Did Smiles Evolve to Prevent Humans from Biting Each Other?

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	Did Smiles Evolve to Prevent Humans from Biting Each Other?

einbar

12-30-2008 12:28 AM

763 views

einbar says:

" It's possible that in response to negative emotions, humans have developed a system that closes the mouth so that they are prevented from yelling, biting or throwing insults".

5 Comments |

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12-30-2008 6:34 AM

debbyski

Oh yeah . . .

12-30-2008 8:12 AM

valann 47

it hasn't worked.

12-30-2008 8:40 AM

chedare

12-30-2008 11:08 AM

chiggles

Desmond Morris, in his Human Animal documentary series (episode one), also speculated that the smile was an act of non-aggression and sometimes submission. That chimpanzees smile only when fearful (hence it being a non-aggressive show), though humans have evolved otherwise (but not entirely so).

12-30-2008 3:50 PM

tanyamm

I used to give someone a big smile just before I threw something at them.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/fb3aeecf-c9e7-4d2f-b9af-d1b7717ed97a/38A89A77-243F-4BFA-95E1-DAEC80471429/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other" href="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other" style="font-size: 11px;">io9.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other"><H1><A href="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other">Did Smiles Evolve to Prevent Humans from Biting Each Other?</A></H1></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other">Two kinds of human smile exist across all cultures: the truthful "Duchenne smile," and the fake "social smile." Now evolutionary psychologists believe the social smile evolved to prevent biting and screaming</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/io9.com/img/773CC158-0F77-4F77-8E71-FD0271B2BC69" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other">A recent study</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other">examined over 4,000 photographs of blind and sighted athletes who had just lost important competitions</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://io9.com/5119316/did-smiles-evolve-to-prevent-humans-from-biting-each-other">The statistical correlation between the facial expressions of sighted and blind individuals was almost perfect. This suggests something genetically resident within us is the source of facial expressions of emotion. Losers pushed their lower lip up as if to control the emotion on their face and many produced social smiles. Individuals blind from birth could not have learned to control their emotions in this way through visual learning so there must be another mechanism. It could be that our emotions, and the systems to regulate them, are vestiges of our evolutionary ancestry</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/38A89A77-243F-4BFA-95E1-DAEC80471429/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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