FAKE LAUGHTER
always looks fake
KEY CONCEPT: Uproarious laughter is expressed with an open mouth, actively squeezed cheeks, clenched eyelids (including tear, for some) and spontaneous, infectious sounds.
Figure 1. Honest-to-goodness laughter is unmistakable. Barack Obama is remarkable for his no-holds-barred, uninhibited laugh. His entire face is either stretched or squeezed up to his eyebrows which are unaffected by all the action.
Spotting a Fake Laugh is Easy.
A real laugh erupts with a burst of emotional energy, a sudden increase in a person's arousal level which they relieve by a sharp release of air through an open, smiling mouth. As shown in Figure 1, real laughter is much more spontaneous and uncontrollable than a typical smile, and it is both pleasant to experience and hear.
Alternatively, fake laughter is a common feature of stock photos, like beer ads, where models, who are not trained actors, unsuccessfully pretend to laugh uproariously on demand. As shown in Figure 2, the models are faking it, and you know it.
A real laugh erupts with a burst of emotional energy, a sudden increase in a person's arousal level which they relieve by a sharp release of air through an open, smiling mouth. As shown in Figure 1, real laughter is much more spontaneous and uncontrollable than a typical smile, and it is both pleasant to experience and hear.
Alternatively, fake laughter is a common feature of stock photos, like beer ads, where models, who are not trained actors, unsuccessfully pretend to laugh uproariously on demand. As shown in Figure 2, the models are faking it, and you know it.
Figure 2. Sure enough, it's a stock photo of fake laughing people drinking real beer.
The key to identifying a "real" laugh is the appearance of the eyes. In all cases, when air is forcibly expelled from the lungs – be it a cough, a sneeze, or a laugh – the eyes squint reflexively, squeezed into a tight line and completely closed.
Eyes Squeezed Tight
Fake laughs always lack the eye squeeze – that’s what makes them look fake. The combination of a gaping, smiling mouth and staring, open eyes is one of the most off-putting expressions in the expressive palette of the face. Since there is no bona fide expression which is remotely similar, people who are posing a fake laugh look ridiculous rather than amused, like they are attempting to catch flies with their widened mouths. There is, in fact, a range of action in the true laugh; the more robust the expression, the wider the mouth and the more tightly compressed the eyes. But even less intense laughter features closed eyes; just like the cough or the sneeze.
Eyes Squeezed Tight
Fake laughs always lack the eye squeeze – that’s what makes them look fake. The combination of a gaping, smiling mouth and staring, open eyes is one of the most off-putting expressions in the expressive palette of the face. Since there is no bona fide expression which is remotely similar, people who are posing a fake laugh look ridiculous rather than amused, like they are attempting to catch flies with their widened mouths. There is, in fact, a range of action in the true laugh; the more robust the expression, the wider the mouth and the more tightly compressed the eyes. But even less intense laughter features closed eyes; just like the cough or the sneeze.
 | Figure 3. Stylized faces, when done well, give us the key features of an expression with no extra, distracting detail. Here an unknown artist puts down all the key elements of the Real Laugh. The eyes are closed and narrowed; there is a little crescent-shaped fold under the eye; the cheeks are full, bounded from below by a deep naso-labial fold; the mouth is widened side-to-side and top-to-bottom, and there are dark pits at the mouth corner, where the teeth curve into the face. Pretty good for a cartoon! |
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Figure 4. True and False. These two drawings are identical except for the eyes. Ordinary smiles with neutral eyes (as opposed to eyes narrowed from below) lack a certain warmth, but when the mouth is dropped open, as in the laugh - with lots of space below the upper teeth - neutral eyes look truly peculiar. There is no sincere expression which combines a smiling, opened mouth with relaxed eyes, so viewers are on their own as to their interpretation. The authentic laugh (left) always features closed eyes, and the more intense the laughter, the tighter the eyes are squeezed. Notice how we assume "true" laughter with the left image, but imagine the “false” image as saying something rather than laughing.
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Figure 5. Fake, fake, fake! More models, more pretend laughs. Models are accustomed to posing from the outside in, rather than channeling the actual feeling they are supposed to portray. The two central woman in the first photo have been tweaked by me in the second photo to make them look truly amused, and not simply models posing.
Figure 6. The great American photographer Garry Winongrand had an eye for juxtaposition and irony. If you find something almost Vampire-like in the expression of the woman (note the extra-pointy figures, the better to slit your throat with), the photographer did, too. Here the focus is on a laugh that is clearly not a laugh, but something harsh, dark, and almost angry. Why that appearance? The mouth is dropped open as far as it can go, but the eyes are staring and wide open, not at all squinted as they should be; the brow appears to be frowning. All in all, it’s not the expression you want to see on the face of your dance partner at a glamorous evening ball. Help!
I end with an excellent quote from "The Fake Laugh," an illuminating article in the New York Times: "Unlike fake laughter, you can’t turn genuine laughter on and off like a spigot, laughter experts said. It ripples and reverberates, providing salve to the soul. So you should find every opportunity to laugh joyfully, and laugh lavishly. "
CREDITS: Figure 1. Photo of President Barack Obama by Jewel Samad (AFP) at the dinner of the Association of Correspondents to the White House on 3 May 2014; Figure 2. This royalty free stock photo is described as "Group of happy young people drinking beer, having fun in pub, laughing," available through www.dreamstime.com; Figure 3. Unknown artist; Figure 4. Illustrations by blog author, Gary Faigin; Figure 5. This generic photo of "a group of women laughing" has been used on the websites of "NatureFlores," an on-line retailer of artificial flowers; FisioSport, a medical rehabilitation center; and, "BRC Recovery," an opioid addiction site! Figure 6. Black & white photo, "El Morocco, New York," 1955 by Gerry Winogrand.
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