# Spot the Fake Smile - Easy or Hard? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 25, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926 "2005-04-25T00:08:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![empty\_filing\_cabinet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@empty\_filing\_cabinet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/empty_filing_cabinet)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/1 "2005-04-25T00:08:56Z")
Came across this link today: [Spot the Fake Smile](http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml) Rather interesting. Do you all think it’s a little too easy? Or hard? 🙂 :rolleyes: 😛😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/2 "2005-04-25T00:17:25Z")
This has been brought up before. I usually miss one or two. For me, the eyes give it away. ---
**Author:** ![Izzybella](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e56c9b/32.png) [@Izzybella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Izzybella)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/3 "2005-04-25T00:25:10Z")
I got 18 out of 20. I kind of thought it was easy but maybe that’s just me. Interesting link. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/4 "2005-04-25T00:27:26Z")
I got 15 out of 20. I saw a programme recently which said a genuine smile involves far more muscles… particularly around the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/5 "2005-04-25T01:06:11Z")
Is that the one where all the people in the pictures have horrible British teeth? ---
**Author:** ![conurepete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@conurepete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conurepete)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/6 "2005-04-25T01:21:27Z")
Not easy. I got 18 out of 20. I think the blonde with the smooth hair had botox, the top half of her head barely moves. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/7 "2005-04-25T01:56:45Z")
I got nine of them. I knew in advance what to look for but just couldn’t make the distinction when it came time to pick an answer. All the smiles looked basically the same to me. Maybe this is why nobody came to my birthday party. ☹ So yeah, it’s hard, for me anyway. I’ll just tell myself that you’re all lying about your scores to make myself feel better. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/8 "2005-04-25T02:37:44Z")
What is a “fake smile”? When one contorts one’s face into a certain position, isn’t that a smile regardless of one’s emotion? ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/9 "2005-04-25T04:04:11Z")
20/20 here. There were a couple that I wasn’t _positive_ about, but I was pretty damn confident about them all. For me: I look at the eyes. Do they crinkle at all? Most of the fake ones I instantly spotted because even though their mouth formed a smile, the rest of the face didn’t “follow through”, if that makes sense. I was going on instinct, even though I took that spoilered part into account. Many times, the ones that were genuine had me smiling with them. There were even a couple of fake smiles which creeped me out because they were obviously fake (so they had a slight ominous/threatening feel, to me). ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/10 "2005-04-25T04:19:39Z")
I got 18 out of 20. The giveaway is motion of the muscles and skin around the eyes. Real smiles tend to have it. Fake smiles generally don’t. ---
**Author:** ![empty\_filing\_cabinet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@empty\_filing\_cabinet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/empty_filing_cabinet)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/11 "2005-04-25T04:21:09Z")
> [@](#): > > 20/20 here Yeah, I also got 20/20, so I wanted a reality check. I did exactly what you did [in spoiler]. I had heard someone say something like that a long time ago, and it’s all I looked at – because I figured that’s what they were testing. So, upon sober reflection, I don’t think I’m going to quit my day job and become a professional fake smile detector. I all did was take a test where I knew how they wanted you to answer. **continuity eror** , I think you can actually ignore everything in the faces, and I mean everything, except what you’re supposed to look for, then it’s clearer. Further reflection: actual social situations are more complex. Someone giving you a fake smile may be geniunely well-intentioned anyways; and now that the trick is out, liars are training themselves to do “real” smiles. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/12 "2005-04-25T04:33:05Z")
I got 17 of 20. It’s not easy, but like others have said, the key is to look at the eyes. With a genuine smile, the entire face contorts. With a fake smile, you often see only the mouth move. You can, IMHO, see this most clearly on one of the people: The asian girl. She had an extremely obvious fake smile. In the end, however, I only got most of them correct because I was actively looking for signs of fake smiling. In any normal social situation, I’m sure that I would miss all but the most obvious fakes. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/13 "2005-04-25T07:24:52Z")
I did notice the ones they said were genuine were also more emphatically, well, moving their heads -mostly nodding. The fakers - a couple moved their heads but one of them actually shook their head while smiling which kind of contradicted the smile, but most of them had much less movement. I guess I should watch out for that in my colleagues and trust the bobble-head dolls. ---
**Author:** ![ninetypercent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@ninetypercent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ninetypercent)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/14 "2005-04-25T14:45:16Z")
Easy. Not sure why, though. I suppose it has something to do with the rarity of genuine smiles in the real world. how 'bout this… real or computer generated? : [http://www.alias.com/eng/etc/fakeorfoto/quiz.html](http://www.alias.com/eng/etc/fakeorfoto/quiz.html) ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/15 "2005-04-25T15:02:32Z")
I only got 12 out of 20. I guess I’m not very good at reading people. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/16 "2005-04-25T15:30:45Z")
19 out of 20. I took a Social Psychology class where I learned about the difference between forced smiles and genuine smiles. This is a good trait to learn in business, politics, even daily situations. Reading people is very important. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LindyHopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@LindyHopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LindyHopper)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/17 "2005-04-25T19:20:00Z")
I expected to do pretty well, but I didn’t expect to get 19/20. And yeah, I did what **zweisamkeit** did in the spoiler box. Worked pretty well. **Diceman** : Actually, that one person was the one I got wrong. I thought that maybe she was faking, but then I just assumed she was being reserved. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/18 "2005-04-25T20:26:35Z")
15 out of 20 ---
**Author:** ![scott\_evil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@scott\_evil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scott_evil)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/19 "2005-04-25T20:27:33Z")
I got 17 out of 20. What clinches it for me is not just the scrunching up of the eyes but the little blink afterward. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926/20 "2005-04-25T20:27:46Z")
If #5 smiled any longer, I would’ve kicked a field goal at him. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-easy-or-hard/300926.md?page=2)