Understanding how smiling influences relationship building during real-life conversations
Researchers measured the intensity and frequency of smiling in face-to-face conversations and how it influences mutual response
Fujita Health University
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Researchers found that smiling during face-to-face conversations creates a reciprocal response, with speakers smiling more when listeners smile, especially among paired individuals of the same biological sex. These findings suggest that facial expressions could shape how people interact and connect during conversations.
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Smiling during conversations creates warmth, making people feel more comfortable and connected. For example, a friendly smile when meeting someone new can ease nervousness. A smile can soften tension in a debate, showing respect among the participants despite disagreement. In fact, extensive studies have been conducted in the past in an attempt to understand smiling interactions in a natural conversation. Despite these studies, however, little is known about the extent to which one’s smile influences or gets affected by the other person’s smile during a conversation.
A new study sought to investigate this by quantifying the influence of smiling in face-to-face conversations. The study, led by Professor Yohei Otaka from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Japan, found that the amount of smiling by the speaker increased as the listener's smile intensity increased, particularly in same-sex pairs. The study also involved lead researchers Dr. Yota Obayashi, Dr. Shintaro Uehara, and Dr. Akiko Yuasa from the same university. Their findings were published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience on 09 August 2024.
When asked about the motivation behind pursuing this study, Prof. Otaka exclaims, “The main purpose of this study was to develop a methodology for assessing dementia symptoms, given the affected individuals tend to lose their facial expressions. We also intend to evaluate the rehabilitation treatment efficacy in these individuals.” Adding further, he says, “This study is, in fact, the first step towards the larger, above-mentioned goal by evaluating the reaction of people to the smile of others in young healthy participants.”
The study involved 40 participants (20 men and 20 women) in three-minute, face-to-face conversations. During these interactions, listeners were asked to smile at different levels—lesser, moderate, and greater—and the speakers’ smiles were observed in response. A specialized software was used to measure the intensity and frequency of the smiles during the conversations.
Results revealed that speakers smiled more when listeners smiled more, especially in conversations between two individuals of the same-sex—men smiled more when talking to other men who smiled, and women smiled more when talking to other women who smiled. Interestingly, this effect was less pronounced in mixed-sex conversations, suggesting that individuals did not show the same level of mutual smiling as they did when conversing with same-sex partners. However, the researchers speculate that in mixed-sex pairs, the speakers smiled more often than the listeners in order to build interpersonal relationship.
Another key finding was that the more the listener smiled, the more positive the speaker felt about the interaction. Speakers reported feeling friendlier and enjoying the conversation more when their partner smiled frequently. This finding highlights the emotional importance of smiling in conversations, as it enhances feelings of connection and rapport between individuals. Explaining these findings further, Prof. Otaka says, “If one smiles more during a conversation, the other person will also smile more, which can lead to a better interpersonal relationship with each other.”
Additionally, the study found that smile synchronization occurred consistently across all types of pairs—both same-sex and mixed-sex. This implies that, regardless of who was talking to whom, people smiled simultaneously, reinforcing that smiling is a reciprocal behavior.
In summary, the study reveals that smiling is a powerful, dynamic part of face-to-face conversations. Speakers’ smiles are influenced by how much and how intensely the listener smiles, particularly in conversations between individuals of the same-sex. Also, smile synchronization is essential in creating social bonds and fostering positive feelings during interactions.
These findings emphasize the importance of nonverbal communication, especially facial expressions, in everyday conversations. Furthermore, this study suggests that the interaction between two individuals can be helpful in assessing dementia and psychological dysfunctions.
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Reference
Title of original paper: The other person’s smiling amount affects one’s smiling response during face-to-face conversations
Journal: Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2024.1420361
About Fujita Health University
Fujita Health University is a private university situated in Toyoake, Aichi, Japan. It was founded in 1964 and houses one of the largest teaching university hospitals in Japan in terms of the number of beds. With over 900 faculty members, the university is committed to providing various academic opportunities to students internationally. Fujita Health University has been ranked eighth among all universities and second among all private universities in Japan in the 2020 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. THE University Impact Rankings 2019 visualized university initiatives for sustainable development goals (SDGs). For the “good health and well-being” SDG, Fujita Health University was ranked second among all universities and number one among private universities in Japan. The university became the first Japanese university to host the "THE Asia Universities Summit" in June 2021. The university’s founding philosophy is “Our creativity for the people (DOKUSOU-ICHIRI),” which reflects the belief that, as with the university’s alumni and alumnae, current students also unlock their future by leveraging their creativity.
Website: https://www.fujita-hu.ac.jp/en/index.html
About Professor Yohei Otaka from Fujita Health University
Yohei Otaka is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Fujita Health University, Japan. Prof. Otaka is also the Director of Fujita Health University Nanakuri Memorial Hospital, and Vice President of the Japanese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine. With 252 publications and 2,374 citations to his credit, his research has significantly contributed to rehabilitation medicine, including research disciplines, such as stroke, fall prevention, and robotics. His work spans clinical and academic domains, reflecting his commitment to advancing medical knowledge and technology.
Funding information
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, KAKENHI (https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-grantsinaid/) Grant Number JP20K23145 and JP22K17598. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Journal
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
The other person’s smiling amount affects one’s smiling response during face-to-face conversations
How do we recognize other people’s emotions?
Ruhr-University Bochum
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The research team from Bochum: Albert Newen and Leda Berio
view moreCredit: RUB, Kramer
A person’s facial expression provides crucial information for us to recognize their emotions. But there’s much more to this process than that. This is according to the research conducted by Dr. Leda Berio and Professor Albert Newen from the Institute of Philosophy II at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. The team describes emotion recognition not as a separate module, but as part of a comprehensive process that helps us form a general impression of another person. This process of person impression formation also includes physical and cultural characteristics as well as background information. The paper was published on September 24, 2024 in the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
Understanding the situation affects how we recognize emotions
In the 1970s, the theory was put forward that the face is the window to our emotions. Researcher Paul Ekman described basic emotions such as fear, anger, disgust, joy and sadness using typical facial expressions, which were found to be similar across all cultures. “However, in recent years it’s become increasingly obvious that there are many situations in life where a typical facial expression is not necessarily the key piece of information that guides our assessment of other people’s feelings,” points out Newen and cites the following example: “People almost universally rate a typical facial expression of fear as anger when they have the background knowledge that the assessed person’s been turned away by a waiter even though they’d demonstrably reserved a table.” In such a situation, people expect the person to be angry, and this expectation determines the perception of their emotion, even if their facial expression would typically be attributed to a different emotion.
“In addition, we can sometimes recognize emotions even without seeing the face; for example, the fear experienced by a person who’s being attacked by a snarling dog, even though we only see them from behind in a stance of freeze or fright,” illustrates Berio.
Recognizing an emotion is part of our overall impression of a person
Berio and Newen propose that recognizing emotions is a sub-process of our ability to form an overall impression of a person. In doing so, people are guided by certain characteristics of the other person, for example physical appearance characteristics such as skin color, age and gender, cultural characteristics such as clothing and attractiveness as well as situational characteristics such as facial expression, gestures and posture.
Based on such characteristics, people tend to quickly assess others and immediately associate social status and even certain personality traits with them. These associations dictate how we perceive other people’s emotions. “If we perceive a person as a woman and they show a negative emotion, we’re more likely to attribute the emotion to fear, whereas with a man it’s more likely to be read as anger,” as Berio points out.
Background information is included in the assessment
In addition to the perception of characteristics and initial associations, we also hold detailed person images that we use as background information for individuals in our social circle – family members, friends and colleagues. “If a family member suffers from Parkinson’s, we learn to assess the typical facial expression of this person, which seems to indicate anger, as neutral, because we are aware that a rigid facial expression is part of the disease,” says Berio.
The background information also includes person models of typical occupational groups. “We hold stereotypical assumptions about the social roles and responsibilities of for example doctors, students and workmen,” says Newen. “We generally perceive doctors as less emotional, for example, which changes the way we assess their emotions.”
In other words, people make use of the wealth of characteristics and background knowledge to assess the emotion of another person. Only in rare cases do they read the emotion from a person’s facial expression alone. “All this has implications for emotion recognition using artificial intelligence (AI): It will only be a reliable option when AI doesn’t rely solely on facial expressions, which is what most systems currently do,” says Newen.
Journal
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research
Article Title
I Expect You to Be Happy, So I See You Smile: A Multidimensional Account of Emotion Attribution
Different types of teenage friendships critical to wellbeing as we age, scientists find
Scientists find that peer acceptance in young teenagers, and close friendships in older teenagers, predict low social anxiety and high life satisfaction in young adults
Frontiers
Being a teenager is hard, confusing — and crucially important. Scientists studying teenage socializing have found that teenaged friendships could lay essential foundations for wellbeing in later life, and that not just the kinds of friendships teenagers experience but the timing of those friendships is critical.
“A teen’s perception of how broadly socially accepted they are by their peers in early adolescence is particularly influential in predicting adult wellbeing,” said Emily Shah of the University of Arkansas, first author of the article in Frontiers in Developmental Psychology. “Conversely, in late adolescence, the quality of their more intimate close friendships is more influential for predicting adult wellbeing.”
Coming of age
Our relationships with other people affect how we feel about ourselves, how we function in society, and our psychological wellbeing; that in turn affects our physical wellbeing. This is especially true in our teenage years, when we start to rely on our peers’ support, and when puberty puts our bodies under strain. Relationships can also help manage the stressful transitions teenagers deal with, from exams to new jobs to leaving home.
“Friendships during the teenage years provide youth with one of their first forays into intimate consensual relationships,” said Dr David Szwedo of James Madison University, corresponding author. “Because friends may come and go, friendships are a context in which teens must develop skills to maintain and grow the friendship or risk its loss. These skills are likely to be subsequently helpful for forming future friendships and longer-term romantic relationships.”
The researchers recruited 184 participants attending an American middle school. They surveyed these students at ages 13-14, then again at ages 17-18, measuring the quality of their close friendships, their perceived social acceptance, and their likability as reported by their peers. Finally, the researchers caught up with these teenagers as adults aged 28-30 to ask them about their physical and mental health, job satisfaction, romantic insecurity, and experience of aggression.
Friendships are teenagers’ foundations
Overall, the researchers found that perceived social acceptance was the best predictor of adult wellbeing. When contacted as adults, teenagers who thought their peers liked them reported lower levels of social anxiety and aggression, better physical health, professional and romantic satisfaction, and feeling more socially connected. However, likability as reported by teenagers’ peers did not predict any facet of adult wellbeing well — possibly suggesting that a teenager’s own perception of their social success is particularly important.
However, when the authors examined the two stages of adolescence separately, adult wellbeing was best predicted by social acceptance for young teenagers and close friendships for older teenagers. Close friendships predicted lower social anxiety and romantic insecurity and higher job satisfaction.
The difference between the two stages of adolescence also suggests that timing is critical. While self-perception of success could stop younger teenagers developing social anxiety, and contribute to preventing stress-linked poorer health, lower levels of social acceptance in later teenage years didn’t predict health outcomes.
You aren’t alone
The authors cautioned that, although the longitudinal design allowed them to track how wellbeing changed over time, it meant that the participants weren’t in school during the Covid-19 pandemic, which could significantly impact teenagers’ social experiences and their future wellbeing. Additionally, the study was largely based on self-reported measures; future research might complement these with observational measures.
“I want teens to know that they aren’t alone,” said Shah. “It’s not easy being a teenager in this world, and I choose to believe that teens are doing the best that they can with the skills that they have. I hope that adults who interact with teenagers consider sharing that perspective, to hold space for empathy and compassion.”
“It’s always helpful to keep in mind that studies such as this point to things that happen on average, and that things could be different for any individual child or teenager,” observed Szwedo. “This study reinforces the importance of caregivers being aware of their children’s social lives by talking to their kids, talking to their teachers, and knowing who they are talking to online. It’s helpful for parents to not only ask about who their teens’ friends are, but also how socially accepted they feel.”
Journal
Frontiers in Developmental Psychology
Method of Research
Survey
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Adolescent Close Friendships, Self-Perceived Social Acceptance, and Peer-Rated Likeability as Predictors of Well-Being in Young Adulthood
Article Publication Date
11-Oct-2024
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