Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T15:15:29.463Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Smiling reflects different emotions in men and women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2009

Simine Vazire ,
Laura P. Naumann ,
Peter J. Rentfrow  and
Samuel D. Gosling
Simine Vazire
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130. svazire@artsci.wustl.eduwww.simine.com
Laura P. Naumann
Affiliation:
Institute of Personality and Social Research, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-5050. naumann@berkeley.eduhttp://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~johnlab/naumann.htm
Peter J. Rentfrow
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Faculty of Politics, Psychology, and Sociology, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, United Kingdom. pjr39@cam.ac.ukhttp://www.ppsis.cam.ac.uk/psy/staff/jrentfrow.html
Samuel D. Gosling
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, A8000 Austin, TX 78712-0187. samg@mail.utexas.eduwww.samgosling.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We present evidence that smiling is positively associated with positive affect in women and negatively associated with negative affect in men. In line with Vigil's model, we propose that, in women, smiling signals warmth (trustworthiness cues), which attracts fewer and more intimate relationships, whereas in men, smiling signals confidence and lack of self-doubt (capacity cues), which attracts numerous, less-intimate relationships.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 403 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brown, S. L. & Schwartz, G. E. (1980) Relationships between facial electromyography and subjective experience during affective imagery. Biological Psychology 11:49–62.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 58:342–53.Google Scholar
Ekman, P., Friesen, W. V. & Ancoli, S. (1980) Facial signs of emotional experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 39:1125–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, S. & Miller-Herringer, T. (1991) Nonverbal display of emotion in public and in private: Self-monitoring, personality, and expressive cues. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 61:766–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gehricke, J. G. & Fridlund, A. J. (2002) Smiling, frowning, and autonomic activity in mildly depressed and nondepressed men in response to emotional imagery of social contexts. Perceptual Motor Skills 94:141–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, J. A. & Horgan, T. G. (2003) Happy affect and smiling: Is their relation moderated by interpersonal power? Emotion 3:303–309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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 24:1332–42.CrossRefGoogle 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 69:280–88.Google Scholar
Jakobs, E., Manstead, A. S. R. & Fischer, A. H. (2001) Social context effects on facial activity in a negative emotional setting. Emotion 1:51–69.Google Scholar
Kraut, R. E. & Johnston, R. E. (1979) Social and emotional messages of smiling: An ethological approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37:1539–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaFrance, M. & Hecht, M. A. (2000) Gender and smiling: A meta-analysis of sex differences in smiling. In: Gender and emotion: Social Psychological Perspectives, ed. Fischer, A. H., pp. 118–42. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Larsen, J. T., Norris, C. J. & Cacioppo, J. T. (2003) Effects of positive and negative affect on electromyographic activity over zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii. Psychophysiology 40:776–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Polk, D. E., Cohen, S., Doyle, W. J., Skoner, D. P. & Kirschbaum, C. (2005) State and trait affect as predictors of salivary cortisol in healthy adults. Psychoneuroendocrinology 30:261–72.Google Scholar
Ruiz-Belda, M. A., Fernández-Dols, J. M. & Carrera, P. (2003) Spontaneous facial expression of happy bowlers and soccer fans. Cognition and Emotion 17:315–26.Google Scholar
Schwartz, G. E., Brown, S. L. & Ahern, G. L. (1980) Facial muscle patterning and subjective experience during affective imagery: Sex differences. Psychophysiology 17:75–82.Google Scholar
Watson, D., Clark, L. A. & Tellegen, A. (1988) Development and validation of a brief measure of positive and negative affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54:1063–70.Google Scholar