Different Smiles for Different Occasions: The Influence of Facial Configuration and Gaze Direction on the Perception of Smiles

Abstract Smiles are ubiquitous in everyday life and used in a wide range of contexts with different social demands and affordances. In recent years, these have been linked to morphologically distinct smile configurations that serve different social functions. Further, eye gaze has been proposed to modulate these perceived functions. The present research assessed perceptions of distinct smile-gaze combinations. We observed a clear functional differentiation between different smile configurations (i.e., positive-intense, friendly, dominant, and miserable smiles) in terms of emotion attributions, perceived smile authenticity, and social meaning. Gaze direction effects were overall more subtle. Overall, downward moving gaze was most consistently associated with self-directed social emotions and reduced dominance perceptions for all smiles except miserable smiles as well as perceived affiliation for all smiles. Upward moving gaze was associated with positive emotions, whereas straight gaze enhanced the perceived authenticity of positive-intense smiles. In sum, smiles are not monolithic signals of happiness but rather a complex set of facial configurations that communicate distinct emotional and social intents.