# Spot The Fake Smile -- Quiz **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 10, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201 "2010-11-10T18:58:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![QuercusMax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/8baadc/32.png) [@QuercusMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuercusMax)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/61 "2010-11-11T02:45:09Z")
16/20, male. Definitely the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/62 "2010-11-11T02:51:23Z")
Male, 15/20. Damn, that woman in #13 looks like she would scare Charles Manson! ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/63 "2010-11-11T04:18:48Z")
F 16/20 the four I missed were genuine and I thought they were fake. ---
**Author:** ![nikonikosuru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f8ce5/32.png) [@nikonikosuru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikonikosuru)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/64 "2010-11-11T04:53:58Z")
Female, 19/20. I looked for the eyes and the way the people moved as they smiled. Real smiles tend to have eyes that look around, not just straight ahead, and the people move their bodies a bit. ---
**Author:** ![statsman1982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/65 "2010-11-11T05:35:08Z")
> [@Mtgman](#): > > I nailed all the women though. > > Enjoy, > Steven No wonder they’re smiling. As for me, Male; 17/20 ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Why](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/96bed5/32.png) [@Doctor\_Why](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Why)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/66 "2010-11-11T05:48:08Z")
Male. 18/20. I thought a couple of genuine smiles were fake. Judged almost entirely by eye crinkles. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/67 "2010-11-11T06:38:03Z")
Male, 17/20. I was surprised that I did so well, but as others said, it was in the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/68 "2010-11-11T09:10:47Z")
13/20. Male. Usually I do a lot better on these, but I didn’t do much better than chance. I am severely out of practice, I guess. I also need to trust my instincts more. ---
**Author:** ![ramel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ramel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramel)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/69 "2010-11-11T09:52:05Z")
15/20 male. I was looking at the eyes too, yet seemed to have got a lot poorer results than most other people that were looking at the eyes =\ ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/70 "2010-11-11T10:03:05Z")
Male, 19/20 … I missed the reserved one as well (Blondie ?). But like others I’d read about the relevant research and was mostly just watching the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/71 "2010-11-11T13:44:25Z")
> [@](#): > > I nailed all the women though. Did they all smile afterward? Was it fake or genuine? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/72 "2010-11-11T13:53:17Z")
It’s kind of a shitty exercise though, isn’t it? What were the subjects told to do? “OK, give me a genuine smile. Next.” “OK, give me a fake smile. Next.” A bunch of “fake” smiles to me seemed friendly and honest enough. I put myself in the position of being introduced to these people and no alarm bells were going off with me thinking “Christ, this guy’s a sociopath and is going to knife me!” Of course I might feel differently if I scored higher than 12! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/73 "2010-11-11T14:06:41Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > It’s kind of a shitty exercise though, isn’t it? > > What were the subjects told to do? “OK, give me a genuine smile. Next.” “OK, give me a fake smile. Next.” Yeah, I wondered the same thing. Seems the easiest thing to do would be to videotape people watching a humorous video or something, but the end of each smile seems to be at cue, as if someone was standing just off camera saying, “OK, got it. Stop smiling now, please,” which would totally inhibit my real smiles and get you a lot of self-conscious smiles, not truly genuine ones. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/74 "2010-11-11T14:49:12Z")
20/20, M. Pretty easy, on only a couple was I less than positive, and on those just going with my first instinct apparently worked. I had heard before that the key was in the eyes, however. > [@WhyNot](#): > > Seems the easiest thing to do would be to videotape people watching a humorous video or something, but the end of each smile seems to be at cue, as if someone was standing just off camera saying, “OK, got it. Stop smiling now, please,” which would totally inhibit my real smiles and get you a lot of self-conscious smiles, not truly genuine ones. What it almost seemed like they did for some – and what they absolutely should have done for all – was to run the video in reverse when they wanted to bring the face back to baseline. A lot of the fake smiles were clearly “on, now off” types, which would be a dead giveaway – genuine smiles tend to linger. Or, they could have simply stopped the vids before each smile was wiped. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/75 "2010-11-11T15:36:43Z")
15/20 Male ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/76 "2010-11-11T16:19:16Z")
Male 3/20 correct. I’m not certain if something went wrong though, half the results were broken. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/77 "2010-11-11T16:32:23Z")
Female, 19/20. Missed #3. I already knew the trick about the eyes, though. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/78 "2010-11-11T18:06:23Z")
14/20, female (wrong answers evenly split between real and fake) ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/79 "2010-11-11T18:26:20Z")
17/20, male. ---
**Author:** ![fjs1fs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9e8a1a/32.png) [@fjs1fs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fjs1fs)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/80 "2010-11-11T20:25:17Z")
11 of 20, Male. I was totally guessing on every one. How does the “administrator” of the test even know which ones are real? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201.md?page=5)