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How To Tell A Fake Smile From A Genuine One

14-04-2015 | 03:00

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How To Tell A Fake Smile From A Genuine One

2^min

Writer Max Eastman once remarked that a smile is the universal welcome, but how sure can we be that a person’s smile is genuine?

The answer for the question is the empathy test, created by psychologist Richard Wiseman, which probes our ability to appreciate the feelings of others – from their appearance.

A photographer asks a subject to imagine meeting an individual they don’t like and to put on a fake smile. Later the subject sits with a real friend and as they converse, the photographer records their genuine smile. Thus two versions of their smiles are recorded.

“If you lack empathy, you are very bad at differentiating between the two photographs,” says Wiseman, who teaches at the University of Hertfordshire.

About 150 persons were shown photographs of subjects with fake and genuine smiles. They were then asked to spot the false and the true. The results were intriguing.

“The public normally gets around 60% right, which is above the chance level of 50%,” says Wiseman. “They got 66% which is significantly higher while there was some difference between age groups.”

As to the difference between the two photographs above, it is the one on the right that is false.

“You use more face muscles when you have a genuine smile and you see that in the lines round the eyes of the subject which crinkle up more,” says Wiseman.

“In short, the eyes have it.”

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