spot the fake smile

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did we do this? i feel like we already did this, but search says no. anyway i got 17 out of 20, probably because i can sense my own.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/smiles/index.shtml

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:00 (twenty years ago)

also, some of the people are sort of disproportionate and crepey, non? i found the whole experience very 'black hole sun'.

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

I only got 13 out of 20, but then I always knew I was gullible.

I had trouble identifying whether one of the latter ppl was a male or a female. The one with the massive forehead & black straggly hair.

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

16. And these people look totally normal.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

Me too, pink, about the massive forehead one!

I got 12 out of 20! I guess I wouldn't make a good detective.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:07 (twenty years ago)

I got 12 out of 20. Knew I'd be rubbish at it. I tend to think smiles are always fake.

(One with big forehead and shaved sides was a bloke.)

(Also, boy number 7, if the order stayed the same, was well cute!)

― Masonic Boom (kate), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

I got 15 out of 20, and all the ones I missed were genuine smiles.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

I got zero, because I don't have flash :(

― tissp! (the impossible shortest specia), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

I got 19 out of 20. I'm pretty good at this mostly because I rarely have a genuine smile in any of my photos and when someone actually does capture me smiling, I look really different.

― Roz (Roz), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

I got 12. I started off v.badly, getting 4 out of the first 5 wrong. I like to think I got the hang of it after a bit.

And these people look totally normal.

Some of them looked barely human!

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

You got 16 out of 20 correct.

It kind of freaked me out watching them for some reason.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I found it quite disturbing to watch, as well.

― Masonic Boom (kate), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

15 out of 20 - I'll put this down to feeling bad accusing some of them of faking it.

Does number 16's smile make anyone else feel really happy?

― astropatty (adr), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

That one chap looked like the lovespawn of Sundar and Andrew the Serverkeeper.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

Does number 16's smile make anyone else feel really happy?

Hehe yep. One of my lecturers actually looks like that dude and is also a very jolly guy.

― Roz (Roz), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

I guessed they were all fake. If they were genuinely smiling, what were they smiling at? They all looked like they'd been told to smile. How do you get a real smile out of a scenario that involves looking directly into a camera?

Some of them looked barely human!

There was definitely at least one vampire in that bunch.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/ca/reviews/20041102/smile_album_04.jpg

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

17 out of 20. A lot of them I could guess before playing the video. Some of them just looked like shit-eaters, others didn't.

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

And these people look totally normal.

Some of them looked barely human!

Step outside and look around, Nick.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:17 (twenty years ago)

14/20
i found it a bit disturbing to watch them stop smiling. some of them have some troubled looks in their eyes as the video ends! i mean, what's next for these people after the cameras are off and the lights go down!

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

I got 10 out of 20. The world is full of lies and trickery :(

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

some ramen and a wank

xpost

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:23 (twenty years ago)

17 out of 20!!!! ROCK ON!

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

I got 17 out of 20--nos. 3, 7, and 12 wrong, two of which were actually fake. I did ok I think mostly by watching their eyes, since I have heard/read about Duchenne smiles etc before.

― sgs (sgs), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

They must have shown them a picture of some clowns... Then they were like "Oh yeh, very funny it's a clown" and then immediately after "Oh, oh no shit it's a clown"

― dog latin (dog latin), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:27 (twenty years ago)

16/20 which I think is quite bad. i figured i'd be better at it. alas no. :-) halfway through i realized i should be looking at the *whole* face, esp the eyes, instead of just the mouth.

― nathalie's body's designed for two (stevie nixed), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

(god that sounded arrogant...)

― nathalie's body's designed for two (stevie nixed), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

― RJG (RJG), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

surprised i got 18/20! the 2 wrong was the cute asian girl and the other woman right after her, i tht both was genuine which probly says more abt myself than im comfortable with. btw yall british ppl still got some jacked up grills

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:30 (twenty years ago)

and yeah id heard the eye crinkle thing before too so i guess i kinda cheated. the asian girl didnt have eye crinkle but HOW COULD SHE NOT BE GENUINE WHEN TALKIGN TO ME!?!?!?!

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

people everywhere got some jacked up grills

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

they were showing them old carrot top routines. the ones with the genuine smiles are the onese we should not trust!!!

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:33 (twenty years ago)

15/20. I got spotted nearly all the fake smiles, but thought lots of genuine smiles were fake. I'm not sure what this says about me. No.13 was ugly.

― Teh HoBB (the pirate king), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:33 (twenty years ago)

Aren't all the smiles fake? How can you not fake a smile in such lab conditions? They musta waited ages for someone to smile naturally.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

Can somebody please post some pics of insincere promotional smiles a la Viz, please? (No Tom Cruise k?)

― Anti-Pope Consortium (noodle vague), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

wait a minute i just watched them again and the asian girl has eye crinkle! clearly they are lying!!!

― 34, Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:42 (twenty years ago)

15/20. If that smug-ass professor dude was really flashing a geniune smile, I'd hate to see his fake one.

My wife says that I smile when I'm about to get angry. That, and the skin turning green.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:48 (twenty years ago)

Its true!

I got 10/20 but my judging principle is ugly smile = genuine because surely noone would delibrately look like that.

― sunny successor (he hates my guts, we had a fight) (katharine), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

20/20. Which is strange, because I've always been told that I'm very bad at judging when people are annoyed or whatever.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Thursday, 28 July 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

16/20, which is better than I expected. I feel like I'm not a very good judge of that sort of thing, I'm easily duped.

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:11 (twenty years ago)

i got 18. i've got lots of practice manufacturing my own fake smiles, so i think that helped.

― phil-two (phil-two), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

I don't know how you could call a smile "real" or "fake" when the conditions for this experiment are anything but natural...in a sense, they're *all* fake.

― Carol Stream (dymaxia), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:20 (twenty years ago)

Obv they told'em a joke or something. I'm sure I can fool people. BEen working in the shop long enough to fake a good smile. ;-)

― nathalie's body's designed for two (stevie nixed), Thursday, 28 July 2005 16:22 (twenty years ago)

there's that arrogance again!

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

16. I thought I would do terrible.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:13 (twenty years ago)

ok, a few questions

(1) aren't ALL of these people giving us what are essentially "fake" smiles?
(2) a lot of the cues for understanding if people are giving you "real" or "fake" smiles are contextual. this test eliminates all contextual clues, which might make it better science in some sense, but makes it useless as psychology.
(3) is #13 a guy or a girl?
(4) is this just some kind of optimism/pessimism test? that has nothing to do with smiles?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

it's amazing how much psychology research i read about in the mass media that seems patently dubious to me.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:42 (twenty years ago)

yeah i don't get this, how are they producing "real" smiles and how does that differ from how they're producing "fake" ones?

"smile fakely. ok now smile for real."

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:44 (twenty years ago)

You underestimate psychologists.

THEY HAF WAYS OF MAKING YOU SMILE.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 28 July 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

Some of these people were probably told to fake a smile. Some of these people were probably told a funny joke.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:09 (twenty years ago)

I think there is scepticism about this "funny joke".

(terrible "And they call us the Fuzz" Hans Eysenck joke comes back to mind)

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

they're not laughing

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:18 (twenty years ago)

Yes, that's the other thing. The only time people smile at a joke is when it's not really funny and then it's a fake smile. I'm trying to think of things that really would make people smile. Maybe an unexpected "Gee, you've got a cute nose!" from the experimenter?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

"Free ice cream for everyone!"

― Leon C. (Ex Leon), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:21 (twenty years ago)

"Oooh - where did you come from little kitten!"

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

I bet that the researchers directed the subject to look at a screen, behind which was the camera. They told the subject that they were going to take the subject's picture. After a click, a picture of A MONKEY was displayed on the screen, causing the subject to smile at the dumb joke that was just pulled.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

Yes, that was probably it.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

I got 13/20, and I wasn't able to watch any of the smiles. I just had to guess from the initial image of the person whether or not they looked like a fake smiler or a genuine one.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

There's another fake/real smile test here:

http://luckfactor.co.uk/Edinburgh/index.html

I got 9/10.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

15/20

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

Only 12! Maybe I'm not as funny as I thought I was.
And could they have possibly found any more hideous people? the whole experience was rather uncomfortable.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

That lovechild of Sundar and Andrew looked good to me.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Thursday, 28 July 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

13/20, i got 3 fakes and 4 genuines wrong. #20's fake is quite good IMO.

― sleep (sleep), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

I got 19/20, which is weird, because the whole time I was doing it, I was convinced that I wasn't really very good and was just picking people randomly! The one I missed was #16, who sort of seemed genuine, but I didn't really trust him for some reason, so I said he was a fake.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

Also here are some criteria I used: if the person smiling made me smile, then I thought it was genuine. If they tipped over from smiling to sort of laughing, then I thought it was genuine.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

#13 was WEIRD.

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Agreed.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

i hope the actual scientific studies have a better methodology than this seems to suggest...

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

You're just grumbling cuz I totally smoked you at this game.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:27 (twenty years ago)

19/20. I suspect most people on this board who got much lower were trying to second-guess or think about it too much. Where did they find the people whose heads are bigger than their hair?

― Bnad, Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

So Jaymc is psychic, big deal.

I started this but had trouble with the following: some of these people seem to me to be fake-smiling but then halfway through kind of half-smiling at the idiocy of their own fake-smiling on camera -- and so WHICH COUNTS?

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

Also I'm pretty sure #13 was in Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

― nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:57 (twenty years ago)

15/20 - missed 4 (fake), 14 (fake), 15 (real), 17 (real), 20 (fake)

#20's fake is quite good IMO.

I agree, 20 was a good fake. And interestingly, I got 2 out of the 3 who have significant facial hair wrong.

― I know some come from the reality (wetmink), Thursday, 28 July 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

clues to the experiment's methodology here:

"Scientists distinguish between genuine and fake smiles by using a coding system called the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), which was devised by Professor Paul Ekman of the University of California and Dr Wallace V. Friesen of the University of Kentucky."

so maybe they just asked the participants to smile and then later determined their authenticity using facs! wouldn't that be sublimely pointless!

― mark p (Mark P), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

embarrassingly i learned about FACS from the martin short pedophile episode of l&o:svu

― 2, Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:35 (twenty years ago)

like most things worth knowing it was explained by b.d. wong

― 3, Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

What is a 'fake smile' though?

Arguably a smile is a recognisable social signal which we can all make. But it doesn't count if you smile on purpose?

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

DAmn id hit some of those bicthes if they smileing or not

― 346436456457, Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:40 (twenty years ago)

SHit dont matter to me,fuck it id hit any of thoses bicthes even if they aint smiling i aint pickyu

― 325346436436, Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:41 (twenty years ago)

You aint Pikachu?

― coral/coral/coral, Thursday, 28 July 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

You got 18 out of 20 correct

― velko, Friday, 24 October 2008 03:36 (seventeen years ago)

nice bump. :) (fake smile, though i really liked this test)

i got 11 out of 20 though. i seem to think female smiles are always genuine :) (genuine smile)

― Ludo, Friday, 24 October 2008 12:36 (seventeen years ago)

16 out of 20. I voted against the old guy, he looked too clever to be smiling

― sonderangerbot, Friday, 24 October 2008 13:04 (seventeen years ago)

19 out of 20, but I went in with knowledge of the cues.

― Pottie Skippen (Granny Dainger), Friday, 24 October 2008 13:42 (seventeen years ago)

16, but it was getting unbearable near the end looking at these freaks with their mad eyes and horrible teeth. These are people you would rather didn't smile at all.

― Eyeball Kicks, Friday, 24 October 2008 14:52 (seventeen years ago)

You are using an old browser version and we cannot effectively show you the Flash Movie. To play the game, please upgrade your Netscape browser here, or your Internet Explorer browser here

Boo hiss. Still got 13 out of 20 though, even without the pictures. I was 12/3 up to q15, after which it all went wrong

― Ismael Klata, Friday, 24 October 2008 14:57 (seventeen years ago)

got 17 out of 20

― Ant Attack |=| (Ste), Friday, 24 October 2008 14:58 (seventeen years ago)

18/20

that was easy, the genuine smilers some were also half laughing so their heads moved around as well

its all in eyes though.

― Jarlrmai, Friday, 24 October 2008 16:10 (seventeen years ago)

how did The Boy G get into this test?!

― Annoying Display Name (ken c), Friday, 24 October 2008 16:17 (seventeen years ago)

(or was it the dude from spiderman??)

― Annoying Display Name (ken c), Friday, 24 October 2008 16:17 (seventeen years ago)

18/20

But I failed the Voidt-Kampf test hardcore.

― Abbott, Friday, 24 October 2008 16:22 (seventeen years ago)

19/20 and dammit I coulda gone either way on the guy I got wrong.

― I know, right?, Friday, 24 October 2008 16:22 (seventeen years ago)

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