Blind Judo Athletes Teach Psychologist About Smiles

[MA-Caver]

Smiles Are Innate, Not Learned


Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com jeanna Bryner
senior Writer
livescience.com – 1 hr 59 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081229/sc_livescience/smilesareinnatenotlearnedFrom sneers to full-blown smiles, our facial expressions are hardwired into our genes, suggests a new study.
The researchers compared the facial expressions from more than 4,800 photographs of sighted and blind judo athletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games.
The analyses showed sighted and blind individuals modified their expressions of emotion in the same way in accordance with the social context. For example, in the Paralympics, the athletes competed in a series of elimination rounds so that the final round of two athletes ended in the winner taking home a gold medal while the loser got a silver medal.
The blind silver medalists who lost their final matches tended to produce "social smiles" during the medal ceremonies. Social smiles use only the mouth muscles. True smiles, known as Duchenne smiles, cause the eyes to twinkle and narrow and the cheeks to rise.
The researchers say sighted athletes who lost their final rounds also showed social smiles.
"Losers pushed their lower lip up as if to control the emotion on their face, and many produced social smiles," said researcher David Matsumoto, a psychologist at San Francisco State University.

Heard a speaker talk once about how we are BORN with our feelings, not taught. Same goes with expressing them non-verbally.
A very interesting study indeed.
We think we are teaching babies how to smile when we make faces at them or smile at them and *awww* they smiled back, but they're reacting more than learning.
Interesting indeed.

 

[arnisador]

Interesting!

 

[jks9199]

Heard a speaker talk once about how we are BORN with our feelings, not taught. Same goes with expressing them non-verbally.
A very interesting study indeed.
We think we are teaching babies how to smile when we make faces at them or smile at them and *awww* they smiled back, but they're reacting more than learning.
Interesting indeed.

Stan Walters, who has done a lot of solid research into kinesic interviewing (reading body language and other cues during interviews to determine truthfulness) has said that much of the principles are consistent across cultures. Many of the same indicators of stress and truthfulness apply, no matter the language.

 

[bluekey88]

Exactly...where i think we precieve deifferences is in how different cultures interpret our hard-wired physical reactions.

That being said, that's a brillant and fascinating study. Elegant and simple (on the surface at least). I love that stuff.

Peace,
Erik