A smile, that is. When you flash a smile at someone you are saying, “I like you, I’m interested in you, I’m happy.” A smile enhances relationships of all types and is one element of nonverbal communication universally recognized by all cultures.
In the April/May 2008 issue of Scientific American MIND magazine, researchers at Duke University found that our minds are better at remembering a person’s face and name (either in person or in a photo) if the face is smiling! It seems that a smiling face fires up an area of the brain involved in reward processing. What are the implications of this research? In the words of one researcher “We want to remember people who were kind to us, in case we interact with them in the future.”
But not so fast: Psychologists and other nonverbal experts identify 10 or more types of smiles that express a variety of feelings including the following:
The Polite Smile: We turn up both corners of our lips, but there’s no engagement with our eyes. We give this type of smile to strangers. The polite smile is often used by politicians or others with a personal agenda. This may also be a tight-lipped smile that we use when we are politely tolerating something.
The Twisted Smile: Again, only the mouth is used, nothing at the top of the face. One side of the mouth is higher than the other. It’s easy for others to identified this as a fake smile because our emotions seem conflicted.
The Embarrassed Smile: Bending the head forward slightly, looking down or away or down, and pressing the lips together during the smile. It’s used when we have made a mistake, overstepped our limits, or been caught doing something against the norm.
The Genuine Smile: The lips raise up and part, and the teeth may show. The eyes appear to light up and there’s a crinkling of the skin around the edges of our eyes. A muscle under our eyes also lifts up. This smile lasts between 2/3 of a second to just less than 4 seconds and rarely longer. This smile is the sincere expression of joy, happiness, amusement and pleasure and the one that makes us truly likeable.
So flash me a smile! And, please, make it genuine!