Duchenne smiles and the perception of generosity and sociability in faces

Abstract

Although Duchenne smiles have been shown to have a social signal value, there is limited evidence as to whether this effect generalises to most positive attributes, or whether it is restricted to a particular social domain. As opposed to non-Duchenne smiles, Duchenne smiles involve the activity of facial muscles in the eye region (orbicularis oculi). The hypothesis that Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles produce different responses in receivers was tested in a face perception experiment. People were asked to rate neutral and smiling faces on ten attributes: attractiveness, generosity, trustworthiness, competitiveness, health, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Results showed that the type of smile had a stronger impact on the ratings of generosity and extroversion. The difference between neutral and smiling was larger when faces showed a Duchenne than a non-Duchenne smile, though the effect of smile type on attributions of generosity appeared to be restricted to male faces. Therefore the Duchenne marker shows some specificity to judgements of altruism and sociability.

Young children discriminate genuine from fake smiles and expect people displaying genuine smiles to be more prosocial

“…That is, it is possible that genuine smiles produce a halo effect of generally positive attributions in young children − although note that this is not the case with adults. Mehu, Little, and Dunbar (2007) found that the type of smile displayed had an effect only on adults" ratings of generosity and extroversion, but not on their ratings of other positive attributes such as attractiveness, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and health. It is an interesting question for future research to investigate precisely which prosocial (and other positive)…”

“…Likewise, in studies investigating our perceptions of smiles, Mehu, Little, and Dunbar (2007) asked adults to rate pictures of faces with different facial expressions. They found that the presence of Duchenne smiles significantly increased participants" ratings of the generosity and extroversion of the people in the pictures.…”

Perceptual Recognition, Emotion, and Value

“…Whilst being on the receiving end of such cooperative Duchenne smiles increases one's self-reported joy, these studies showed no robust correlation between the expresser's own happiness and Duchenne smiling (Mehu et al, 2013;Mehu et al, 2007). This, it would seem, motivates the thought that, 'the Duchenne marker could advertise altruistic intentions' (Mehu et al, 2013: 421) which, in turn, suggests that, far from being distinctive of joy, the Duchenne smile is distinctive of something else, the desire to cooperate or, to put it another way, friendliness.…”

“…Second, the context in which the observation and attribution is made can play a similar role. 23 Since Lev Kuleshov's famous experiment in the early Twentieth 22 See (Mehu et al, 2007) for evidence relevant to RC e formulated for friendliness. The second way in which context affects attribution is perhaps less familiar but is no less significant.…”

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

“…People showing an amused smile are perceived as more expressive, natural, outgoing, sociable, relaxed, likeable, and pleasant than when they show polite smiles [Frank et al 1993;LaFrance and Hecht 1995]. Amused smiling faces are also perceived as being more sociable and generous than polite smiling faces [Mehu et al 2007]. …”