Proximity Begins with a Smile, But Which One? Associating Non-duchenne Smiles with Higher Psychological Distance

Abstract

This study reveals that Duchenne (genuine) and non-Duchenne (non-genuine, polite) smiles are implicitly associated with psychological proximity and distance, respectively. These findings link two extensive research streams from human communication and psychology. Interestingly, extant construal-level theory research suggests the link may work as smiles signaling either a benign situation or politeness, resulting in conflicting predictions for the association between smile type and psychological distance. The current study uses implicit association tests to reveal theoretically and empirically consistent non-Duchenne-smile-distance and Duchenne-smile-proximity associations for all four types of psychological distance: temporal, spatial, social, and hypothetical. Practically, the results suggest several useful applications of non-Duchenne smiles in human communication contexts.

Keywords: Duchenne smile; construal level theory; implicit association test; politeness; stereotype activation.

FIGURE 1

Duchenne smiles and non-Duchenne smiles. Although all smiles show AU 12 and AU 25, only Duchenne smiles show the Duchenne marker AU 6. Woman photographs by Adam Hendershott, who kindly approved publication of the images in this study. Man photographs by Manera et al. (2011).

FIGURE 2

Implicit association test task design. Two screenshots from the first data collection (Block 3, spatial distance). Both show congruent sorting conditions.

FIGURE 3

Mean response times by congruent or incongruent condition for four types of psychological distance.