If you’re trying to figure out whether
someone has a fake smile, look at their
eyes. When you have a genuine smile,
the corners of your mouth upturn, your
cheeks raise, and the skin around your
eyes crinkles. Known as the ‘Duchenne
smile’, it happens involuntarily when
you’re truly happy about something- so
a smile without eye crinkles is a good
indicator that someone was forcing it. Source Source 2 Source 3ahahah oh boy science no.
i learned to fake that part of the smile when i was fuckin 14 and miserable, if i smile you ain’t knowin it’s fake unless i want you to.
Also, the info in the original post is super fucking ableist against people who have different expressions for whatever reasons. Autistic people, blind people, people with muscle or movement disorders or paralysis that affects the muscles of the face, etc., often have different patterns of expression. For example, autistic people often have smiles that look ‘fake’ to neurotypical people. It’s not that we’re not happy or genuine. Right now, my five year old nephew (moderate to severely deaf, probably autistic too) smiles with only one half of his face. The other eye and half of his mouth he screws up tightly like he’s wincing. That’s just how he smiles. Sure, there are times he expresses with his whole face like a quote normal person unquote, but nine times out of ten, it’s his quirky, atypical smile/grimace. And that’s fine. He’s a happy neurodiverse kid.
Also, tangentially, fuck all that noise about ‘eye contact means you’re not lying’. No, eye contact means nothing. There are a hundred different neurobiological, social and cultural reasons why people don’t do it. Body language and facial expressions can only tell you a small part of the story when you don’t know the person and their background. Just stop judging based on science invented by sadists who liked torturing homeless people in the name of ‘research’. (Google Duchenne, I’m not exaggerating.)
Also, if you’re autistic and got CRITICIZED a lot as a child about not smiling “correctly” or were coached into awkward “normal” facial expressions, that can totally lead to being an adult who really doesn’t know what a natural smile looks like FOR YOU.
I practice smiling with the eye crinkles and the lifted cheeks. It’s my customer service smile, usually with bonus teeth. Wide, cheerful, and according to the original post, absolutely genuine.
Whereas my smiles among friends are less likely to be with the eye crinkles and the lifted cheeks, and almost never have teeth (sometimes, but usually I’m still trying to cover them with my lips). Because showing of teeth is at best a “I don’t know you” and at worst is a “back off, I don’t trust you and you’re making me want to commit violence to defend my space/person/friend”.
So. Yeah. Fuck the idea that there’s only one way to do genuine smiles. (Although that being generally accepted as true does make it easy to get people to think I’m genuinely cheerful and happy when I’m working retail.)
There's a Mirror on the Wall 