By: Natasha Archary
While human beings are social by nature, we are not perfect. Sometimes in social settings, around people we do like, there may be somebody in the room that you might not like, or have beef with.
After greeting everyone else, do you have to greet the people you don’t like as well and why do these moments feel so awkward?
“Fake it ’til you make it,” or so the saying goes but can people tell when you fake a smile? According to the smile police, while your lips may force a smile, your eyes will give away that it’s not genuine.
The topic on Drive 959 touched on how individuals handle greeting people you know can’t stand you. While some said they fake smiles, other said they don’t waste their energy on people who are not worth the effort.
According to psychologist Richard Wiseman, nearly 60% of adults know the difference and it’s all in the eyes or the area around the eyes to be precise.
As much as “smile lines” are an indication of a good smile, the tiny wrinkles that appear on the corner of the eyes when someone laughs or smiles can’t be faked.
“These are produced by the action of a muscle called the orbicularis oculi, which rings the eye and contracts when people produce genuine, but not polite smiles,” says Dr Paul Ekman, a professor of UC San Francisco who helped develop the Facial Action Coding System to help scientists distinguish between genuine and fake smiles.
Apart from the eyes, the lips pull up naturally when one is smiling genuinely so a fake smile is pretty easy to identify.
Often, we’re so caught up on what people think of us and that’s what holds us back socially. Behavioural analysis will have you under constant scrutiny of every physical tick you may have.
Listen to the conversation on Drive 959:
Also read: “I have fallen in love with my late husband’s younger brother” – The Blind Spot
