Smile!!

We often smile. Well probably not, some people smile more often than the others. But still, we smile. In a Western country, it's a common virtue to smile to someone you see on the street or in a lift (although it's not advisable to do the same in Malaysia - you get weird stares). You smile when you go for an interview, hoping that it exudes an aura of friendliness.

The issue with smile is, many people fake it. If you think that faking smile is something done by only fake people, you should slap yourself on your face. Because... remember the last time you took a picture? Weren't you squeezing a smile?

Everyone fakes their smiley face when they take pictures. Everyone. Unless you find it amusing every time a cold round lens is pointing at you, of course.

So here comes an interesting problem: how do we differentiate between a genuine smile and fake smile? Do you think that you are good at body language? Do you consider yourself a living lie detector? Have you ever thought that, "Hey, isn't it good if I could tell whether this little cute girl was amused by my lame joke yesterday?"

Let's try this experiment to find out: BBC Science & Nature: Spot the Fake Smile. In this short game, you will be shown brief video clips of people smiling at you, and you will decide whether the smile is real or fake. When you have finished this experiment, share your results here! :)

I got 15 out of 20, which was surprising as I consider myself an obtuse person who's not good at perceiving emotions. I would like to see how everyone fares.


p/s: By the way the BBC Human Body and Mind is a great resource for interactive, educational games. If you have some time to spare, explore a bit and you will certainly be surprised.