Smiling (Non-Verbal Communication) Study of Term Paper

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Findings from the study showed that levels of perceived affiliation of the individual determines the perceived expressiveness of smiles, whether this smile is given out by a man or a woman. In the study, individuals who were rated and perceived as "highly-affiliative" are perceived to be more expressive, and both highly-affiliative male and female participants of the study were identified as more expressive than participants with low affiliation ratings (532).

These findings support the claim earlier that the smile has complexly evolved as a form of non-verbal communication. Smiling is no longer treated or analyzed at "face value," since other factors, such as perceived personality traits of the individual, are attached in one's assessment of the individual's propensity to express his/her happiness through smiling. As in the words of the author, "...smiling...is mediated by differences in perceived dominance and affiliativeness of men and women rather than by gender per se..." (533).

Smiling in context / Situational smiling

Adding to the increasingly complex nature of smiling as a non-verbal act of communication is its variability when applied in specific situations or contexts of communication interaction. Zaalberg (2004) demonstrated the variability of human smiling when applied in two contexts: the expression of a funny joke by a stranger and an unfunny joke by a friend.

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These common and particularly specific contexts wherein smiling is the expected response behavior yielded important findings and insights into the study of smiling as a communication act.

It was found out that for both situations, "polite smiling" was the response given by the subjects, wherein the author discovered that an "increase in the duration of "polite" smiling" means there is an increase, on the individual's part, to become more 'prosocially motivated' (202). This finding is explicated by the insight that in contexts wherein a funny joke is given by a stranger, there is an effort to become prosocial, in the sense that one recognizes the funiness of a joke delivered by a stranger. Prosocial motivation is also present when the individual 'politely smiles' at a friend's unfunny joke. The difference between the two situations, however, is that the latter scenario, that of a friend telling an unfunny joke, yielded a greater duration of polite smiling, meaning there exists greater or increased prosocial motivation from the individual communicating the 'polite smile.' In the first scenario (stranger delivering a funny joke), the prosocial motivation is interpreted as the "motivation to share positive affect," while the second scenario is considered the "motivation to hide negative affect" (203)......

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