likely not 'hard-wired'
As a general rule, women do smile more than men, but the gender differences in their rate of smiling disappear when they occupy similar work and social roles, a Yale researcher has found.
Also, the degree to which men smile less than women depends on such factors as culture, ethnicity, age or whether people think they are being observed, according to the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation.
"It would be interesting for social psychologists and anthropologists to look at these data because the wide cultural, ethnic and other differences suggest that the sex difference is not something that is hard-wired," says Marianne LaFrance, professor of psychology and senior author of the study, which was published this month in the journal Pyschological Bulletin.
"This is not a function of being male or female. Each culture overlays men and women with rules about appropriate behavior for men and women," she adds.
LaFrance and her co-authors -- Elizabeth Paluck of Yale and Marvin Hecht, a graduate student at the time -- set out to examine every available study that has been done on sex differences in smiling. Ultimately, they looked at 186 research reports.
They found that women do smile more than men, but the difference is modest. "The difference is there, but it's not whopping," LaFrance says. "Indeed, there are studies that find just the opposite."
The difference in the rate at which men and women smile is greater in the United States and Canada than it is in England, Australia and other parts of the world, according to the study. It also showed that in the United States, there is a far greater sex difference in smiling among Caucasians than among African Americans.
The researchers found that, among various age groups, teens show the largest sex difference in smile rates -- with the differences decreasing from that point on. "We don't know why it maxes out among young adults," LaFrance says. "One possibility is that that is the age when the sexes are supposed to be maximally different from each other, for procreation or social purposes. After that, it's not so important."
The researchers also found that the largest sex differences in smiling occurred when men and women thought they were being observed. When they thought no one was looking, the rates were similar. "The logic here is when people know their behavior is being monitored, they more closely adhere to the norms for appropriate behavior for their gender," LaFrance notes. "People are at their gendered best when people are looking."
Men and women also smile about the same amount when they are in the same position in terms of power, occupation or social role, say the researchers. Here, LaFrance surmises that the sex differences are overridden by smile norms for people's roles, rather than their sex.
However, when there is tension in the air, women more often than men try to diffuse it with a smile, says LaFrance. "Women do what we call 'emotion work' and one of the best ways to do this is to smile to soothe hurt feelings, to restore harmony," she explains.
-- By Jacqueline Weaver
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