Monday, March 03, 2008

On Smiles...and a Smiley Quiz

Brian called yesterday, and he loved the Virtual Birthday Party. Big thanks to everyone that played along; geez, you just went above and beyond, collecting photos for us! I had a big old silly grin on my face all week long, as photos rolled in.

Speaking of Smiles, how well do you think you are at spotting the real deal? The BBC's Science department has a cool quiz that you should take if you're bored. You look at approximately 20 1-second videos of people smiling, and then tell whether you think the smile was genuine or fake.

While I took the quiz, I imagined each person at my table at Cafe Kopi, and that I had just regaled them a hilarious story. I mean knee-slapping hilaaaaarious, I am snorting and wiping away tears, and then THAT is the smile I got in response. Quick! Real or Fake?

I admit that I had little confidence when I placed most of my answers, but I still got 19/20 correct. I guess you shouldn't go around pretending that you think I'm funny when you don't think so. I will apparently be able to spot your insincere smile from 100 yards.

If you need any practice beforehand, here's a photo of MY fake smile, from a girls night out, last September:

Not real.


TAKE THE QUIZ HERE, AND TELL ME HOW YOU RATED.

15 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:19 AM

    I got 12 out of 20 correct. OMG, all this time I thought people thought I was funny and 8 out of 20 were FAKING me out. *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1:37 AM

    Got 18 right... did better than I thought...di

    ReplyDelete
  3. TW: Those snots; they had no sense of humor!

    Di: I did better than I thought also; I wonder if I took the same test again if I'd get the same results.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I got 15 out of 20 correct! Damnnit!! Thought I was better than that...it was tricky!

    I think we should sign up as fake smilers! And laughers!

    I'd throw my head back and do my deep, fake belly laugh...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I only got 14. This was funny! Thanks for the diversion :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love the smile!!! Even if it was fake.

    ReplyDelete
  7. You can put one over me pretty much 50% of the time.I got only 13 on 20 right.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous4:47 PM

    I only got ten right. I guess if someone's unhappy they had better just tell me.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous6:00 PM

    Got 15 of the 20-better than I thought I would do.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous11:26 AM

    I got 14 out of 20. Great quiz!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I got 13 out of 20... I got three wrong in a row twice. I am not impressed and I am not smiling!
    :-) LOL

    ReplyDelete
  12. 16 ... not so good.

    ReplyDelete
  13. That looks to me like a drunk smile, not a fake one. There is a difference, you know: It's genuine at the time, but not so funny in the morning...

    ReplyDelete
  14. 15/20 for me. And I'm the psych major, too...

    I missed this one on the BBC site. Thanks -- great fun!

    I'll let you know how John does! Assuming the 20 examples are all Brits, we'll see if he can identify the fakes better than I can.

    Janet

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well, I got John to do the quiz last night. I wanted to test this maybe-Brits-are-better-at-detecting-when-Brits-are-really-smiling theory.

    He only got 12 of 20, blowing my theory completely.

    And while I found it great fun, he found it very frustrating. At least the differences in our reaction to the quiz was interesting!

    Janet

    ReplyDelete

Back talk! Comment here!