# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![HardlySanguine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HardlySanguine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HardlySanguine)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/101 "2010-11-12T07:14:06Z")
M 14/20 I figured everyone knew about the eyes thing so I wasn’t really even paying attention to that. I know I crinkle my eyes when I fake smile. In any case, for me, there was only one smile in the bunch that looked actually genuine (15). ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/102 "2010-11-12T21:30:16Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > my husband and my mother both have a distinctive nervous habit of grimacing in a fake-smily way when they are reacting to to unpleasant news, so I looked for that. Obviously a poor strategy. Ha. The guy who did the study, in his seminal (I suppose) paper that I cited, referred actually to **three** kinds of smiles – false, felt, and miserable. The “miserable” smile looks different from the other two and is meant to convey dissatisfaction-and-unhappiness-that-won’t-rise-to-the-level-of-anger-or-tears. Apparently a useful social signal in its own right. ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/103 "2010-11-12T21:40:36Z")
15/20, male. Not bad for me since I have developed a belief that I can’t read people. Maybe I’m getting better at it. ---
**Author:** ![smaje1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@smaje1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smaje1)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/104 "2010-11-12T22:11:27Z")
Oooh, I think I did the worst. 10/20 - Female. I also suck at determing when people are telling the truth and when they’re lying. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/105 "2010-11-12T23:22:38Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > Ha. The guy who did the study, in his seminal (I suppose) paper that I cited, referred actually to **three** kinds of smiles – false, felt, and miserable. I think there’s at least one more category - unconscious smiles not associated with happiness / positive emotion. There are situations where I find myself smiling politely, even though I never had any conscious intent to smile, and during which I’m not particularly happy. It’s like a social reflex. For example, someone tells a joke, and people chuckle and grin even though they may not find it funny at all. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/106 "2010-11-12T23:37:13Z")
Male, 17/20. All three that I missed were males–one fake that I thought was genuine and two genuine that I thought were fake. I knew to watch the eyes. I think the fake that got me has eyes that sort of default to the crinkly-smily position, and it threw me. I’m not sure why I misjudged the two genuine ones–habitual suspicion, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/107 "2010-11-12T23:47:08Z")
Results You got 15 out of 20 correct Male here and also I got all the woman correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/108 "2010-11-13T00:56:28Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > I think there’s at least one more category - unconscious smiles not associated with happiness / positive emotion. There are situations where I find myself smiling politely, even though I never had any conscious intent to smile, and during which I’m not particularly happy. It’s like a social reflex. > > For example, someone tells a joke, and people chuckle and grin even though they may not find it funny at all. I think that’s a false smile. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/109 "2010-11-13T01:47:32Z")
Male, 16/20 I tried to see how quickly the face relaxed. My four misses were one fake and three genuine, incorrectly guessed as genuine and fake, respectively. ---
**Author:** ![Zago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecccb3/32.png) [@Zago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zago)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/110 "2010-11-13T02:34:10Z")
19 of 20 correct. I’m female - I watch the eyes. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/111 "2010-11-13T11:45:57Z")
16/20. I got every 5th smile wrong. ---
**Author:** ![George\_Kaplin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@George\_Kaplin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/George_Kaplin)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/112 "2010-11-13T14:27:45Z")
Male 17/20. Lotta ugly people in my country. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/113 "2010-11-13T15:02:07Z")
16/20. I judged by how quickly the smile disappeared from their face. I real smile lingers. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/114 "2010-11-13T15:32:30Z")
> [@hdc\_bst](#): > > The test is based on Paul Ekman’s work. I couldn’t find the relevant publications on his site, but in similar efforts genuine smiles have been elicited by watching humorous video clips, or asking the subject to visualize a happy occasion. A ‘fake’ smile is elicited by telling the subject to smile. Yeah, but what if someone telling you to smile strikes you as funny? Male, 10/20. Perfectly random. And I even know about looking at eyes. I fail at being human. ---
**Author:** ![Polerius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@Polerius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polerius)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/115 "2010-11-13T21:13:01Z")
Based on the responses, I wanted to see how men did versus the women, since there is this stereotype that women are better at reading emotions than men are. ```auto men women median score : 15 16 mean score : 15 16 men women How many got 10 right: 1 0 How many got 11 right: 0 2 How many got 12 right: 3 0 How many got 13 right: 4 1 How many got 14 right: 0 2 How many got 15 right: 6 2 How many got 16 right: 4 2 How many got 17 right: 6 2 How many got 18 right: 0 3 How many got 19 right: 1 2 How many got 20 right: 0 1 ``` With the caveat that this is a small sample size, it looks like the stereotype holds, to a degree. On average, men got 15 right and women got 16 right. What’s interesting is that, if you look at the distribution of the scores, most men’s scores were bunched around 15-17, whereas women’s scores were more evenly spread out across the entire range. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/116 "2010-11-13T21:24:43Z")
Female, 17 out of 20. I was looking at the eyes, but not quite closely enough. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/117 "2010-11-13T21:37:32Z")
> [@KinkiNipponTourist](#): > > Jeezus! What’s with the meth users in thar? I found myself worried that some of those folk needed a good rehab program more than they needed to be taking part in a fake smile test. > > 15/20, female. Hah! Beat me to it. Wondered where they got their sample. The two things I watch for are the eyes and how rapidly, and in what manner, the smile fades. In reading the summary I thought it mentioned that the eye-crinkles can be faked, though. I got fifteen out of twenty which was a better than I expected. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/118 "2010-11-15T15:40:39Z")
Female, and I surprised myself by getting 16 out of 20 correct. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/119 "2010-11-15T16:36:53Z")
Male, 15/20. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201/120 "2010-11-15T16:48:41Z")
Male 14/20. missed three each of the fake/genuine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spot-the-fake-smile-quiz/560201.md?page=7)