Spot the Smile
Think you’re good at discerning if someone is being real or not when they smile? Then you should try this BBC test.
During the test, you’ll see a series of 20 videos of people smiling. You’ll then be asked to guess if each one is genuine or not. It takes about ten minutes to complete.
Sounds easy, right? It’s actually surprisingly difficult … I only got nine of them right (lame-o). I’m not sure exactly why … but my answers were much more accurate at the beginning. I think that after a while, I just started guessing.
Can you do better?


June 18th, 2007 at 11:35 am EST
I got 15 out of 20. I thought that the resolution of the smile was very telling, even though my answer to their question about which part of the face was most telling was the eyes.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:54 pm EST
I got 14
I looked at the eyes and how quickly they stopped “smiling”
June 19th, 2007 at 12:48 am EST
15 out of 20 … it’s all in the eyes
June 19th, 2007 at 12:57 am EST
14 out of 20. Eyes. Isn’t that what is always mentioned as the source of a good smile? When it reaches into the eyes. But I know my fake smiles sometimes are overdone in the eyes, like, “Look…my eyes are smiling, too!” I probably just look like I’m possessed.