THE
SMILE
In
general, smiling is a characteristic sign of positive and pleasant emotions,
although this is not always the case. Smiling is a good way of communicating,
due to the fact that you can use a smile to achieve many objectives.
Evidently,
the way you smile will change according to why you are smiling. It will
change in intensity, latencia (time it takes to appear) duration, and
time it takes to completly disappear. The different uses of a smile
are:
- To regulate a conversation: smiling
is a way to start a conversation, to prepare for the intevention or
to ask for the other person to start speaking. Whilst you are speaking,
smiling indicates to the other person that we understand him/her,
that we agree with what they are saying. Finally, finishing a conversation
with a smile can be a good way of making the other person good, and
to leave a good impression ready for the next time meeting.
- To
express positive emotions: happiness, pleasure, excitment,
relief.
- To
disguise negative emotions: like rage, sadness, anger, disgust or
fear.
- To
express disturbance or embarassment To flirt
It
has been proved that it is really difficult to produce the same smile
linked to positive emotions as to disguise negative emotions. The cause
is the grade of voluntary control which we have on the different muscles
that we move when we smile.
The
muscle which extends from the cheeks to the corner of your mouth can
be controlled. However, the muscle which goes around your eye, can not
be controled voluntary.
Various
experiments show that this muscle contracts completely when a smile
is sincere, that is to say, it responds to a real positive emotion.
This is how we notice the difference between a real and fake smile.
