Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Detecting Happiness: Perceiver Sensitivity to Enjoyment and Non-Enjoyment Smiles

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The physiognomic distinctions between spontaneous enjoyment smiles and deliberate non-enjoyment smiles provide the social perceiver with a functional, accessible source of information to help regulate social interaction. Two experiments were performed to investigate whether perceivers were sensitive to this information in a contextually meaningful manner. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to judge whether a target individual was happy or not. The results revealed that participants were indeed sensitive to the differences between enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles. In Experiment 2, participants performed a priming task without any specific instruction to judge emotional state. Neutral expressions, non-enjoyment smiles and enjoyment smiles were employed as primes in a word valence identification task. The results demonstrated a clear trend indicative of perceiver sensitivity. When compared to a the baseline condition of a neutral expression prime, enjoyment but not non-enjoyment smiles facilitated identification of positive words.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Of course, it is also functional for the social perceiver to be able to determine the contextual meaning of any smile; however the focus of the present research was on the global distinction between enjoyment and non-enjoyment smiles.

  2. Sex differences with regard to either the target facial display (Experiments 1 and 2) or participants (Experiment 2) are not considered in the analyses of the present research as insufficient numbers were available to ensure adequate statistical power.

References

  • Abel, M. H. (2002). The elusive nature of smiling. In M. H. Abel (Ed.), An empirical reflection on the smile (pp. 1–13). Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adelmann, P. K., & Zajonc, R. B. (1989). Facial efference and the experience of emotion. Annual Review of Psychology, 40, 249–280.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1999a). International affective digitized sounds (IADS): Stimuli, instruction manual and affective ratings. Technical Report B-2. Gainesville, FL: The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.

  • Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1999b). Affective norms for English words (ANEW). Gainesville, FL: The NIMH Center for the Study of Emotion and Attention, University of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chartrand, J., & Gosselin, P. (2005). Jugement de l’authenticité des sourires et détection des indices faciaux. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 179–189.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1872/1998). The expression of the emotions in man and animals (3rd ed.). London: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, R. J., Ekman, P., Saron, C. D., Senulis, J. A., & Friesen, W.V. (1990). Approach-withdrawal and cerebral asymmetry: Emotional expression and brain physiology: I. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 330–341.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dimberg, U., Thunberg, M., & Elmehed, K. (2000). Unconscious facial reactions to emotional facial expressions. Psychological Science, 11, 86–89.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duchenne, B. (1862/1990). The mechanisms of human facial expression or an electrophysiological analysis of the expression of emotions (A. Cuthbertson, Trans.). New York: Cambridge University Press.

  • Ekman, P. (1972). Universals and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In J. K. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 1971 (pp. 207–283). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (2001). Telling lies: Clues to deceit in the marketplace, politics, and marriage. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P. (2003). Emotions revealed: Recognizing faces and feelings to improve communication and emotional life. New York: Times Books/Henry Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Davidson, R. J., & Friesen, W. V. (1990). The Duchenne smile: Emotional expression and brain physiology: II. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 342–353.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 17, 124–129.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1982). Felt, false, and miserable smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 6, 238–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., & Hager, J. C. (2002). Facial Action Coding System [CD-Rom]. Salt Lake City, UT: Nexus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., & O’Sullivan, M. (1988). Smiles when lying. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 414–420.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V., O’Sullivan, M., Chan, A., Diacoyanni-Tarlatzis, I., Heider, K., et al. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 712–717.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Hager, J.C., & Friesen, W.V. (1981). The symmetry of emotional and deliberate facial actions. Psychophysiology, 18, 101–106.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ekman, P., Sorenson, E. R., & Friesen, W. V. (1969). Pan-cultural elements in facial displays of emotion. Science, 164, 86–88.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Elfenbein, H. A., & Ambady, N. (2002). On the universality and cultural specificity of emotion recognition: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 203–235.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., & Kardes, F. R. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 229–238.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, N. A., & Davidson, R. J. (1988). Patterns of brain electrical activity during facial signs of emotion in 10-month-old infants. Developmental Psychology, 24, 230–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, M. G. (2002). Smiles, lies, and emotion. In M. H. Abel (Ed.), An empirical reflection on the smile (pp. 15–43). Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, M. G., Ekman, P., & Friesen, W. V. (1993). Behavioral markers and recognizability of the smile of enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 83–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, M. G., & Stennett, J. (2001). The forced-choice paradigm and the perception of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 75–85.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300–319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frijda, N. H. (1953). The understanding of facial expression of emotion. Acta Psychologica, 9, 294–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gosselin, P., Beaupré, M., & Boissonnneault, A. (2002) Perception of genuine and masking smiles in children and adults: Sensitivity to traces of anger. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 163, 58–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gosselin, P., Perron, M., Legault, M., & Campanella, P. (2002). Children’s and adults’ knowledge of the distinction between enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 26, 83–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. M., & Swets, J. A. (1966). Signal detection theory and psychophysics. Oxford, England: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halberstadt, J. B., & Niedenthal, P. M. (1997). Emotional state and the use of stimulus dimensions in judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1017–1033.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harwood, N. K., Hall, L. J., & Shinkfield, A. J. (1999). Recognition of facial emotional expressions from moving and static displays by individuals with mental retardation. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 104, 270–278.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hecht, M. A., & LaFrance, M. (1998). License or obligation to smile: The effect of power and sex on amount and type of smiling. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1332–1342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hess, U., Banse, R., & Kappas, A. (1995). The intensity of facial expression is determined by underlying affective state and social situation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 280–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hess, U., Kappas, A., McHugo, G. J., Kleck, R. E., & Lanzetta, J. T. (1989). An analysis of the encoding and decoding of spontaneous and posed smiles: The use of facial electromyography. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 13, 121–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hess, U., & Kleck, R. E. (1990). Differentiating emotion elicited and deliberate emotional facial expressions. European Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 369–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ikuta, M. (1999). The self-regulatory of facial expression in conflict discourse situation. Japanese Journal of Counselling Science, 32, 43–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izard, C. E. (1994). Innate and universal facial expressions: Evidence from developmental and cross-cultural research. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 288–299.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keating, C. F., & Heltman, K. R. (1994). Dominance and deception in children and adults: Are leaders the best misleaders? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 312–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keltner, D., & Haidt, J. (1999). Social functions of emotions at four levels of analysis. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 505–521.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krumhuber, E., & Kappas, A. (2005). Moving smiles: The role of dynamic components for the perception of the genuineness of smiles. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 29, 3–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lang, P. J., Bradley, M. M., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2001). International affective picture system (IAPS): Instruction manual and affective ratings. Technical Report A-5. The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida.

  • Macmillan, N. A., & Creelman, C. D. (1991). Detection theory: A user’s guide. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, S. T., & Zajonc, R. B. (1993). Affect, cognition, and awareness: Affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 723–739.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Owren, M. J., & Bachorowski, J.-A. (2001). The evolution of emotional experience: A “selfish-gene” account of smiling and laughter in early hominids, humans. In T. J. Mayne & G. A. Bonanno (Eds.), Emotions: Currrent issues and future directions (pp. 152–191). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peace, V., Miles, L., & Johnston, L. (2006). It doesn’t matter what you wear: The impact of posed and genuine expressions of happiness on product evaluation. Social Cognition, 24, 137–168.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravaja, N., Kallinen, K., Saari, T., & Keltikangas-Jarvinen, L. (2004). Suboptimal exposure to facial expressions when viewing video messages from a small screen: Effects on emotion, attention, and memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 10, 120–113.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rinn, W. E. (1984). The neuropsychology of facial expression: A review of the neurological and psychological mechanisms for producing facial expressions. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 52–77.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scherer, K. R., & Ceschi, G. (2000). Criteria for emotion recognition from verbal and nonverbal expression: Studying baggage loss in the airport. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 327–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, K. L., Ambadar, Z., Cohn, J. F., & Reed, L. I. (2006). Movement differences between deliberate and spontaneous facial expressions: Zygomaticus major action in smiling. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 30, 37–52.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, K. L., Cohn, J. F., & Tian, Y. (2003). Signal characteristics of spontaneous facial expressions: Automatic movement in solitary and social smiles. Biological Psychology, 65, 49–66.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shiota, M. N., Campos, B., Keltner, D., & Hertenstein, M. J. (2004). Positive emotion and the regulation of interpersonal relationships. In P. Philippot & R. S. Feldman (Eds.), The regulation of emotion (pp. 127–155). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, M., & Mullen, B. (1991). Facial asymmetry in emotional expression: A meta-analysis of research. British Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 113–124.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snodgrass, J. G., & Corwin, J. (1988). Pragmatics of measuring recognition memory: Applications to dementia and amnesia. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 117, 34–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soussignan, R. (2002). Duchenne smile, emotional experience, and autonomic reactivity: A test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Emotion, 2, 52–74.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stapel, D. A., Koomen, W., & Ruys, K. I. (2002). The effects of diffuse and distinct affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 60–74.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, G., Wiking, S., & Dahl, M. (1998). Judging words at face value: Interference in a word processing task reveals automatic processing of affective facial expressions. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 755–782.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Surakka, V., & Hietanen, J. K. (1998). Facial and emotional reactions to Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 29, 23–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Uleman, J. S., Hon, A., Roman, R. J., & Moskowitz, G. B. (1996). On-line evidence for spontaneous trait inferences at encoding. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 377–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walton, P. R. (2003). The Lexical Decision Computer Task (Version 1.7.21) [Computer software]. Christchurch, New Zealand: Dexterware.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, L. M., Senior, C., David, A. S., Loughland, C. M., & Gordon, E. (2001). In search of the “Duchenne Smile’: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Psychophysiology, 15, 122–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Vicki Peace for her assistance with data collection for Experiment 1, Paul Walton for writing the software used in this research, and Dean Owen, Tracey McLellan, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 2UB, Scotland

    Lynden Miles

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Lucy Johnston

Authors
  1. Lynden Miles
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lucy Johnston
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lynden Miles.

Appendix

Appendix

Materials

Facial Display Generation

International Affective Digitized Sounds (IADS):

  • Males: #116 (cardinal), # 815 (rock and roll), #201 (erotic female), #352 (sports crowd), #220 (boy laugh), #820 (funk music), #110 (baby laugh), #351 (applause), #202 (erotic female), #353 (baseball), #215 (erotic couple).

  • Females: #812 (choir), #815 (rock and roll), #353 (baseball), #220 (boy laugh), #215 (erotic couple), #820 (funk music), #221 (male laugh), #351 (applause), #110 (baby laugh), #201 (erotic female), #401 (applause)

International Affective Picture System (IAPS)

  • Males: #1460 (kitten), #4607 (erotic couple), #8190 (snow skiing), #4180 (erotic female), #2050 (baby), #1750 (rabbits), #2040 (baby), #1920 (dolphin soccer), #2070 (baby), #4220 (erotic female), #2080 (babies), #4250 (erotic female), #1710 (puppies), #4210 (erotic female), #4232 (erotic female), #1440 (seal), #4664 (erotic couple), #4652 (erotic couple), #8510 (car), #2260 (baby).

  • Females: #5760 (garden), #1920 (dolphin soccer), #1440 (seal), #2050 (baby), #1460 (kitten), #1710 (puppies), #2057 (baby), #1610 (rabbit), #1750 (rabbits), #2040 (baby), #2395 (women), #4607 (erotic couple), #5830 (sunset), #2058 (baby), #2070 (baby), #2080 (babies), #2091 (children), #8190 (snow skiing), #2165 (man and baby), #2340 (grandfather and children).

Experiment 2—Target Words

  • Positive: approachable, authentic, decent, friendly, fun, genuine, honest, joy, kiss, love, respectable, sincere, trustworthy, truthful, valid.

  • Negative: bogus, corrupt, deceitful, depressed, devious, dishonest, failure, false, fraud, hate, liar, repulsive, sad, terrible, unreliable.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Miles, L., Johnston, L. Detecting Happiness: Perceiver Sensitivity to Enjoyment and Non-Enjoyment Smiles. J Nonverbal Behav 31, 259–275 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-007-0036-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-007-0036-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation