Final answer:
Real and fake smiles can appear in various contexts, influenced by and affecting emotional experiences. Research supports the facial feedback hypothesis, and Paul Ekman's research indicates that certain facial expressions, including smiles, are universal. Smiling can therefore convey emotion and influence a person's emotional state.
Step-by-step explanation:
Real and fake smiles appear in different contexts, both influencing and reflecting our emotional states. The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that the act of smiling can positively affect our emotions, whereas suppression of facial expressions might dampen our emotional experiences. This has been supported by research involving Botox injections limiting expressions such as frowning, leading to reports of decreased depression levels.
Historically, the use of smiles in art, such as the Archaic smile in ancient Greek statues, has conveyed an added level of realism despite appearing unnatural by modern standards. Meanwhile, Paul Ekman's cross-cultural studies on facial expressions, including research in a preliterate culture in New Guinea, confirm that certain facial expressions, including smiles, are universally recognized and produced, indicating a biological basis for our facial expressions of emotions.
In the medical field, studies have shown that individuals with major depressive disorder have differential neural responses to happy versus sad facial expressions. Moreover, it is interesting that even congenitally blind individuals produce distinct facial expressions associated with universal emotions, supporting the idea that the patterns in facial muscle activity for these expressions are innate.