A lack of crinkles around the eyes suggests a potentially fake smile.
The jury is still out on whether we can tell when someone is faking what scientists call a Duchenne smile. It’s the expression we make when we’re genuinely experiencing positive emotion.
At one point, researchers believed that making a genuine smile was nearly impossible to do on command. The smile, they said, was all about the crow’s-feet around your eyes. When you’re smiling joyfully, they crinkle. When you’re faking it, they don’t.
If someone’s trying to look happy but really isn’t, you won’t see the wrinkles.
More recently, a study from Northeastern University researchers found that people could do a pretty good job of faking a Duchenne smile, even when they weren’t feeling especially happy.
It seems safe to say that if the crinkles aren’t there, the person’s probably not genuinely happy. But just because the crinkles are there doesn’t necessarily mean they’re elated.
