Among the many expressive movements of the muscles of the face, there is one that we use most often - a smile. What such a movement actually expresses and how it arises - we will try to figure it out further.
Physiology
The thing is that the expression of pleasure, greetings, joy, goodwill can be depicted with one simple emotion - a smile. Quite often, this movement of the facial muscles occurs uncontrollably. This is due to the fact that smiling is a brain process that occurs when the anterior hypothalamus is excited.
Further, a stream of nerve impulses is transmitted to the limbic system, which is responsible for our emotions, which leads to relaxation of muscle tone and the appearance of such an emotion as a smile.
What is the hypothalamus? This is the region of the diencephalon, which regulates the emotional state of a person. Interestingly, the above chain of reactions can also have a reverse course. In other words, when a person contracts their facial muscles and smiles, a signal goes to the brain that the person is happy.
Expressing various feelings
An interesting fact is that the same facial movement can meana variety of emotions. In order to consider this issue, it is necessary to remember what a smile can be: malicious, friendly, benevolent, 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 combination of certain facial movements and the general facial expression gives an idea of what kind of smile we are talking about. It is also very important to note that a smile may not 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 the emotion of smiling. What is an insincere smile and how does it manifest itself?
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 forced smile, a clear asymmetry appears on a person's face.
It is also very important to pay attention to his look. With a false smile, the eyes, as a rule, express opposite emotions: anger, irritation, sadness. Due to the fact that the human brain is more analytical than a child's, we often do not notice such insincere emotions, because we pay more attention to the words of the interlocutor and intonation, which can be easily faked.
Animals smile too
Which of the animals can make such facial expressions as a smile? What needs to be done for a pet to dois mimicry? Of course, due to the fact that animals have limited facial abilities due to the structure of the jaw, few of them can actually smile. Our “relatives” chimpanzees and gorillas are capable of this. They often open their mouths wide, stretch their lips and show all their teeth.
The smile of a monkey has its own special meaning. They do this when they want to ask for something or smooth out the conflict. In the course of observations, it was found that primates completely control this facial expression and can repeat it if necessary.
As for your favorite pets - cats and dogs, their jaw structure does not allow you to reproduce such a smile as a person's. They show their emotions with their eyes and tail. Loyal dogs greet their owners by wagging their tails, which is not a greeting or a kind of "smile".
Functional value
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 great mood and a toothless smile signal that everything is in order with the baby, he is he althy and feels great.
This again has to do with the functions of the hypothalamus. The excitation of its anterior zone transmits a stream of impulses that contribute to the relaxation of the muscles of the face. 3-4 months after birth, babies are already able to partially control this process. The gentle voice of mother, an exciting game and an interesting toy can cause positive emotions in a child.emotions.
Smiling around the world
The meaning of the word "smile" for any inhabitant of the planet is the same, but the frequency with which they reproduce this mimic reaction is significantly different.
The most "smiling people" can be called the Americans. Their smile is a sign of politeness and good attitude towards a person. In addition, the manifestation of the emotion itself is fundamentally different. Slavs, as a sign of politeness, only slightly stretch their lips, leaving them closed.
The wide open mouth is more visible when a person laughs. Research shows that the older a person is, the less they smile.
The "American smile" is characterized by prominent wisdom teeth. They open their mouths so wide that it seems out of place for Russians.
In the East and West, a smile is very popular in the service industry. Thus, they show politeness. A smile, the lexical meaning of which we are considering, can denote a huge number of emotions. Everything will depend only on the specific person and situation.
Stable turns of speech
The word "smile" is very often found in various phrases, where its meaning may not be entirely clear. Especially often difficulties arise when translating phraseological units, because they cannot be interpreted literally. So what kind of stable turns with the word "smile" can be found?
Phraseologisms "sour smile" (meaning will beconsidered by us below), "augur's smile", "Gagarin's smile". Each of the stable phrases has its own meaning.
For example, an augur's smile is an emotion implying deceit and deceit. When people agree on something among themselves, it can be said that they exchange a smile of an augur. This is related to the saying "When an augur meets an augur, they can't help but smile."
In the meaning of "sour smile" everything is much simpler. Emotion implies discontent and sadness.
First cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin always smiled and was a rather cheerful person. "Gagarin's smile" denotes 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 stretching of the lips and raising their corners. Many scientists claim that the more often a person laughs, the happier and more successful he will be.
One way or another, a sincere smile always makes you feel comfortable and warm. If the emotion is insincere, it gives a feeling of deceit and lies. One of the best ways to cheer up is to smile at your reflection in the mirror from the bottom of your heart.
