Deconstructing American smile

Abstract

In this paper, the cultural aspects of smiling have been discussed. The smile has been defined as an important social signal, which often has a different meaning in various cultural settings. The author focuses on the mainstream US culture and analyzes the cultural scripts that are crucial in understanding the functions and meanings of smiling in the American context. The most important of these cultural values is friendliness. Friendliness has its roots in American egalitarianism. Following their egalitarian beliefs, most Americans are friendly and outgoing. They feel that everyone should be treated the same way and are pretty indiscriminate with their friendliness and smiles. Another important factor in understanding the American way of smiling is cheerfulness: the central importance of optimism and emphasis on positive feelings. The ethic of cheerfulness is strongly connected to the cultural preoccupation with happiness, so deep that it has been reflected in the American constitution. In the final paragraph, the possible negative impact of the growing heterogeneity of American society on smiling etiquette has been discussed. The author concludes that friendliness is probably the best social glue that keeps people from very different cultural backgrounds together.