Mouth and Smiles

Dear participants, welcome to week 3, module 1, in our course. In this module, we wouldlook at the expressions which are communicated during our interactions with the help of ourMouth as well as with the Smiles. We would check how different type of emotions are communicatedwith the help of our mouth, different shapes of it, as well as smiles. From happiness tosorrow, from fear to disgust, different type of emotions are communicated with the shapesof mouth and our smiles. It seems that we are never given any formaltraining in our interpretation of facial expressions. However, whether it is owing to our culturaland social conditioning or it is because of our indeed evolutionary processes. Most ofthe times we are able to communicate with help of our face in any face to face situation.Our face is one of the most powerful communication tools and particularly in the situations wherewe have to talk a lot during our business of years, during our professional commitments,we find that often we try to interpret the facial expressions of other people.At the same time another aspect of our social interaction is the fact that most people believethe facial expression more than the content which has been communicated with the helpof words. Our face has eyes and mouth, which are the most communicative organs in our humanbody. We have looked at communication through eyes, the way our eyes communicate differentlevels of feelings and emotions, and how the cultural variations in their interpretationexist.Today, we shall look at the positioning of the mouth and a smiles. Mouth plays a majorrole in communication of our emotions. The shapes which our mouth takes are also supportedby our teeth and our tongue. You would find that it is interesting to note that even theroutine activities which are conducted with the help of our mouth, for example, is speakingto others the very fact of a speech, at other same time talking even eating communicatea lot about the personality, the background, etcetera and our like clues to understandingthe personality of other people. At the same time, we interpret the smiles, and at thesame time we also become conscious if the smiles are absent.So, our smiles as well as laughter the presence and absence of these also matter in orderto communicate our emotions and personality types. The shape of the mouth normally communicatesevaluation gestures. Later on, when we would look at the finger movements as well as handgestures, we would look at how hands and fingers and their placing on different parts of ourface modify the originally communicated meaning. However, we would find that even without handsand fingers our mouth communicates certain ideas.The shapes our mouth takes are important markers during any dialogue, whether it is offlineor it is online. In our face to face communication we make out the meanings on the basis of differentclues. Before the decision is made and it is formalized and verbalized our understandingof expressions which have been communicated with the help of mouth shapes.Give us a window of time during which we can negotiate and since the other person has notexactly said that there is still some space to persuade others. The first expression whichis often communicated with the help of our lips is that of Pursed Lips.It is an evaluative gesture, often it shows disagreement or an anger which is being suppressed.Even if it is not an anger, you would find that some type of disapproval is normallycommunicated. Sometimes, particularly in consonance with other gestures of hand and fingers, italso communicates indecision withholding of information away of hedging words, so thatyou do not commit yourself suddenly. So, you would find that pursed lips communicatea feeling which is definitely not an open one. Pouting of mouth shows displeasure. Oftenyou would find that when a young child feels insulted or feels isolated or is not ableto get what she had desired, then often the pout is visible. Even in adults you wouldfind that doubts about self-image, as well as a flirtation is indicated with the helpof this pout. Different cultures associated in differentdegrees as far as our understanding of gender behaviour is concerned. In many cultures,we would find that pouting behaviour is considered to be appropriate for young girls and in appropriatefor young boys.Puckered lips and pout, particularly when the top lip has protruding over the bottomlip, then even though we are not biting it then it indicates a feeling of guilt whetheran individual has been caught or not during the action. On the other hand, if the bottomlip has protruded over the top lip it indicates a feeling of uncertainty or ambivalence thatone is unwilling to express with the help of words.If the bottom lip has jotting out in a pout it indicates a petulance which is often consideredto be immature. So, puckered lips and pout often communicate feelings of uncertaintyas well as an indirect admission or at least consciousness of one’s guilt.Flattened lips, which are also known as lip press and as this photograph very clearlyindicates suggests a repressed desire to speak which is very obviously, understood. Flattenedlips or lip press occur when there is an excessive almost force full closing of the lips. So,whereas, this particular shape of the mouth indicates that a person does not want to aspeak something which is going on in his or her mind, then it also simultaneously communicatesa fear of disapproval, distress or frustration. The person is afraid that if she and sub sayingthat she may have to face repercussions of it or at the same time the person is feelingso distressed that she does not have words to vocalise this feeling. Often, we find thatthis feeling of disapproval and distress is directed towards oneself rather towards theother person during the dialogue. This particular position of mouth also tells us a lot aboutthe psychological turbulence which goes on inside a person during our conversations.Biting lips or chewing on the lips, also indicates fear, a sense of anxiety which is underlyingin our personality and at the same time is certain lack of decisiveness in the givensituation. It can also be interpreted as a lack of comfort in a given situation. Bitingon the lips with their centrally or at the side indicates anxiety.Often, we find that in this action it is the lower lip which is often bitten. Sometimesit becomes a habitual action also with people, and over those people with whom it is a habitualaction, we can almost predict situations in which this particular gesture would be indicatedby them. They shall often repeat it in a predictable manner.At moments we find that it can be a comforting gesture also, because by biting on the lipsthe person is able to give vent to the underlying anxiety to a certain extent and the next phaseof conversation or thought process can therefore, be slightly more confident. Similarly, wefind that biting on one’s lips or chewing on the lip, it is also an indication thatthe person may be lying either in a blatent panel or even in partially. In any case youwould find that this particular action does not indicate an openness there are certainreservations in the person and these reservations are further to be decorated with the helpof other expressions, micro expressions and the words which might follow later on.The next type of position of mouth which we shall take up is known as sucked lips or swallowedlips, because this particular action suggests as one is trying to swallow the lips themselves.So, it normally indicates the person is in deep thought and is deep thought is not acreative thinking rather it is a critical thinking. So, it is an evaluatory manner oflooking at things. When we are evaluating the content and atthe same time, we think that this might be an important message either to us or moreto the other person often we are talking to in addition to be associated with the evaluationof content. We also find that this particular position is taken up by a person in advertand clean unconsciously with a person has to pass on any important message to others,and often this important message suggests something negative to the receiver.In some people, we would find that this becomes a habit and there is a psychological dependenceon this particular type of an action. A psychological dependence and overdoing of this action suggesta deep problematic state of mind which should be further investigated into.Similarly, we find that there are some other interesting positions which our mouth is capableof taking. A particularly interesting one is known as which I presume all of us canunderstand easily. This is also considered to be an important micro expression becausewe find that often the twitch occurs in the corners of the mouth in almost an imperceptiblemanner. It shows a passive form of synthesis or a sense of disbelieving others. But atthe same time the other person does not want to exhibit this cinicism is not believed ina very open manner. And therefore, we often find that twitching does not occur for a prolongedperiod in most of the instances. Sometimes, we find that it can be associatedwith the behaviour of those people who are trying to pass on a lie, but are not habitualliars and they may give themselves a way with these small grimaces because their consciencemay disapprove of this action. During this particular movement of the mouth we find thatcorners of the mouth at turned upwards and this upward movement of the mouth is associatedwith emotions of happiness. It may be the beginning of a smile of pleasureor amusement on mouth, but at the same time we find that corners of the mouth are turneddownwards almost immediately and this downward incrimination indicates a negative emotion.So, twitching normally occurs whenever there is a contradiction going on in the mind ofthe person. Another important communication of messagesis done when a person covers the mouth with the help of hands or certain fingers and thisis also associated with different types of emotional reactions. This particular aspectof covering the mouth we will cover when we will look at hand movements and finger movementsin our next modules. The next facial expression which we shall take up is this smile. Allof us know the significance of smiles, it is associated with positive indications ofour emotions normally. If all emotions which can be communicated by our body, we find thatour smile is the most contagious one, it almost always is a positive smile.Therefore, we also have different social perceptions in almost all the cultures where a smilingface is considered to be more likeable open and friendly, better approachable and at thesame time more competent. Almost all of us are able to understand the difference betweena genuine smile and a synthetic or a plastic smile. It was Darwin who had initiated isstudied in what can be understood is the signs of a smiling. He noticed that the cause consequencesand manifestations of a smile are universal. ‘A face that smiles’ is normally consideredto be friendly, but what about your face which never smiles. So, the absence of a smile ona face can often be disconcerting. At the same time when a person smiles too much, italso is considered to be negative. Definitely it is not associated with any positive feelings.And here I have quoted from to literary understandings of those personalities where too much of asmiling is manifested. The first one is a quote from the BritishNovelist Eric Ambler known more for spy thrillers, and he has described one constant smilingas a standing apology for the in equity of his existence. In the same way G K Chesterton,has also expressed similar reservations when the presence of too much smile on a humanface makes it rather kindly at first glance, but at the second glance this same presenceof continuity smile makes a person look rather cowardly.So, you would find that the smile, its presence, its absence, and too much presence are allnoted by all our interactants. This particular video gives a very interesting assessmentof the significance of a smiles and also covers normally understood types of a smiles.Most of a basic communication signals are the same all over the world. When people arehappy with smile, when they are sad or angry .Smiling search the purpose of telling another person you are none threatening and ask themto accept you on a personal level. Lack of smiling explains why many dominant individualssuch as weather reporting, Clint east wood always seem to the grumpy or aggressive andare really seen smiling.We simply do not want to appear in many ways of .Scientific research in courtrooms shows whether an apology of a with smile encores a lesserpenalty with an apology without one.Most people can consciously differentiate between a fake smile and a real one, and mostof us are content to someone is simply smiling at us, regardless of whether its real or false.From a psychological point of view, in some situations smile and laughter are defensivemechanisms, it is why distinguishing a fake smile from a genuine one is important if youwant to understand people and their emotions.Smiles are controlled by two sets of muscles, zygomaticus major muscles which round downwith side of face and connect to the corners of a mouth and the orbicularis oculi whichpulls the eyes back.The zygomaticus majors driven out back to expose the teeth and enlarge your cheeks,where the orbicularis oculi make the eyes narrow and cause cross feet. This musclesare important to understand because zygomaticus measures are consciously controlled.In other words, we are used to produce false mouths of fake enjoyment try to appear friendlyor subordinate. Though orbicularis oculi at the eyes act independently and review withtrue feelings of a genuine smile. An enjoyment smile, not only lip corners pulled up, butthe muscles around the eyes are contracted, while non-enjoyment smiles no just smilinglips.Genuine smiles are generated by when conscious brain which means we are zygomatic. When youfeel pleasure signals pass through part of your brain with processes emotion making yourmouth muscles move, your cheeks rise, your eyes rise up and your eyebrows deep slightly.Photographers asks you to stay cheeks because this word was zygomatic major muscles. Blasteron the eyes can also appear in intense fake smiles and the cheeks may bunch up makingit look as well as a contracting and that the smile is genuine, you make to see it.However, when the smile is genuine the fresher part of eye between the eyebrow and the eyelid where I cover full, moves downwards and beyond that the eyebrows deep slightly . So,a first place picture of a smile is still look for wrinkle lines beside the eyes.Six most common types of smile. Number 1, the tight lipped smile. The lips are stretchedthat across the face to form a straight line and the teeth are concealed. It sends themessage with the smiler has a secret or lip held opinions or attitude between will notbe shared with you. But the tight lip smile results in magazine pictures of successfulbusinessman or a communicating, up gather the secret of success and you have to tryand guess what they are. In this interviews women have a tendency to talk about principlesof success, but really do variable the exact details of how they succeeded.Number 2, the twisted smile. This smile shows opposite emotions on each side of a face.The right brain rises the left side eyebrow, where left zygomaticus muscles and the leftcheek to produce one type of smile on the left side of a face. Well, the left brainpulls the same muscles downwards, on the right side to produce an angry frown.When the person mirror down the middle at an angle of 90 degrees to reflect each sideof a face you produce two completely different faces with opposite emotions. During the rightside of a face reveals a cheesy grief, while during the left side reveals a angry frown.The twisted smile is peculiar to the western world. It can only be done deliberately whichmeans it can send only one message, sarcasm. Number 3 the drop jaw smile. This is a practicesmile where a lower jaw is simply dropdown to give a impression when the person is laughingor play full. This is a favourite of people such a Hillary Clinton and Marilyn Monroe.And all home use it to engender happy reactions and their audiences or to win more votes.Number 4; sideways looking up smile. We were had turned down and away while looking upwith the smile or tight lipped smile, the person smiling looks play full and secretary.This smile has been shown to be men’s favourite everywhere because when a woman does it withingenders paranormal feelings, making men want to protect and care for females.Number 5, fake smile, grin. The zygomaticus majors over mouth back to expose the thiefand enlarge the cheeks, while the orbicularis oculi are not involved. Number 6, genuinesmile. Mass muscles move, cheeks rise, eyes squeeze up and eyebrows deep slight.A smile is never expressive of a single emotion. It expresses multiple emotions, as is evidentin this video and as we would discuss later on. And at the same time this interestinglyis also a mask which people often wear to hide more negative emotions.A smile may involve several muscles, muscles which are around the mouth, muscles on ourcheeks, and muscles around our eyes also. People normally smile when they are happy,but very soon all of us learned to pass on polite social smiles without exactly feelinghappy, because as I smiling face is considered to be polite and often considered to be anecessity during all our social and professional interaction. And therefore, I smiling facedoes not necessarily communicate a particular or a specific emotional state of mind.At best we say that is smile is a multipurpose expression. Normal interpretation of a smileis associated with positivity and happiness, and all of us are aware of that emoji, thesmiling face the universal symbol of happiness. But at the same time in the professional worldwe have to be aware that our smile can also be used as a mask.A smiles communicate different connotations and at the same time there are certain culturalassociations which are also associated with the way we smile and the way in which we interpretthe smile of other people. Also, the occasions on which we would like to smile and we wouldnot like to smile. For example, in Japan as well as in certain other countries I smilecan also indicate a concealed embarrassment, displeasure or even anger. Allan Pease, inhis writings has listed 5 common types of a smiles, but later on researchers added somemore types.The 5 common types of a smiles which have been listed by Allan Pease are the tight lippedsmiles, the twisted smile, the drop jaw smile, sideways looking up smile and interestinglythe name of the fifth smile identified by Allan Pease is the George W Bush Grin.Now, Allan Pease instead of illustrating this grin completely as an independent communicationof emotion has linked it with a cultural pattern. Pease has commented that people in Texas particularlyeither middle class sections of the society pass on too much a smiles and therefore, hisunderstanding is that in Texas people smile more than people of other American states.And therefore, the almost continuous, but imperceptible print which was normally foundon the face of George W Bush has been given this name.In my discussions, I would leave this particular type of a smile. I would take up the first4 common types of a smiles listed by Allan Pease and supplement them with some othercommonly found types of a smiles which I have been listed by other researchers. Here I wouldalso like to mention Carney Landis, who had worked in 1924 and had identified 9 differenttypes of a smiles. But his researchers had come up with this finding that only six typesof a smiles are associated with positive connotations, the rest are either negative or a mask.Initial researchers into what can be understood is a science of a smiles were taken up aswe have committed earlier by Darwin and at the same time, they were taken up by the Frenchneurologist Duchenne de Boulogne, who had studied the mechanics of facial expressionsand particularly had tried to identify that association of different muscles which arepresent on our face and what type of muscles are used in which type of emotion communicationthrough our smiles. He had as an experiment at test electrodestwo faces and he is most talked about experiments resulted in a permanent fixture of white craneon a particular patient’s face who had to spend rest of his life with puffed up cheeksand crow’s feet around his eyes. This experiment had gone wrong, but at the same time thisdoes not undermine the significance of the rest of his research.Another research which is often talked about in our studies of a smile is by Carney Landis.It was in 1924, when he was a research scholar in the University of Minnesota and he wasexperimenting on the facial expressions of emotions. He gather together a group of people,a motley group which consisted of some friends, some classmates, some young teachers, as wellas a young teenager boy. And he wanted to find out whether different experiences broughtsimilar facial expressions for them. His methods today cannot be considered ethical; however,it was his findings which created more on ease and is still researchers go back to thesefindings. He had gathered together this group, blindfolded them, put markers on their facesto identify what type of muscles are active in a particular type of facial response. Andthen he had asked them to undergo different types of experimentations.He had expose them, these blindfolded people to some interesting and rather bizarre experimentations.Some of them included bursting crackers beneath their seats. An experiment included puttingonce hands in a bucket full of live frogs and ultimately he asked a person to deliberatelycut the throat of a mouse or a rodent. Although, it must also be integrated here that in hislater life he never repeated this experiment, but the findings which he stumbled upon asa young research scholar in 1924 are still talked about.He had said and I quote that even during the most violent task and some of them were, themost common reaction was not either to cry or to express anger, it was to smile and Iquote “So far as this experiment goes I have found no expression other than a smile,which was present in a photographs to be considered as typical of any situation”.Psychologists later on talked about the different types of a smiles which has been in a validatedby these experiments by Carney Landis and they also talked about how willingly peoplehad been obedient during this experiment going to certain extent in order to follow the instructions.But this is not exactly concerned with our discussions.Carney Landis identified 19 different types of a smiles, but suggested that only six areassociated with the expression of positivity. The rest occurs when either we are in pain,we may feel embarrassed or distressed or measurable etcetera. Sometimes, it may also mean contempta suspicions towards the motives of the other people as well as a feeling of willingly submittingto others. Genuine smiles are a reward for positive actionsand feelings. And there are some other smiles which do not represent true feelings, ratherthey represent the emotion which we want to signal to others. With the help of an artificialsmile, a plastic smile or a synthetic smile, we want to present a particular emotion toour interactant and we want to hide the negativity of our emotions using this mask of a smile.So, some smiles have evolved to signal that we are not being threatening in a particularsituation rather we are being co-operative, that we do not want any aggregation in a situation,but at the same time the smile can also be used to suggest “well I am better than youin any given interaction”. So, many of used as polite gestures which demonstrate thatwe are following the rules or we do not want to deliberately offend the person. At thesame time, a smiles can also be used in an effective way as manipulating agents, distractingthe other people from understanding our true feelings.Before going further into understanding different types of a smiles, we must understand howto differentiate between a genuine and a fake smile. Genuine smiles always necessarily representa positive emotion and fake smiles do not. It is particularly important to identify thedifference because our response to the smile often influences our first interactions withother people. It makes us comfortable in a presence, it makes us to feel cautious ina particular presence. Normally, it is said that a full blown smile is genuine, a fullblown smile in which the eyes are also lived up is perhaps the most infectious aspect ofour interaction with other people. In a full blown smile, if it is accompaniedby a person’s head going slightly in we find that the person is feeling rather humble.On the other hand, if a person is smiling openly and broadly and the head was backwardtilt then the person is not only pleased, but the person is also proud of oneself inthe given situation. For example, we can ask a student ‘oh how is your examination’.This student have fared well, and would say, ‘oh, it was good’. Look at the head tilt.On the other hand, the same person can say, oh, it was good. So, you would find that theamount of pleasure is the same, but the other associations are also communicated with theassociation of a particular type of head tilt. A fake smile similarly is used to create amask, a barrier between us and other people to hide the true emotion. And there are certaindistinct differences to identify the two independently.In case of genuine smiles, people smile both with their eyes and mouth. This is the smilein which we say that the person’s eyes were also smiling and in fake smiles we find thatthis smile is given only with the help of the mouth. Similarly, if you are able to noticethe difference then genuine smiles are often more symmetrical on both side of the faceand have a much more gradual onset and particularly the much more gradual offset than fake smiles.A simple way to tell the difference is to watch how does the smile fate on an individual’sface, does it end quickly or does it linger. A lingering smile is associated with a positiveand a genuine smile, on the other hand a fake smile is normally taken up by a person, usedby a person to cover the real emotional state. French anatomist, Duchenne de Boulogne hadnoted these differences and he has remarked that genuine smiles involve facial musculaturearound the eyes, whereas false smiles just involves the activation of the muscles aroundthe mouth and this basic difference has always been identified in our language practices,in our idioms and proverbs, as well as in different literary representations of humanface. This basic understanding of Duchenne was later on supported by Paul Ekman and WallaceFriesen and was further strengthened.They further described the difference between the genuine and fake smiles. And I quote fromthere is search they say that, in genuine smiles, which have been termed as Duchennesmiles in honour of the work of the great French anatomist, muscles lift the cheek upwards and push the skin towards the eyes, narrowing the eyes and causing crow’s feetwrinkles at the outer corners of the eyes. For several decades we find that the presenceof the crow’s feet, the mild wrinkles around our eyes what considered to be an indicationof genuine smiles. Later on, however, it was found that it is not necessary that everybodyhas the similar type of wrinkles. In some faces the crow’s feet may not be presentat all. On the other hand, in false or plastic smileswe find that the muscles pull the lips obliquely upwards and back, deepening the furrows whichrun from the nostril to the corners of the lips. In this particular video, we find thata detailed analysis of smiles of certain us presidential candidates has been done. Withoutcommenting on the political belief systems, I have tried to use this video as an illustrationof genuine and fake smiles.Body language expert Tanya Raymond’s studied all the leading presidential candidates likeBernard Sanders who sure has lot of smile about after that double digit victory overHillary Clinton in New Hamster. Bernard Sanders is authentic. He is alwaysgenuine. This is a genuine smile, you could tell he has got the , the cheeks are raised,but it is not as big as it typically is when he is thoroughly happy.But in her opinion, when Hillary smiles she sometimes covering up where she is reallythinking. Hillary Clinton has a problem with smiling.She smiles just a mask, whatever emotion she does not want you to see it.This is known as a social smile. There is not much movement around the eyes and thelips are really elevated, there are cross, but not high up.And Ted Cruz, also has some work to do on his smile.When he smiles, the initial impression is that a sneer or a grin. And then what happens?We think of him as sarcasm. So, I would end my discussion at this point.In our next module we would look at certain other types of a smiles, the cultural differenceswhich also exist in the way our smiles are recognised.Thank you.