Smiling and relative status in news photographs

Forming impressions: effects of facial expression and gender stereotypes

The present study of 138 participants explored how facial expressions and gender stereotypes influence impressions. It was predicted that images of smiling women would be evaluated more favorably on traits reflecting warmth, and that images of non-smiling men would be evaluated more favorably on traits reflecting competence. As predicted, smiling female faces were rated as more warm; however, contrary to prediction, perceived competence of male faces was not affected by facial expression. Participants' female stereotype endorsement was a significant predictor for evaluations of female faces; those who ascribed more strongly to traditional female stereotypes reported the most positive impressions of female faces displaying a smiling expression. However, a similar effect was not found for images of men; endorsement of traditional male stereotypes did not predict participants' impressions of male faces.

SEX DIFFERENCES IN SMILING AND OTHER PHOTOGRAPHED TRAITS: A THEORETICAL ASSESSMENT

Many studies have shown that females smile more than males do in social situations. The present study extends this research by examining a large sample of high school yearbook photographs. In addition to assessing the degree of smiling, ratings were obtained of the following traits for each photograph: hair length, hair colour, masculine–feminine appearance and physical attractiveness. Results reconfirmed earlier research showing that females smile more than males do while they are being photographed. Other findings were that smiling was positively correlated with hair length, femininity and physical attractiveness for females but not for males. When a multivariate analysis was performed, none of these traits predicted smiling in males, and only femininity was significant in predicting smiling in females. Although social learning theories of smiling can account for some of these findings, a recently proposed neurohormonal theory seems to best explain why femininity is related to smiling in females but not in males.

Nonverbal Behavior and the Vertical Dimension of Social Relations: A Meta-Analysis

The vertical dimension of interpersonal relations (relating to dominance, power, and status) was examined in association with nonverbal behaviors that included facial behavior, gaze, interpersonal distance, body movement, touch, vocal behaviors, posed encoding skill, and others. Results were separately summarized for people's beliefs (perceptions) about the relation of verticality to nonverbal behavior and for actual relations between verticality and nonverbal behavior. Beliefs/perceptions were stronger and much more prevalent than were actual verticality effects. Perceived and actual relations were positively correlated across behaviors. Heterogeneity was great, suggesting that verticality is not a psychologically uniform construct in regard to nonverbal behavior. Finally, comparison of the verticality effects to those that have been documented for gender in relation to nonverbal behavior revealed only a limited degree of parallelism.

The contingent smile: a meta-analysis of sex differences in smiling

The authors present a meta-analysis of sex differences in smiling based on 448 effect sizes derivedfrom 162 research reports. There was a statistically significant tendency for women and adolescent girls to smile more than men and adolescent boys (d = 0.41). The authors hypothesized that sex differences in smiling would be larger when concerns about gender-appropriate behavior were made more conspicuous, situational constraints were absent or ambiguous, or emotion (especially negative) was salient. It was also predicted that the size of the sex difference in smiling would vary by culture and age. Moderator analysis supported these predictions. Although men tend to smile less than women, the degree to which this is so is contingent on rules and roles.

Happy affect and smiling: Is their relation moderated by interpersonal power?

Three studies examined the hypothesis that the relation between self-rated happy affect and overall smiling during dyadic interactions is moderated by one's relative power. In all 3 studies, interpersonal power was experimentally manipulated, and smiling and self-reported happy affect were measured during and after the interaction, respectively. Happy affect was positively correlated with overall smiling for both low-power and high-power participants. Moreover, the correlations for both low- and high-power participants were comparable to those found when power roles were not unequal or made salient, based on analysis of the present studies as well as comparison with the previously published literature. Happy affect and overall smiling had a positive relation that was not moderated by interpersonal power.