A Berkeley psych prof contends that Americans and Brits use different muscles when they smile, that a trained observer can deduce a smiler's nationality by looking at photos, and that the British smile is more akin to a deferential grimace than an expression of joy:
Keltner hit upon this difference in national smiles by accident. He was studying teasing in American fraternity houses and found that low-status frat members, when they were teased, smiled using the risorius muscle – a facial muscle that pulls the lips sideways – as well as the zygomatic major, which lifts up the lips. It resulted in a sickly smile that said, in effect, I understand you must paddle me, brother, but not too hard, please. Several years later, Keltner went to England on sabbatical and noticed that the English had a peculiar deferential smile that reminded him of those he had seen among the junior American frat members. Like the frat brothers', the English smile telegraphed an acknowledgment of hierarchy rather than just expressing pleasure.
(Thanks, Matt!)
Update: A reader writes, "Amusingly, the Sunday Times (UK) has a completely different spin on the same research. While the New York Times remarks on the 'deferential' and 'sickly' aspects of the hierarchy-acknowledging British smile, the UK Times lauds the British smile as 'more sincere' and "hard to fake" as opposed to the American 'Pan-Am' smile. You have to read the two articles back to back to get the full sense of just how diametrically opposed they are. Hilarious!"
