Why women are smiles friendlier than men

Determine gender based on a grin

WOMEN are the friendlier sex... and their smiles prove it.

Researchers found that the female smile – typified by film stars such as Julia Roberts – is much broader and expressive than that of the male.

A team from the University of Bradford mapped 49 areas of the face, mainly around the eyes, mouth and nose.

They used this to assess how the face changes as we smile, measuring changes caused by muscle movements, including the ‘flow’ of the smile.

This involved seeing how far and how fast the different points on the face moved as the expression was formed. The team found women’s smiles were bigger than men’s.

Researchers said the dynamics of how men and women smile differ measurably, enabling computers to determine gender based purely on a grin.

The research is the first to use the dynamic movement of the smile to distinguish between men and women.

Researcher Professor Hassan Ugail said: ‘Anecdotally, women are thought to be more expressive in how they smile and our research has borne this out.’

The team tested their analysis against video footage of 109 people cracking a smile.

The computer determined gender correctly in 86 per cent of cases, they write in The Visual Computer: International Journal of Computer Graphics.