The Five Types of Smiles That People Usually Use and What They Really Mean

There are many people who know how to use this gesture to take full advantage of the circumstances without the rest of the mortals realizing that they do not really smile.

The smile, or action and effect of smiling, is nothing other than being favorable or flattering to someone. Thus, and although socially related to a gesture of joy and well-being, smiles can have an emotional charge that goes much further. There are many people who know how to use the art of a beautiful smile to get the most out of it without the rest of the mortals even being aware. Would you know if that gesture that you consider a flirtation is actually a grimace of repulsion?

As the experts in non-verbal language point out, our facial muscles have evolved to become a communication channel of the most important. We use our faces to convey a wide range of emotions and attitudes. In a daily social interaction, we smile dozens, maybe even hundreds of times a day. We all assume that all of them convey happiness and positive affection, but the smiles are complex and can show contradictory messages. Here are the five existing types of smile you should learn to detect and what is hidden behind each of them. Because no, not everything is happiness.

1.) Duchenne's smile:
This is a project carried out by Anna Munster and Michele Barker and published by the National Experimental Institute of the Arts makes a deep analysis on how to differentiate if this kind of smile is authentic or just an artistic pose. This smile receives its name from the French doctor Guillaume Duchenne, who detected this lip grin while investigating the physiology of facial expressions in the nineteenth century. It is a gesture known to all that involves the contraction of the major and minor zygomatic muscles near the mouth, which elevate the corners of the lips, and the orbicular muscle near the eyes, whose contraction raises the cheeks and produces wrinkles around the eyes. This is usually thought of as a genuine smile.

2.) Fake smile:
This article talks about how pretending a smile can be totally beneficial for the health. Besides that, it can bring positive thoughts, turning it into a true smile. This smile lacks the participation of the eyes that was present in Duchenne's smile and suggests that the person is faking true happiness. You know it when someone is going to take a picture of you and they ask you to smile on command, or the smile you have been given more than once when you made a joke out of place, with zero grace.

3) Uncomfortable smile:
This article talks about why we laugh in uncomfortable situations and analyzes our body in a psychological way, by the way we handle our emotions. The same ones who smiled at you falsely without you doing them any grace, can feel uncomfortable if your unfortunate comments do not stop. But you can discover if those around you feel really uncomfortable and laugh out of compromise.

4.) Seductive smile:
This research article analyzes the smile of people through the voice. Only by the voice was it possible to differentiate what kind of smile the person did. All these advances are made with the intention of making technological advances in the recognition of the voice. Before launching yourself into the pool in a 'flirting moment', it is important that you know how to identify if someone smiles at you by commitment, by way of greeting, if something you have done was funny, or because now, you are sexually attracted. Make 'eyes' is an art that not everyone dominates at, but what our mouth does visually while we flirt with someone, does not give us away.

5.) Sarcastic smile:
The article published by the University of Pennsylvania talks about sarcasm and how it affects those who use it in daily life. It is a mechanism that is used in various ways depending on the individual It can be used in an uncomfortable, nervous or annoying situation. Although at first sight, it can resemble a smile derived from a positive emotion, because of the corners of the mouth rise upwards, once again it is the eyes that help us to know if those lips tell the truth or not.

Here you can read about all types of smiles and what do you really feel when you make them:

• All Smiles are Not Created Equal: Morphology and Timing of Smiles Perceived as Amused, Polite and Embarrassed/Nervous: In this article, an investigation was made of the different types of smile. A detailed study of the shape and the asymmetry of smiling was made, also the interpretation and morphology of the smile were analyzed.
• There are 3 types of smile – reward, affiliation and dominance: The article published by the Association for Psychological Science reveals a specific study on three types of smile and how our body changes once we make them.
• Researchers crack the smile, describing 3 types by muscle movement: This research article from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reveals how to differentiate one smile from another in order to discover the true feelings of people and what they really mean by their smile.