Your attitude about smiling is likely shaped by where you live

People who come from more diverse countries tend to smile more and for different reasons, according to a new study.


It is thought that nonverbal forms of communication become more important when people with different languages and cultural norms have to interact.

Conversely, in countries with homogenous backgrounds, smiles communicating dominance are more prevalent since social hierarchies are well-established.

To arrive at these findings, the research team first scored countries' levels of historical heterogeneity which reflects whether their populations came from few or numerous places over their previous 500-year history.

They determined that China and Japan both had minimal migratory influences while Canada's population originated from as many as 63 different countries during that time period.

A new study was eventually conducted across nine countries including France, Indonesia, Israel, and the United States which asked 726 total participants to judge the given scenarios that deserved a smile.

The examples included happiness, superiority, and sales solicitation.

Based on these results and findings from another unrelated study, the researchers determined a strong correlation between historical heterogeneity and emotional expressivity, including when it comes to smiling.


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