Are you joking? The moderating role of smiles in the perception of verbal statements

Abstract

We investigated the effects of smiling on perceptions of positive, neutral and negative verbal statements. Participants viewed computer-generated movies of female characters who made angry, disgusted, happy or neutral statements and then showed either one of two temporal forms of smile (slow vs. fast onset) or a neutral expression. Smiles significantly increased the perceived positivity of the message by making negative statements appear less negative and neutral statements appear more positive. However, these smiles led the character to be seen as less genuine than when she showed a neutral expression. Disgust + smile messages led to higher judged happiness than did anger + smile messages, suggesting that smiles were seen as reflecting humour when combined with disgust statements, but as masking negative affect when combined with anger statements. These findings provide insights into the ways that smiles moderate the impact of verbal statements.