Smiling Makes You Look Older, Israeli Research Finds
George Clooney smiles during a press conference about corruption in South Sudan in Washington, D.C. Image by Getty
JERUSALEM (JTA) — People who smile at others are perceived as being older, not younger, than those with a neutral expression, a Ben-Gurion University of the Negev study found.
The findings were published in the May 8 edition of Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.
In a series of experiments intended to gauge age perception based on facial expressions, 40 Ben-Gurion University students were shown images of people and asked to rank them from oldest to youngest. The study participants were shown pictures of smiling faces, neutral expressions and surprised looks. They ranked the smiling faces as the oldest and surprised expressions as the youngest.
“Popular media promotes the idea that smiling makes you look younger,” Tzvi Ganel, head of the Laboratory for Visual Perception and Action in the university’s Department of Psychology, said in a statement. “Look at all of the smiling faces in skincare and dental ads. How many of us post smiling faces on social media?”
The researchers believe that smiling makes a person look older because of the wrinkle lines that form around the eyes. A surprised face, however, lifts and pulls the skin backward, smoothing any potential age-related wrinkles.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
