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The Book of Tells (Peter Collett)[unlocked]

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THE BOOK OF TELLS<br />

distinguishes the drop-jaw smile from other smiles and<br />

makes it so special?<br />

Smiles can include various degrees <strong>of</strong> mouth opening.<br />

At one extreme are cases where the mouth is hardly<br />

opened at all. This can produce a 'sealed smile', where the<br />

lips remain together during the smile, a 'top-teeth smile',<br />

where just the top teeth are seen, or a 'full-teeth<br />

smile', where the top and bottom teeth are exposed. On<br />

the other hand, in a 'drop-jaw smile' the mouth is opened<br />

wide and either the top teeth or both sets <strong>of</strong> teeth are<br />

exposed. <strong>The</strong> distinctive feature <strong>of</strong> the drop-jaw smile is<br />

that it looks almost exactly like the chimpanzee 'playface',<br />

which is the evolutionary precursor <strong>of</strong> human<br />

laughter. Because they are more dramatic, drop-jaw smiles<br />

can be seen at a greater distance. But what really sets<br />

drop-jaw smiles apart from other smiles, and recommends<br />

them to politicians, is the fact that they look like laughter.<br />

This affects other people in three ways. Firstly drop-jaw<br />

smiles convey a primitive message <strong>of</strong> playfulness.<br />

Secondly, they don't contain any suggestion <strong>of</strong> appeasement,<br />

like other smiles do. Thirdly, because laughter is<br />

much more contagious than smiling, drop-jaw smiles are<br />

likely to induce the same feelings in other people. A dropjaw<br />

smile therefore makes a politician look playful and<br />

unthreatening, and makes other people feel playful<br />

and unthreatened.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are other ways that politicians create an impression<br />

<strong>of</strong> friendliness. One <strong>of</strong> Reagan's signature tells<br />

was his 'head-twist' - a wry half-smile accompanied by a<br />

cock <strong>of</strong> the head, which he would use whenever he<br />

wanted to appear folksy and familiar. In fact, in terms <strong>of</strong><br />

both its movement and its message, Reagan's head-twist<br />

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