The Effects of Counselor Smiling on Perceivers

Abstract

The Duchenne smile has been suggested to be a signaler of altruistic intentions. Other nonverbal cues of altruistic intentions have also been found. The current study controlled for other nonverbal cues of altruism in investigating the Duchenne smile in a counseling setting. Participants, using the “zeroacquaintance video presentation paradigm” viewed actual counselors genuinely smiling (Duchenne) and posing a smile (Non-Duchenne). The zero-acquaintance video presentation paradigm entails presenting perceivers video clips depicting target individuals performing a particular task and then assessing the videotaped individuals. A 2 (Counselor Gender) X 2 (Smile) multivariate analysis of variance on perceived altruism levels of counselors revealed a significant main effect for smiling condition. Genuine smiling counselors were rated significantly higher on perceived altruism levels than posed smiling counselors.