What makes a fake smile different from real one?
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There are actually some smile muscles that you can’t control just by thinking about it.
#ELI5 with an example
My mother suffered a stroke, and this led to some minor facial paralysis.
The doctor wanted to show us that the paralysis didn’t mean those muscles *couldn’t* work, it just meant that my mother couldn’t *control* the muscles any longer.
The doctor asked my mother to smile.
My mother tried to smile, tried to make those muscles on her face move. She kind of succeeded, but because of the paralysis, the voluntary smile looked wrong.
But then he told my mother she was so lovely she could have been a model …
And my mother blushed, and SMILED FOR REAL. Those muscles *she couldn’t consciously control*, were working to produce a real smile, *involuntarily*.
THAT is the reason why you can tell a fake smile from a real one.
The muscles you control, are part of a smile. But there are other muscles you cannot control, that will work without you trying to do anything.
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