We know that expressions differ across cultures, but an exploration of how we recognize smiles brings that observation to the forefront!

In a major 1993 study, Humintell’s own Dr. David Matsumoto and Tsutomu Kudoh sought to explore the differences between how Americans and Japanese express and perceive smiles. This would reveal different cultural assumptions but also managed to demonstrate some potentially unexpected similarities.

Smiles are great places to begin this sort of work, as there are many kinds of smiles, and they all reveal different emotions or serve different social functions.

Initially, it is important to note that Americans and Japanese, when alone, tend to display very similar expressions of disgust, anger, fear, and sadness. These have been shown to be universal expressions, after all. However, this is not always true when others are present in the room, as many Japanese participants would smile despite being exposed to disgusting or sad imagery.

This would be explained by the fact that smiles have some negative connotations in Japan, where maturity is seen as rooted in stoicism and seriousness despite underlying emotions. Instead of expressing joy, smiles are often used for that purpose: to hid underling emotions rather than display them.

Because of their differing uses, therefore, it would stand to reason that people from different cultures would read into smiles differently. If we are accustomed to smiling during times when we are sad, we will be less likely to attribute happiness to other people who are smiling.

Drs. Matsumoto and Kudoh sought to further disentangle these phenomena by exposing American and Japanese participants to images of both smiles and neutral faces. They were then asked to evaluate attractiveness, intelligence, friendliness, and sociability in each case. The overall goal of this study was to determine whether participant culture had a significant impact in these evaluations.

As it turns out, American judges rated smiling faces as more intelligent, and both judges rated smiling faces as being more sociable. While they agreed on the latter point, Americans rated smiling faces as being much more sociable than did their Japanese counterparts.

Both of these distinctions fit with the notion that Americans emphasize smiling more in social interactions. Americans would perceive the lack of a smile from a Japanese individual as a potentially negative sign, while Japanese may do the opposite.

Yet, despite these differences, both participants rated smiles as being more attractive. This may indicate the smiles reflect external characteristics rather than more internal notions like sociability and intelligence.

Still, it is clear that the smile is an incredibly important component towards effectively reading people, but we have to temper that with an understanding of cultural differences.

While we tend to associate smiling almost exclusively with joy or happiness, this may lead us pretty far astray.

In fact, there are many different types of smiles and only a few can really be classified as happy smiles. As a recent article in the BBC outlines, of the perhaps 19 different types of smiles, only six indicate pleasant emotions. Instead, the remainder can designate contempt, anger, or even deception. If we want to effectively read people, exploring the differences between smiles is necessary.

One of these is, of course, the relatively well-known Duchenne smile.  This smile was identified as part of the 19^th century experiments of Duchenne de Boulogne who sought to explore the underlying muscular configurations behind facial expressions. While he identified over sixty facial expressions, the Duchenne smile is perhaps his most famous discovery.

This expression, characterized by a wide, almost comically overblown, smile, is generally associated with genuine happiness and pleasure. Importantly, this expression is usually associated with “crow’s feet,” particular creases around the eyes. These crow’s feet are often seen as indicating genuine happiness.

Not all cultures encourage such open smiles. Instead, in Scandinavian, Russian, or Japanese cultures, overt smiles are frowned upon. This tends to lead to more “dampened smiles” where the mouth is slightly raised and the lips gently pushed together. While the mouth in these smiles is hardly affected, there is instead an emphasis on showing happiness through the eyes.

However, these sorts of genuine smiles are not the only kind of smile to be aware of. There is also the “miserable smile.” While this appears quite similar, it is usually asymmetrical and overshadowed by a grimace-like look of sadness. It was Humintell’s own Dr. David Matsumoto’s work which identified this smile among silver medalist athletes, including blind ones, suggesting that it is a universal expression.

There are also more concerning smiles to look out for. One of these is the “contempt” smile.  This expression combines both expressions of disgust and resentment but looks quite close to a genuine smile. Instead, it is similar in most respects but the corners of the lips remain taught rather than crinkled. This smile is especially common in East Asian cultures where overt anger is discouraged.

Similarly, there are fake smiles and blended smiles. In the former case, false smiles differ only subtly from the Duchenne smile. Unfortunately, these differences are hard to detect, as the Duchenne smile is easily faked. Testing the accuracy of a smile often demands that we compare it to other smiles that we have seen, ideally from the same person. It is the deviations from these norms that help determine if it is false.

Finally, blended smiles exist when people express a genuine Duchenne smile but layer on contempt, fear, or sadness. These smiles may look very similar but are tinged with clearly different intentions. This may be determined in a similar fashion to fake smiles but also by looking at whether a genuine smile even makes sense for that person in that context.

Hopefully, this gives some indication to how many different variations of smiles there are. It is important again to emphasize cultural differences here, as that can have a significant impact on what sort of smile is being displayed.

While it may be hard to take this information into the field, it might help get you starting on a people reading class or even a class dedicated to cross-cultural communication!