Does A Smile Mean The Same Thing In All Cultures?

How People Express and Perceive Smiles We know that expressions differ across cultures, but an exploration of how we recognize smiles brings that observation to the forefront! In a major 1993 study, Humintell’s own Dr. David Matsumoto and Tsutomu Kudoh sought to explore the differences between how Americans and Japanese express and perceive smiles. This…

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Striving for Happy and Loving Relationships

We all strive for happy and loving relationships, but these also might lead to longer, healthier lives! A recent study by Dr. Olga Stavrova of Tilburg University found that when one’s spouse reports high levels of life satisfaction, there is a significant and substantive decrease in mortality risk. This builds from past research finding that…

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Not All Smiles Are the Same

While we tend to associate smiling almost exclusively with joy or happiness, this may lead us pretty far astray. In fact, there are many different types of smiles and only a few can really be classified as happy smiles. As a recent article in the BBC outlines, of the perhaps 19 different types of smiles,…

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Relationship Between Our Physical Health and Our Personality

Often in crowded cities, we clash with those who walk much more slowly, or we hold up those who walk faster. Is there an explanation for this variation? According to a team of researchers, personality traits may help predict how quickly or slowly we will walk. In a creative study, published in Social Psychological and…

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