Fake Smiles and Women’s Intuition
A study conducted by Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire and the Edinburgh International Science Festival has found that women may not be as intuitive as they think they are. In fact, men may be more intuitive than women. Study participants "were asked to look at ten pairs of photographs showing smiling faces. One of the smiles in each pair was genuine and the other was fake, and people had to spot the genuine smile." You can take this fake-smile test yourself and see how intuitive you are. I only scored 5 out of 10, so I must not be intuitive at all. However, I have a few doubts about the study. First of all, how do they judge the difference between a fake smile and a real smile? In all the sets of photos the people are obviously posing, so what makes one posed smile real and another posed smile fake? Also, I'm not sure how much you can tell about intuition by looking at pictures, because body language, which isn't conveyed in these still images, has a lot to do with intuition.
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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6/10... Oh well, better luck next time.
Posted by Mark-N-Isa in Midwest USA on Mon Apr 18, 2005 at 02:46 PM
Got 9/10, -wish they'd tell me which one was wrong - I'm clueless on that, but I'm with Yushi, the first poster's middle statement, "They don't care as much about how they look".
Posted by stork on Mon Apr 18, 2005 at 03:41 PM
4/10. I had absolutely no feeling for which were real and which were fake, so I just guessed. However, I have never claimed to be intuitive.
Posted by Ledasmom on Mon Apr 18, 2005 at 03:51 PM
Yeah, well. Internet surveys. Credibility 0.
Posted by Paul in Prague on Mon Apr 18, 2005 at 11:34 PM
I did this survey last year when I was actually working for the science festival.
I think I got around eight.
I can't believe that random things I did that were to do with work are turning up here!
Posted by Boo in The Land of the Haggii... on Tue Apr 19, 2005 at 12:13 AM
I think I got around eight.
I can't believe that random things I did that were to do with work are turning up here!
Well, if you work in the science industry, I suppose you must come across a lot of unusual things, Boo!
Posted by Smerk in to mischief on Tue Apr 19, 2005 at 12:44 AM
Ha, ironically, now I work at an art gallery.
But the science festival was the coolest place to work. Lovely people. Obsessed with doughnuts.
Dr Wiseman's pretty cool. He was a magician before he got his degrees in psychology. He did quite an interesting interactive project on luck last year, where he was trying to see whether being born in a particular month was more likely to make you lucky.
(I explained that really badly)
Posted by Boo in The Land of the Haggii... on Tue Apr 19, 2005 at 01:10 AM
But the science festival was the coolest place to work. Lovely people. Obsessed with doughnuts.
Dr Wiseman's pretty cool. He was a magician before he got his degrees in psychology. He did quite an interesting interactive project on luck last year, where he was trying to see whether being born in a particular month was more likely to make you lucky.
(I explained that really badly)
8/10. From my basic studies in psych, it's mostly in the eyes. It's the "squinting" that you watch for. I tried to imagine saying something funny in front of these people and then imagining which reaction would be more likely to come of it. But then again, I could really be saying something stupid and they could be humoring me with a smile. Well I guess that blows my theory to hell...
Posted by Ethan Lee on Tue Apr 26, 2005 at 10:23 PM
I scored 3.
THREE!!!
I'm seriously worried about how the people in my local pub and bank feel about me now, thoughts I was really popular....hmmmmmm
Posted by JD on Tue May 03, 2005 at 08:34 AM
THREE!!!
I'm seriously worried about how the people in my local pub and bank feel about me now, thoughts I was really popular....hmmmmmm
Got a 9/10. The one I missed was very similar and I managed to convince myself that there had to be one that was a setup to catch you.
Posted by Ceredur Crysane in Center of the Universe on Tue Oct 25, 2005 at 12:18 PM
8/10 amazingly...the picture's are very good, and not so easy to tell as i had expected. Their are many different type of smiles. You should it out!
Posted by Ayesha in philippines on Mon Nov 07, 2005 at 12:12 PM
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