On 25 Mar 2003, Jessey Bernstein wrote: > >What do you know about smiles? I have been observing that some people > >have great smiles, the genuine kind. They look happy, content and > >welcoming. Some people have just good smiles. Some people have lousy > >smiles. It got me thinking. Is this nature or nurture? Do people > >learn how to smile from their parents? Are good smilers necessarily > >happy people? Can people learn how to smile better? > I can't deal with all of the above, but I can note this:
According to my motivation textbook (Petri, _Motivation_), "Eibl- Eibesfeldt pointed out that many facial expressions are universal and do not seem to be learned. Smiling, laughing, weeping, and frowning are observed in the appropriate circumstances across all cultures. Additionally, children born blind, deaf, or retarded also smile or laugh when happy and frown or cry when unhappy" [and has nice illustration of facial expressions in a deaf-blind girl from Eibl- Eibesfeldt, _Love and Hate_]. And according to the same textbook elsewhere, the facial feedback hypothesis of emotion is still a contender. The idea is that smiling makes you happy rather the reverse. The classic experiment is a comparison of subjects holding a pen between their teeth (which forces smiling) and subjects holding it in their lips (which prevents smiling) (Strack et al, 1988). The teethy smilers rated cartoons as funnier than the lip-holding non-smilers. Stephen Strack, F. et al (1988). Inhibting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 768-777. ______________________________________________________________ Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470 Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661 Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada Dept web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy TIPS discussion list for psychology teachers at http://www.frostburg.edu/dept/psyc/southerly/tips _________________________________________________________ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
