A winning “Smiling”, from the man behind “Swearing as a Response to Pain”

The prize-winning essay about smiling, written by a professor who won an Ig Nobel Prize for his research on swearing and pain , appears in today’s issue of The Guardian. It begins: How we grin to bear it – the science of smiling The winning article of the 2014 Wellcome Trust science-writing prize looks at smile research […]

A reported discovery about smiling women

The expression on a person’s face might sometimes affect other persons’ perceptions of that person. So suggests this study: “Forming Impressions: Effects of Facial Expression and Gender Stereotypes,” Tay Hack, Psychological Reports, vol. 114, no. 2, 2014, pp. 1-15. The author, at Angelo State University, writes: “In conclusion, the present research adds to existing knowledge […]

The sunshine-spreads-a-smile experiment

“[…] the effect of sunshine on one nonverbal expression that facilitates social relationships (namely, smiling) has never been studied.” Until now, that is. A new paper from professor Nicolas Guéguen at the Université de Bretagne-Sud, France describes a ‘Quasi Experiment’. “In a field experiment, men and women walking alone in the street were passed by […]