Can You Spot A Fake Smile?

Hugh,

Thanks for raising this point.

*I* define fake as "not spontaneous, voluntary" and Genuine as "spontaneous, involuntary".

Generally, using the above, a Genuine Smile has two characteristics - the eyes Smile - and - it takes a while for the mouth to return to normal. Any smile which is turned Off, and the face instantly relax, is therefore fake. And even though the Environment and Staged Conditions could deem all smile fake, their generation comes about either voluntarily or involuntarily.

If you go through the series again notice the first girl. Her eyes smile and her smile Lingers - genuine. The next guy's eye do nothing - fake.

However, and this is where we get into the Questionable area, further into the test a guy (I think with some facial hair) smiles while his eyes do not and he turns it off quickly. This is deemed Genuine and not fake even though it fails both of my tests. This is followed by a grey haired fellow whose face squints up. It passes my Eyes test but not my Linger test. While the last guy, fails the eyes test but passes the "trying to get the smile under control" linger test.

Here's something fun to try... next time you are flipping through a magazine and see a Model smiling, cover the face leaving only just the eyes. And see if you can tell whether she is smiling or not going just by the eyes. You'll see the eyes are Not smiling.

Also, with the Smile thing, there are More Cues which play a part in our interactions with people. People just don't sit down and suddenly smile - as this test had them do. We take those Cues into account in the Real World.

Now the next question is... can you spot Fake Laughing? Spend some time in the human theater and Listen to the Laughter - anywhere were Groups of people gather, and even in the workplace. And do YOU (generic you) participate in the Fake Laughter Trend?

Michael Ross