Gender Differences in the Form and Function of Naturally Occurring Smiles

Abstract

Through their nuanced ability to reinforce, reassure, and judge, smiles accomplish many tasks in daily interactions. Do male- and female-identifying individuals use these smiles equally? Although American women smile more often than men overall, it is possible that gender differences in smile behavior are more nuanced. For instance, since it is more acceptable for men to convey status, men may produce more smiles with features of dominance smiles than women. Conversely, since women are socialized to perform tasks associated with care and nurturance, women may produce more smiles with features of affiliation than men. We filmed same- and different-gender participant pairs interacting while watching humorous videos with content related to reward, affiliation, and dominance. We extracted all visible smiles produced by participants and quantified their physical features using automated face coding software. Female participants smiled more often when watching affiliation videos and less when watching dominance content, compared to male participants. Women also displayed smiles with more affiliation features than men overall. Furthermore, participants’ smiles when discussing dominance content contained more features characteristic of dominance when they were interacting with an opposite-gender (as opposed to same-gender) partner. This study—the first to examine naturally elicited smiles while discussing reward, affiliation, and dominance content—suggests the relationship between gender and smiling norms is nuanced and depends on the smiler’s communicative intent.