

I got 17 out of 20
I haven't noticed anyone refer to the faces got wrong. I'd like to point out my wrong faces: a strange hairstyle, oriental facial features and stunning girl... Perhaps, these issues have distracted me!
Did you get wrong more female or male faces? not so interesting?

Raj link

26/2/2011 06:55:07 pm

Walter,
That is a very interesting point you bring up. I actually hadn't thought about whether the sex of the person made any difference. But clearly it does. To use the obvious example, many of us fall under the spell of a beautiful woman or a good-looking guy and we are prone to doing something that we probably wouldn't have otherwise. The key word is, as you put it, DISTRACTION.
Raj

Barbara

26/2/2011 10:14:26 pm

Terrible, terrible,
I don't understand the expression of the peolpe..I got 7 of 20..the worse..
I was sure to have discovered al least 10..I'm very sad now..

Good Sunday afternoon

Val

28/2/2011 09:50:23 pm

>>You got 18 out of 20 correct>>!!! Fantastic! to be onest i was not optimist about the possibility to identify genuine or fake smile in a so few seconds!
i think is only lucky!
Ciao!
val

Max

28/2/2011 11:42:21 pm

i did the test, i made right 14 out of 20, not bad...oh my god, but how did they find 20 ugly people???

Pink

1/3/2011 01:20:08 am

Hi Raj,
I got 12..! I think it's not always simple to understand what people real think from the facial expression...eyes and month are very misleading!! At the same time I think that it's very difficult to pretend a fake smile being credible!! Bye

1/3/2011 01:22:48 am

Hi Raj!
I got 12..! I think that it's not always simple to understand what people real think from the facial expression..eyes and month are very misleading! At the same time I think that it's difficult to pretend a fake smile being credible!! Bye

1/3/2011 01:23:13 am

Cold

1/3/2011 01:27:23 am

Hi,

I got 16 out of 20! Not bad...I think is difficult understand if an expression is true or false and if you don't know the context...but in my opinion the first impression about a person is important and quite always correct...bye

Cristina Naples

1/3/2011 04:57:07 am

Hi Raj,
this test is very nice!!!
I got 14 out of 20...but I think that in my life ( until now) I was very good or very lucky to recognize some genuine people than fake people.
I hope to succeed again!

@ Pink :

How many times did you click on "INVIO"?
You are always diverted! hihihi...

Have nice evening!

Cristina

Laura

1/3/2011 05:07:13 am

I got 15 out of 20. Not so bad...but I bet that if I had the opportunity to meet those people I would understand certainly if their smile is genuine or fake!

Tiziana

2/3/2011 12:16:43 am

I got 14 out of 20 correct.
I agree with Max about the people of the test...They are very strange people!!
Raj, this is the first of the two times that I have to write as you told me during the lessons :-)
Bye
Tiziana

Fabiola

7/3/2011 12:05:08 am

Hi Raj, I got 14 out of 20.
I think it's difficult to determinate whether a people smile genuine or fake.
I think it's easier to see them phisically because eyes are more expressive.

21/3/2011 10:01:31 am

Hi,
I got 18 out of 20.
I think It's difficult to understand if the smile is real or fake, because there are many goog actor/actress.
The smil come from the mounth it's not always trust but eyes are difficult to lie so just lok the people through their eyes for understand if the smile is trust or fake.

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SCIENCE & NATURE: Can you spot the fake smile ?

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