WHY DO WE SMILE ?
(blog extracts… Kgins)
Smiles are generally accepted as a universal facial expression of happiness or joy, defining happiness or pleasure as something we instinctually, consciously think we enjoy.
There are different types of smiles, grouped into two categories, “Duchenne smiles”, and “Pan American smiles”.
The “Duchenne smile”, named after researcher Guillaume Duchenne, involves the movement of the zygomaticus major muscle near the mouth, and the orbicularis oculi muscle near the eyes. It is believed that this smile can only be produced as a result of genuine positive emotion, making it involuntary.
By contrary, the “Pan American smile” involves only the zygomaticus muscle, and is entirely voluntary, being used more often used to show politeness or mask true emotion. This suggests a partial control we have over the kind of smile we show when it comes to realizing that we need to put a smile on our faces for social approval, but little control over smiling about things that genuinely make us happy.
Stroke victims can only smile Duchenne.