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10 Benefits of Smile
10 Benefits of Smile
(A compilation)
People are always smiling, especially in groups, but it doesn't just signal that they're happy, far from
it. We use smiles for specific social purposes because they can send out all sorts of signals that can
be useful for us1.
Here are ten ways smiles can be used to our advantage by sending out messages about our
trustworthiness, attractivity, sociability and more.
Economists even consider that smiles have a value. In one study by Scharlemann et al.
(2001) participants were more likely to trust another person if they were smiling. This study found
that a smile increased people's willingness to trust by about 10%.
According to a study conducted by LaFrance and Hecht (1995), it can be. We treat people who've
broken the rules with more leniency if they smile afterwards. It doesn't matter whether it's a false
smile, a miserable smile or a real felt smile, they all work to make us want to give the transgressor a
break.
This seems to work because we find people who smile after breaking the rules more trustworthy
than those who don't.
The function of embarrassment is to get us out of tight social spots (Keltner & Buswell, 1997). The
embarrassed smiles we display involve looking down and sometimes we emit a silly little laugh. This
is designed to elicit fellow-feeling from other people so they think less of the slip and forgive us more
quickly.
So the embarrassed smile helps us get out of jail free(ish). Once again, the power of a smile.
In one study people were asked to remain stony-faced after hearing someone else's good news
(LaFrance, 1997). They felt bad afterwards and thought the other person would think worse of them
as a result.
So we nod and smile politely because otherwise we'll regret it afterwards. Women, though, seem to
feel this pressure to smile at the happy news of others more than men.
A word of warning: smiling at upsetting things may work but it doesn't look good to others.
When Ansfield (2007) had participants viewing distressing videos, those who smiled felt better
afterwards than those who didn't. But people who smiled at distressing images were judged less
likeable by others.
Cue a smile.
Smiling makes us feel good which also increases our attentional flexibility and our ability to think
holistically. When this idea was tested by Johnson et al. (2010), the results showed that participants
who smiled performed better on attentional tasks which required seeing the whole forest rather than
just the trees.
So a smile really can help give us a burst of insight.
When men smile at women, though, the effect is less magical. While smiling increases women's
attractiveness to men, it doesn't work so well the other way around. Indeed there's some evidence
men look more attractive to women when displaying pride or even shame, than when they look
happy (Tracy & Beall, 2011). Less smiling makes a man look more masculine.
So smiles can be used to hide what we really think, but it's still not easy to fake a real smile because
they have to be timed correctly. A key to a trustworthy smile is that it has a slow onset, i.e. it takes
about half a second to spread across the face. One piece of research has found that in comparison
to a fast onset smile (about a tenth of a second to spread), slow onset smiles are judged more
trustworthy, authentic and even more flirtatious (see: A Slow Smile Attracts).
More generally people in service industries, like flight attendants or those in entertainment and
hospitality are effectively paid to smile at customers. But, watch out, a constant mismatch between
felt and displayed emotion—called emotional labour by psychologists—can be exhausting, possibly
leading to job burnout.
As you'll have noticed, though, not everyone does smile back. Hinsz and Tomhave (1991) wanted to
see what proportion of people would respond to a smile aimed at them with their own smile. Their
results suggest around 50% of people reciprocate. In comparison almost no one responds to a frown
with their own frown.