Behavioral and Brain Sciences
- Behavioral and Brain Sciences / Volume 33 / Issue 06 / December 2010, pp 454-455
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X10001561 (About DOI), Published online: 20 December 2010
Open Peer Commentary
The proximate mechanisms and ultimate functions of smiles
Marc Mehua1 and Karim N'Diayea2
a1 Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland. marc.mehu@unige.ch http://www.affective-sciences.org
a2 Research Center of the Brain and Spine Institute, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), CNRS UMR 7225, INSERM UMR S 975, 75006 Paris, France. karim.ndiaye@upmc.fr
Abstract
Niedenthal et al's classification of smiles erroneously conflates psychological mechanisms and adaptive functions. This confusion weakens the rationale behind the types of smiles they chose to individuate, and it obfuscates the distinction between the communicative versus denotative nature of smiles and the role of perceived-gaze direction in emotion recognition.
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