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Rejects spot fake smiles
Status: Psychological discovery
A study published in the October issue of Psychological Science has found that people who feel rejected are significantly better at spotting fake smiles than are other people. (Link: US News & World Report.) Those who feel rejected can accurately detect fake smiles 80% of the time, versus only 50% for other groups.According to the author of the study, "It's not clear why rejection may boost the ability to figure out when someone else is faking an emotion. It may have something to do with a primitive need to fit in with others and to detect what they're really thinking."
I think it may have something to do with a concept long recognized in psychology: that people with a slightly negative self-image are better at spotting BS than people with high self-esteem. Why would this be? As my college social psychology textbook explains:
Individuals with negative self-concepts do not engage in the kinds of self-justifying behaviors that are typical of people with relatively high-self-esteem.
Still, I suspect the vast majority of the people in the world would much rather be happy and self-deluded than sad and good at spotting fake smiles.
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Categories: Psychology Posted by Alex on Wed Nov 19, 2008 |
Comments (8) |
| More from the Hoax Museum Archives: | |||
Why do they assume that those people can spot fake smiles because they feel rejected? Isn't it just as likely that a better ability to spot a fake smile might contribute to feeling rejected?
After all, if you can't tell when someone is lying to you, it seems you'd be less likely to feel like they're not that into you, even when they really aren't that into you.
Posted by parkrrrr on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 04:54 PM
After all, if you can't tell when someone is lying to you, it seems you'd be less likely to feel like they're not that into you, even when they really aren't that into you.
Plus, does the study mention how often those people get a false positive. As in, they think a smile is fake when it is actually real. Maybe it's the case that they are just more likely to consider all smiles fake than be able to tell the difference between the fake and the real.
It's also possible that this is mentioned in the link. I didn't click it because I'm suppose to be doing useful things right now and though I'm procrastinating, I'd like to keep the procrastination to a minimum.
Posted by Razela in Chicago, IL on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 06:49 PM
It's also possible that this is mentioned in the link. I didn't click it because I'm suppose to be doing useful things right now and though I'm procrastinating, I'd like to keep the procrastination to a minimum.
though I'm procrastinating, I'd like to keep the procrastination to a minimum.
Posted by Razela in Tucson, AZ
You're procrastinating on your procrastination?
J/P=?
Posted by John Paradox in Tucson, AZ on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 08:02 PM
Posted by Razela in Tucson, AZ
You're procrastinating on your procrastination?
J/P=?
"It's not clear why rejection may boost the ability to figure out when someone else is faking an emotion."
Er. . . practice?
Posted by JoeDaJuggler in St. Louis, MO on Wed Nov 19, 2008 at 10:14 PM
Er. . . practice?
I had a similar thought as parkrrr--why presume the causality is "rejectedness" creates an ability to read smiles better? Wouldn't the ability to read people better cause more rejections?
Posted by floormaster squeeze on Thu Nov 20, 2008 at 09:25 AM
They have it bassackward, people of a more sensitive, intuitive nature, can sense many of peoples underlieing emotions behind the smiles and platitudes of the facade(sp?).
Posted by t cantin in Vermont on Sat Nov 22, 2008 at 01:25 PM
According to the author of the study, "It's not clear why rejection may boost the ability to figure out when someone else is faking an emotion."
Ummm.....practice?
Posted by sudont in The Interstate on Tue Nov 25, 2008 at 07:10 PM
Ummm.....practice?
I think that saying "rejects" or people who don't "fit in" is a very strong opintion or its all based on assumption, because I have very high self esteem, was popular in high school, have lots of friends now, am the life of the party, a social butterfly, etc...and I did a challenge in my Bio 201 class on fake smiles to see how many fake smiles out of 20 I could get correct. I was confident that I knew how to spot fake smiles...(my eye slants and muscle movements on the cheeks) and I was correct with my thoughts. I got 18 out of 20 correct! I don't think it has anything to do with rejectedness, not fitting in, low self esteem, etc. So, I just proved that theory wrong I guess.
Posted by Jessica B in Phoenix, AZ on Tue Dec 02, 2008 at 09:12 AM
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