Among the many expressive movements of the muscles of the face, there is one that we use most often is a smile. What such a movement actually expresses and how it arises - we will try to figure this out further.
Physiology
The thing is that the expression of pleasure, greeting, joy, goodwill can be represented by one simple emotion - a smile. Quite often, such a movement of the muscles of the face occurs uncontrollably. This is due to the fact that a smile is a brain process that occurs when the anterior zone of the hypothalamus is excited.
Further, a stream of nerve impulses is transmitted to the limbic system, which is responsible for our emotions, which leads to a relaxation of muscle tone and the appearance of such an emotion as a smile.
What is the hypothalamus? This is the area of the diencephalon, which regulates the emotional state of a person. Interestingly, the above reaction chain can have a reverse course. In other words, when a person contracts his facial muscles and smiles, a signal is sent to the brain that the person is happy.
Expression of various feelings
An interesting fact is that the same facial movement can mean a variety of emotions. In order to consider this issue, it is necessary to remember what a smile can be : malicious, affable, friendly, ironic, approving. As a rule, even a small child easily distinguishes all these emotions due to the fact that he pays attention not only to the movement of the nasolabial part, but also to the look.
The totality of certain facial movements and the general expression of the face give the concept of what kind of smile in question. It is also important to note that a smile cannot always be sincere. If it is caused by the excitation of the hypothalamus, then undoubtedly this is a mimic movement that is difficult to control. In certain situations, people tend to fake such an emotion as a smile. What is an insincere smile and how is it manifested?
Tight smile
In order to determine the insincerity of the interlocutor, it is not necessary to be a genius, but rather turn to physiology. With a tense smile, a person has a clear asymmetry on his face.
It is also important to pay attention to his eyes. With a false smile, the eyes, as a rule, express opposite emotions: anger, irritation, sadness. Due to the fact that the human brain is prone to more analysis than a child’s, we often don’t notice such insincere emotions, because we pay more attention to the words of the interlocutor and intonation, which can be easily faked.
Animals are smiling too
Which animal can make such facial expressions as a smile? What does it take to make a pet make such a mimic movement? Of course, due to the fact that in animals mimic abilities are limited due to the structure of the jaw, few of them can actually smile. Our “relatives” of chimpanzees and gorillas are capable of this. They quite often open their mouths wide, stretch their lips and show all their teeth.
A monkey's smile has its special meaning. They do this when they want to ask for something or to smooth out the conflict. In the course of observations, it was found that primates fully control this facial expression and can repeat it if necessary.
As for the favorite domestic animals - cats and dogs, their jaw structure does not allow reproducing such a smile as in humans. They express their emotions with the expression of their eyes and tail. Faithful dogs meet their masters, wagging their tail, it can be argued that this is not a greeting and a kind of "smile".
Functional meaning
Have you ever noticed that babies can smile up to 500 times a day? The meaning of a smile in this situation is slightly different from the above. A good mood and a toothless smile signals that everything is in order with the baby, he is healthy and feels great.
This is again associated with the functions of the hypothalamus. Excitation of its front zone transmits a stream of impulses that contribute to the relaxation of facial muscles. 3-4 months after birth, babies are already able to partially control this process. The mother’s tender voice, an exciting game and an interesting toy can cause positive emotions in a child.
Smile in different countries
The meaning of the word “smile” is the same for any inhabitant of the planet, but the frequency with which they reproduce this mimic reaction differs significantly.
It is the Americans who can be called the most “smiling people”. Their smile is a sign of courtesy and good attitude towards a person. In addition, the manifestation of the emotion itself is fundamentally different. The Slavs as a sign of politeness only slightly stretch their lips, leaving them closed.
A wide-open mouth, to a greater extent, can be seen when a person laughs. Studies show that the older the person, the less he smiles.
"American Smile" is characterized by prominent wisdom teeth. They open their mouths so wide that for Russians this seems simply inappropriate.
In the East and the West, a smile in the service sector is very popular. Thus, they demonstrate courtesy. A smile, the lexical meaning of which we are considering, can mean a huge amount of emotions. Everything will depend only on a specific person and situation.
Sustained Speech
The word "smile" is very often found in various phrases, where its meaning may not be entirely clear. Particularly often, difficulties arise when translating phraseological units, because they cannot be interpreted verbatim. So what steady turns with the word "smile" can be found?
Phraseologisms “sour smile” (the meaning will be considered by us later), “smile of augur”, “smile of Gagarin”. Each of the stable phrases has its own meaning.
So, for example, the smile of augur is an emotion that implies deception and deceit. When people agree among themselves about something, we can say that they exchange the smile of the augur. This is due to the saying, “When an augur meets an augur, they cannot help but smile.”
In the meaning of "sour smile" everything is much simpler. Emotion involves discontent and sadness.
The first pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin always smiled and was a rather cheerful person. "Gagarin's Smile" means a sincere emotion of joy and happiness.
The lexical meaning of the word “smile” is quite simple to imagine: it is an expression of certain emotions, characterized by a stretching of the lips and raising of their corners. Many scientists argue that the more often a person laughs, the happier and more fortunate he will be.
One way or another, a sincere smile always disposes to itself, gives a feeling of comfort and warmth. If the emotion is insincere, it gives a feeling of deception and lies. One of the best ways to cheer up is to smile at your reflection in the mirror from a pure heart.