Be Careful Where You Smile: Culture Shapes Judgments of Intelligence and Honesty of Smiling Individuals

Abstract

Smiling individuals are usually perceived more favorably than non-smiling ones—they are judged as happier, more attractive, competent, and friendly. These seemingly clear and obvious consequences of smiling are assumed to be culturally universal, however most of the psychological research is carried out in WEIRD societies (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) and the influence of culture on social perception of nonverbal behavior is still understudied. Here we show that a smiling individual may be judged as less intelligent than the same non-smiling individual in cultures low on the GLOBE’s uncertainty avoidance dimension. Furthermore, we show that corruption at the societal level may undermine the prosocial perception of smiling—in societies with high corruption indicators, trust toward smiling individuals is reduced. This research fosters understanding of the cultural framework surrounding nonverbal communication processes and reveals that in some cultures smiling may lead to negative attributions.

Catching up with wonderful women: The women‐are‐wonderful effect is smaller in more gender egalitarian societies

“…Previous cross‐cultural studies on sexism (Glick et al, , ) explicitly activated gender stereotypes and showed that the women‐are‐wonderful effect is ubiquitous across cultures (Glick et al, ). We reanalysed data collected in 44 cultures by Krys et al () and found that the women‐are‐wonderful effect, when measured indirectly (i.e. when participants do not explicitly express their beliefs about each gender), is smaller in societies that are more gender‐egalitarian.…”

“…Also, perceiver ethnicity should be analysed in future studies as ingroup and outgroup effects may play a role in these social perception processes. Next, following Krys et al () we used the term culture , although the group‐level distinctions could have alternatively been labelled national culture or just nation (excluding South Africa and India as they were explicitly split into cultural sub‐samples). We are aware that culture is a far more complex construct than nation ; future studies need to be more precise in differentiating these two.…”

“…To provide a systematic analysis of the implicit social perception of men and women across cultures, we reanalysed data collected by Krys et al (, , ), who asked participants in 44 cultures to rate photos of smiling and non‐smiling male and female individuals on traits assessing honesty and intelligence. All target individuals in the photos were presented without any additional information.…”

“…Figure S1. Photographs used in the Krys et al () study. Participants assessed either the faces in the upper or those in the lower row.…”

Being Alone with Others: A Unique Form of Social Contact and Its Impact on Momentary Positive Affect

“…In Western cultures, where expressing emotions related to happiness is highly valued (Lyubomirsky et al, 2005;M. Erber & R. Erber, 2001;Saami, 1984), and happy-looking people are more liked (Lyubomirsky et al, 2005;Krys et al, 2016), even young children unconsciously smile due to learning that smiling in the presence of others is expected and rewarded (Saami, 1984). It is then plausible that the process by which people's behaviours are transformed into their positive affect is similar to that proposed by the facial feedback hypothesis.…”