Evaluating Evidence on the Duchenne smile and Felt Positive Emotion

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Wanheng Li

Abstract or Description

The Duchenne smile is characterized by a combination of the zygomatic major muscles, which pull up the lip corners, and the orbicularis oculi muscles, which constrict the eyes. The Duchenne smile is hypothesized to signal genuine happiness, while the non-Duchenne smile, which is without eye constriction/the Duchenne marker, is thought to be polite or fake. While lots of perception studies on the Duchenne smile have found Duchenne smiles are perceived to be more positive than non-Duchenne smiles, evidence on if the production of the Duchenne smile reflects genuinely experienced positive feelings is lacking. This study estimated the proportion of Duchenne production studies in the literature and reviewed their findings, especially evidence on the claim that Duchenne smiles signal genuine positive emotion.

Mentor

Jeffery Girard