The Definitive Book of Body Language

The Magic of Smiles and Laughter

We cut and pasted Grant's eyes and smile to produce a hor-
rific-looking face but, as you can see, your brain can even
identify a smile when a face is upside down. Not only can it do
that, but the brain can separate the smile from every other part
of the face. This illustrates the powerful effect a smile has on

us.

Practising the Fake Smile

As we've said, most people can't consciously differentiate

between a fake smile and a real one, and most of us are

content if someone is simply smiling at us — regardless of

whether it's real or false. Because smiling is such a disarming

gesture, most people wrongly assume that it's a favourite of

liars. Research by Paul Ekman showed that when people delib-

erately lie, most, especially men, smile less than they usually

do. Ekman believes this is because liars realise that most

people associate smiling with lying so they intentionally

decrease their smiles. A liar's smile comes more quickly than a

genuine smile and is held much longer, almost as if the liar is

wearing a mask.

A false smile often appears stronger on one side of the face