It probably intuitively rings true that facial expressions provide visual cues about what a person is feeling.  In fact, a lot of work has been done to codify this across cultures.

But what about facial expressions – the smile in this case – and what they signal about your motivation?  We innately try to discern not just what someone is feeling (happy or sad) but whether they are acting in a helpful, genuine, positive way or conversely, looking to put us into that new/used car no matter what in order to hit their monthly quota.

Said another way, is the person motivated by intrinsic goals (being good at their job, being a helper, wanting to do right by the customer) or extrinsic goals (e.g. get that commission check)?   As it turns out, we try to discern this level of insight about the motivation of people in order to inform our decisions, choices and level of time we want to invest in the relationship – be it social, commercial, relational or transactional.

But how can a smile help your charity?

Thought experiment:  which of these people would you rather:

• Talk to on the donor service team?
• Interact with at the on-site 5k walk/run/gala registration?
• Meet with as a prospective major donor?
• See as a donor testimonial for a charity you are considering giving money to?

Did you choose the one on the right?  Most people do.  (if you didn’t you might be a sociopath…kidding, that wasn’t in the study but seriously, maybe.)

Turns out not just any smile will do.  In a novel experiment, researchers had participants role-play starting a Kickstarter page to seek funding for an entrepreneur who builds mobile applications.  The task was to choose among several photos (of the same person with different smiles) and upload the one they thought best conveyed that the entrepreneur was truly motivated to build great mobile applications for customers.

Duchenne smiles (the one on the right) were far more likely to be chosen than non-Duchenne smiles.  And in other experiments this type of smile is also better than a small smile and no photo trumps small smiles and non-Duchenne smiles (one on left).   In other words, smile the right way or don’t show a photo.

So, what the hell is a Duchenne smile?  It has several tell-tale characteristics, namely raised cheeks (the higher the better) and the appearance of eye wrinkles (those crows’ feet do come in handy).  You can Google it for more examples.  As a warning to those who do, you’ll invariably come across a photo from the 1800s showing experiments done by Duchenne de Boulogne, a French neurologist (who made great contributions to myopathies that bear his name), who was convinced that the face and its expressions were the keys to a person’s soul.  In an effort to create a taxonomy of expressions (that he thought would map to your character) he used electrical probes to trigger “expressions” that invariably distorted muscle movement to such extremes that it looks like (and maybe was) a form of torture.

The point here is that a big, genuine smile (showing teeth doesn’t matter as an important aside – it can still be Duchenne sans the pearly whites) is not just an expression of emotion, it is an important visual cue for a far more important signal – one of being genuinely and sincerely motivated to do the right thing in a variety of contexts.

Kevin