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Stranger than Fiction

Smiling makes you more attractive

Published:Thursday | October 26, 2023 | 7:54 AMBANG Bizarre

A new study has found that giving the camera a grin actually makes you appear more alluring to other people.

Experts recruited 112 volunteers and presented them each with 80 pictures of people who were either smiling or had a neutral expression.

Asked to rate the faces that were more attractive, the participants gave higher scores to those who had a smile on their face.

Dr Christian Valuch, who led the study for the University of Vienna, said: "People always had straight faces in Victorian photographs, and, in the 1990s, it again became fashionable for supermodels and celebrities not to smile - if they wanted to appear cool.

"But these results suggest people look more attractive when they are smiling.

"It is a facial expression we are drawn to, because it makes people look friendly, approachable and non-threatening.

"So, when you are told to smile for the camera, you probably should."

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