The Surprised Faces The Youngest and Smiling Faces The Oldest: Study Reveals
As shocking as it may sound but a new study reveals smiling can make you appear to be two years older than if you wear a poker face. The study has been published in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
“We associate smiling with positive values and youth, even all the skin-care and toothpaste companies that sell the same idea every day,” said the study co-author Melvyn Goodale, director of the Brain and Mind institute at Western University.
In this study researchers flashed images of people with smiling, neutral and surprised expressions- showed just beyond the expectation: participants perceived the surprised faces as the youngest and smiling faces the oldest.
The interesting thing was that when we asked participants subsequently about their perceptions, they meaninglessly recalled that they had identified perceived the surprised faces as the youngest ones,” Goodale said.
Goodale said the aging effect of a smile stems from people’s inability to ignore the wrinkles that from around the eyes during smiling. A look of surprise, on the other hand smoothes any wrinkles.
“It may seem intuition, but the study shows that people can sincerely believe one thing and then behave in a completely different way,” he said.
“Participants were completely bind to the fact they had ‘aged’ the happy- looking faces. Their perceptions and their beliefs were polar opposites.”
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