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Updated: Aug 10, 2026
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Single-stage Dynamic Reanimation of the Smile in Irreversible Facial Paralysis by Free Functional Muscle Transfer
Published on: March 1, 2015
When the smile is a cue to familiarity
J Y Baudouin1, D Gilibert, S Sansone
1Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Equipe Cognition et Mémoire, Bron, France. baudouin@isc.cnrs.fr
Memory (Hove, England)
|October 25, 2000
Summary
Smiling faces enhance face recognition. Studies show smiles increase familiarity ratings for both famous and unknown faces, suggesting a social bias in how we perceive faces.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Facial expressions significantly influence social perception and interaction.
- Understanding how specific expressions like smiles affect face recognition is crucial for cognitive models.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of facial expressions, specifically smiles, on face recognition accuracy and familiarity.
- To determine if the effect of a smile on face recognition varies with face familiarity (famous vs. unknown) and exposure duration.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted presenting famous and unknown faces with neutral or smiling expressions.
- Faces were shown for brief (15 ms) or extended (1000 ms) durations.
- Participants performed either a famous/unknown categorization task or a familiarity rating task.
Main Results:
- A smile significantly increased familiarity ratings for unfamiliar faces in both experiments.
- Smiles also increased familiarity ratings for famous faces in Experiment 2.
- The effect of a smile on familiarity was observed across different inspection durations.
Conclusions:
- The social cue of a smile biases face recognition, particularly enhancing perceived familiarity.
- This smiling bias appears to operate at the decision-making stage of face recognition.
- The findings contribute to understanding the role of social value in face perception models.
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