# Can you spot the fake smile? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555 "2004-12-07T15:27:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/21 "2004-12-08T03:39:52Z")
12/20. I suck. And I agree about the British teeth; eaugh. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/22 "2004-12-08T04:08:32Z")
woohoo 9/20 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂 :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/23 "2004-12-08T04:37:20Z")
11/20. Then again I’m probably borderline Asperger’s, so I was pretty much guessing anyway. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/24 "2004-12-08T04:50:11Z")
I got 15 out of 20. Missed all of them in the first 7 or so. But: I looked at their eyes… it seems that the real ones blinked at least once during their smile. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/25 "2004-12-08T04:53:54Z")
15/20 I predicted I would be average at spotting the fakes, and I was. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/26 "2004-12-08T04:56:16Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > WARNING. . . NOT SAFE FOR WORK. . .OR SMALL CHILDREN OR PREGNANT WOMEN. > > The link is 20 British people showing off their teeth. Funny, as I did the test I was thinking how very British (i.e. like me) everyone looked. Well, apart from the Chinese woman… ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/27 "2004-12-08T05:26:46Z")
13/20 . It was mainly how quickly they returned to non-smiling that I used as a cue (obviously not all that successfully). Did the # 13 big forehead girl have fangs? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Teelo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@Teelo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teelo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/28 "2004-12-08T06:40:13Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > WARNING. . . NOT SAFE FOR WORK. . .OR SMALL CHILDREN OR PREGNANT WOMEN. > > The link is 20 British people showing off their teeth. E gads! 😃 16/20 (how bout number 13, daaamn) ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/29 "2004-12-08T07:25:36Z")
17 out of 20. Missed two genuines and one fake. And #13 just scared me. Real smiles tend to scrunch the eyes and eyebrows more ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/30 "2004-12-08T08:50:14Z")
13/20. And I thought Fang face (#13) was a guy with long hair? Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/31 "2004-12-08T08:54:54Z")
I had him down as a guy too. Isn’t that stubble of some kind? ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/32 "2004-12-08T08:58:14Z")
15/20. Although I noticed afterwards, all the ones that actually made me smile were the real ones. And is it strange that videos of smiling people made me really happy? I gave the five I got wrong genuine smiles when they were fake. I should’ve gone with my instinct. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/33 "2004-12-08T09:10:40Z")
> [@ava](#): > > And is it strange that videos of smiling people made me really happy? No–smiling is one of those universal social cues, so it’s no surprise to see it trigger a positive response. See Paul Ekman for more information. 16/20 for me. Most of the ones I got wrong were fake smiles that had a stronger real-smile cue than expected. They did that fake eye-scruntch Cervaise mentioned ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/34 "2004-12-08T18:42:08Z")
17/20 - Two genuine smiles that I thought were fake, and one vice-versa. The thing that I was really paying attention to, and wasn’t mentioned in the concluding text, is that a genuine smile causes the muscles on the sides and top of head to move more, which generally has the effect of pulling the brow up just a little, and the ears move, although what direction is sometimes hard to tell, you can see them wiggle a little. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/35 "2004-12-08T22:43:17Z")
18/20 - better than I expected. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_On_My_Sleeve)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/36 "2004-12-08T23:01:18Z")
11/20 ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/37 "2004-12-08T23:18:13Z")
13/20 mostly got the men right and the women wrong. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/38 "2004-12-09T03:20:54Z")
15/20, and of the five errors, four were of men’s smiles (two mistakes each way). This probably goes a long way towards explaining my dating history… :smack: ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/39 "2004-12-09T15:31:34Z")
> [@Heart On My Sleeve](#): > > 11/20 ☹ Hee hee! Am I the first one to have gotten all 20 right? ---
**Author:** ![galen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecc23a/32.png) [@galen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555/40 "2004-12-09T15:34:09Z")
13/20 correct. I called 5 fakes as genuine. 2 genuine as fakes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-spot-the-fake-smile/278555.md?page=3)