Chapter 3
THE MAGIC OF SMILES
AND LAUGHTER
What makes this one of the
world's most irresistible icons?Bob gazed across the room and locked eyes with an attractive
brunette. She seemed to smile at him and, not being slow on
the uptake, he swiftly crossed the room and began a conver-
sation with her. She didn't seem to talk much but she was still
smiling at him so he persisted. One of his female friends
sauntered past and whispered, 'Forget it Bob...she thinks
you're a jerk.' He was stunned. But she was still smiling
at him! As with most men, Bob didn't understand the nega-
tive significance of the tight-lipped, no-teeth-visible female
smile.Children were often told by their grandmothers to 'put on
a happy face', 'wear a big smile' and 'show your pearly
'whites' when meeting someone new because Grandma knew,
on an intuitive level, it would produce a positive reaction
in others.
The first recorded scientific studies into smiling were in the