So. University of California at Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner releases a study in which he finds that Americans and the British have different smiles. We smile differently. We stretch different muscles when we grin. Interesting, certainly, but watch what happens when the press reports on his findings: here’s an American report, in The New York Times, and a British report, from the Times Online.
Notice anything? Read both, and watch the bias shift: in the American article, the American-style smile comes off as somehow “better” than the British variety. In the British article, the American smile comes across as insincere, and lacking the impressive pedigree of its British counterpart. Pretty crazy, huh? :nervous: