Identifying that someone is using a fake smile to cover up their true feelings can be difficult, because such a smile can have some of the same characteristics as a smile of real pleasure.
A smile is just a smile, right? In truth, there are 18 different types of smiles that, according to the clinical psychologist Paul Ekmanare spontaneous reactions that transmit emotions — mainly positive ones, such as pleasure.
However, these are not the only smiles that have been identified since Ekman began his research into facial expressions in 1967. This is because people use sfake or fake smiles when they lie.
It is important to first point out that the lies hidden behind fake smiles are not necessarily malicious in nature. On the contrary, people use them as mask for negative emotions — such as anger, fear and anguish — so that others around them are convinced that they are happy.
Ekman began investigating facial expressions after discovering that patients participating in his clinical cases lied about their health emotional, saying they were not depressed and later committing suicide.
After reviewing video recordings, noticed micro-facial expressions that indicated their negative feelings. In his “Telling Lies: Clues to Deceit in the Marketplace, Politics, and Marriage,” Ekman explains that people put on a smile mask for several reasons.
One is because some kind of sign of happiness is necessary for a lie be successful. Another is because a happy smile has become a standard greeting to indicate courtesyand it is only inappropriate to show happiness in dark situations.
In any case, notes, fake smiles have no relation to the obscure phenomenon of alexitimiawhich can cause people difficulty expressing emotions.
Characteristics of a fake or fake smile
Identifying that someone is using a fake smile to cover up their true feelings it can be difficultbecause such a smile may have some of the same characteristics of a smile of true pleasurealso known as the Duchenne smile.
Ekman explains that, in general, it starts with the zygomaticus major musclewhich extends from the corner of each side of the lips towards the bones yes do.
A genuine, uncontrolled smile will make this muscle twitchextending the lips while pulling the cheeks up to make the skin come together under the eyes and wrinkle in the corners of the eyes.
The eyebrows and eyelid crease (the skin between the upper eyelid and the eyebrow) may also drop slightly.
Although the zygomaticus major muscle also contracts with a fake smile, will not have the same effects on the cheeks and on the skin around the eyes and eyebrows — especially if it is intentionally made wide for the purpose of deception.
The smile itself is typically more asymmetrical also. And, if the individual in question is using a fake smile to mask their true emotions, only the lower facial muscles contract — although perhaps not completely.
It is also likely that they will still see each other indications of distress or fear on the forehead. In addition to these differences in the way facial muscles contract and alter expression, a fake smile may disappear in phases or abruptly instead of flowing with natural feelings.
Os smile patterns they are just one way that researchers have been able to detect when people are lying, and look for these characteristics in fake smiles may not be a foolproof way to detect that someone is lying.
Recently, a team of researchers from the University of Rochester used Artificial Intelligence to analyze fake smiles with the help of data reading — more specifically machine learning.
Of the five faces related to smiles detected with this method, one high-intensity version of the Duchenne smile correlated with lying more frequently.
This finding is consistent with Ekman’s “pleasure in deception” theory — discussed in his book, in which he describes this emotion as a positive feeling — whether excitement in anticipation of cheating or a sense of accomplishment or relief after successfully getting away with it.
The theory of pleasure in deception can be summed up in a simple statement: “When you’re deceiving someone, you tend to take pleasure in it“.
