How do you know when a smile is real?

Answer 1

It's all in the eyes......

Answer 2

The "Duchenne smile", after the researcher Guillaume Duchenne, is the most studied, and involves the movement of both the zygomaticus major muscle near the mouth and the orbicularis oculi muscle near the eyes. It is believed that the Duchenne smile is only produced as an involuntary response to genuine emotion, and is therefore what one could call the "genuine" smile. Due to the involvement of the muscle near the eyes, it is sometime said that one can tell whether or not a smile is "real" by whether or not it "reaches the eyes".


The "Pan American smile", on the other hand, is the voluntary smile involving only the zygomatcus major muscle to show politeness; for example, by a flight attendant on the former airline of the same name. Considered "insincere", this type of smile has also been called the "Professional Smile" by David Foster Wallace in his comedic short story A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

Answer 3

Theres a few types of smile:

1. Professional smile: usually flashes a smile and look away quickly, common in work places where not everyone in the office knows each other well.

2. Sincere smile: smile plus a little more reaction like slight nod of the head or maybe stop and approach the person for a little 5 - 10 second chat.

3. Sly smile: smiles to you but with a bad intention or grudge behind, its just his/her way to cover up.

Its hard to distinguish a true smile but you will just feel it sometimes if or not a person is sincere.

Answer 4

Well there are different levels of a smile. A real good smile is when the eyes light up with it. As far as telling if they are real...I dont know. My advice is to see if the smile drops when the person thinks no one is looking at them anymore.

Answer 5

A genuine smile is known as a Duchenne smile, named after Guillaume Duchenne. You need to look at the "crow's feet" area at the eyes. It involves the movement of both the zygomaticus major muscle near the mouth and the orbicularis oculi muscle near the eyes. It is usually an involuntary movement caused by real emotions.

Answer 6

Read the rest of the body language. If the smile is real the person will lean or take a step toward you. they will be looking at you. ifit is not they will mill around , step back, they're eyes will avert, avoiding looking at you directly. There are many other signs as well. Just pick up a book on the subject.

Answer 7

Clues you can look for:
a) Fake smile is forced and focused on creating guestures that resemble the real smile. So as an outcome, in fake smile, only limted number of muscules of face participate. If you are careful, you will be able to notice the muscular movements and able to distinguish between two.

b) When smile is fake, person in general will be in hurry to get done with formality of smile. A genuine smile generally lasts longer.

c) It is easier if you know the person and his/her personality. their way of responding and also anticipation of what they are likely to smile at, you can judge the fake smile with reasonable accuracy

d) and definitely eyes. Its not very apparent or obvious one but very often people with fake smile have state of their eyes that reflect no connection or interest in subject.

None of these are perfect and with diversity of human beings and their physical variations in face, one really needs to spend lot of time reading the face to get to accuracy of judgement else surely there are people who are very good actors who can fake all of the above factors.

Answer 8

well u can tell by the persons way of smiling 4 example if u say something nice to a person and they smile u'll no that it is real smile another example u can tell by there eyes if it is a good smile or not

Answer 9

Real smiles incorporate the entire face. If you block out the lower half of a person's face, and it still looks like he's smiling, then it's probably legitimate. If not, well, then you have to ask yourself why he's trying to fake a smile to you.....

Answer 10

Not so much their mouth but their eyes. And then sometimes they look at you and then stop smiling only to smile a second later because they are really happy.

Answer 11

i can always tell if a smile is real if i look in their eyes. if their eyes sparkle and look sincere then the smile is real... eyes reveal a lot about a person... i think the eyes are the most attractive part of a person...