What Does Your Smile Say About You?
April 12, 2018
There’s no overstating the power of a first impression. And when it comes to first impressions, studies show that your smile carries a lot of the weight — 48% of people think the smile is the most memorable part of a first impression. That’s nearly twice as many people as the 25% who find spoken words more memorable!
It makes sense to pay attention to a smile when you first meet someone. After all, our smiles say a lot about us. Do you know what your smile says about you?
Does Your Smile Indicate Your Sex?
From Google’s Arts & Culture app that matches your selfie with a famous painting, to apps that will help you identify plants and animals, to the face-tracking Snapchat filters that we’ve already started to see as commonplace, image recognition is a rapidly growing field. Researchers in the United Kingdom’s University of Bradford are tapping into this trend with new research into whether or not the way you smile is determined by your sex.
Using video of people smiling, the researchers created an A.I. system that analyzes 49 different facial features, including the way that the muscles move in the mouth, cheeks, and even the areas near the eyes. For example, one of the factors used to identify sex was the width and duration of the smile (women, researchers found, tend to smile more broadly, and for longer.) The A.I. was tested on videos of over a hundred people smiling, and displayed 86% accuracy in identifying whether the smilers were male or female.
The researchers hope that this A.I. will be useful in police identification, or may even end up being part of unique biometric identification, like Apple’s new Face ID software.
Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise
Benjamin Franklin is often quoted as saying “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” But it’s your teeth, not your sleep schedule, that communicate those three traits to others!
Unsurprisingly, people perceive healthy teeth as an indicator of a healthy person. This makes sense, since oral health is a key part of overall health, and dental issues can often be indicators of larger health issues. Having a beautiful, healthy-looking set of teeth can communicate to the people around you that you’re in peak health.
As for money, studies show that Americans are 58% more likely to perceive you as wealthy if you have straight, white teeth. They are equally likely to perceive you as successful — these things are undoubtedly tied.
And when it comes to whether or not people think you’re smart, the trend continues: One study showed that when people think of you as more attractive, they also think of you as more intelligent. Since study after study links a straight, white smile with attractiveness, it follows that an attractive smile will make you look smart.
The good news? Your smile can look however you want it to! Get a smile makeover and you can shape what people see when you smile. Call élan at (918) 528-3330 or contact us online to make an appointment.
élan Tulsa Cosmetic Dentistry
10031 S Yale Ave #104
Tulsa, OK 74137