Those who feel powerful save their smiles for those below them in the pecking order

Those who feel powerful at work tend not to smile back at important people and instead save their smiles for those below them in the pecking order, researchers say.

“Our interpretation of this is that when you are feeling powerful and see a low-status person, you are almost throwing them a bone, thinking “Oh, I should smile at this person because I’m better than them”,” the Daily Mail quoted Evan Carr from the University of California as saying.

It is well known that we tend to mimic other people’s body language, but in the study Carr wanted to see how we copy facial expressions and whether power and status are important.

For the study, he asked 55 young men and women to write about a time when they felt powerful or powerless.

They were then hooked up to equipment that measures the activity of key facial muscles, and were asked to watch short video clips of people with jobs with different levels of prestige, who were smiling or frowning at them.

As they watched, the equipment measured the activity of the zygomaticus major – the ‘smiling muscle’ that raises the corner of the mouth…

via Employers grin at people who lack authority – The Times of India.