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Journal of Nonverbal Behavior
Published in: Journal of Nonverbal Behavior 1/2009

01-03-2009 | Original Paper

All Smiles are Not Created Equal: Morphology and Timing of Smiles Perceived as Amused, Polite, and Embarrassed/Nervous

Authors: Zara Ambadar, Jeffrey F. Cohn, Lawrence Ian Reed

Published in: Journal of Nonverbal Behavior | Issue 1/2009

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Abstract

We investigated the correspondence between perceived meanings of smiles and their morphological and dynamic characteristics. Morphological characteristics included co-activation of Orbicularis oculi (AU 6), smile controls, mouth opening, amplitude, and asymmetry of amplitude. Dynamic characteristics included duration, onset and offset velocity, asymmetry of velocity, and head movements. Smile characteristics were measured using the Facial Action Coding System (Ekman et al. 2002) and Automated Facial Image Analysis (Cohn and Kanade 2007). Observers judged 122 smiles as amused, embarrassed, nervous, polite, or other. Fifty-three smiles met criteria for classification as perceived amused, embarrassed/nervous, or polite. In comparison with perceived polite, perceived amused more often included AU 6, open mouth, smile controls, larger amplitude, larger maximum onset and offset velocity, and longer duration. In comparison with perceived embarrassed/nervous, perceived amused more often included AU 6, lower maximum offset velocity, and smaller forward head pitch. In comparison with perceived polite, perceived embarrassed/nervous more often included mouth opening and smile controls, larger amplitude, and greater forward head pitch. Occurrence of the AU 6 in perceived embarrassed/nervous and polite smiles questions the assumption that AU 6 with a smile is sufficient to communicate felt enjoyment. By comparing three perceptually distinct types of smiles, we found that perceived smile meanings were related to specific variation in smile morphological and dynamic characteristics.
previous article Effects of Dynamic Attributes of Smiles in Human and Synthetic Faces: A Simulated Job Interview Setting
next article Comparison of Deliberate and Spontaneous Facial Movement in Smiles and Eyebrow Raises

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Footnotes
1
We used a conservative measure of the number of action units as it was based on the presence/absence of AUs. Hence, each AU could have a maximum frequency of 1 per smile regardless of how many times it actually occurred during the smile.
 
2
Heterogeneity of variance among the smile types was not uncommon. For this reason, data were analyzed both with and without assumptions for homogeneity. The pattern of findings remained unchanged. For consistency, the results reported are for tests that assume homogeneity of variance.
 
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Metadata
Title
All Smiles are Not Created Equal: Morphology and Timing of Smiles Perceived as Amused, Polite, and Embarrassed/Nervous
Authors
Zara Ambadar
Jeffrey F. Cohn
Lawrence Ian Reed
Publication date
01-03-2009
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Journal of Nonverbal Behavior / Issue 1/2009
Print ISSN: 0191-5886
Electronic ISSN: 1573-3653
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-008-0059-5

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