How to SMILE your way to a promotion: Expert reveals which expressions make you look more powerful, honest, and even flirty

• A body language expert from Oxford has pinpointed six types of smiles
  
• These include flirty, submissive, honest, secretive and dominant
• Dr Collett said keeping your eyebrows level while smiling makes you seem more powerful, while raising them suggests submissiveness
• The ‘look-up’ smile can be used to appear seductive and flirtatious
  
• It is also thought to be contagious because it mimics laughter
• Study has found that 67 per cent of women worry about their smiles and both sexes think it's the most attractive feature in a partner

By Sarah Griffiths

Published: 10:21 EST, 19 May 2014 | Updated: 11:03 EST, 19 May 2014

The eyes may be the window to the soul, but a smile can reveal more about a person than first thought.

A body language expert has told MailOnline the tiniest tweak to a smile can change how a person is perceived - from looking up to appear flirtatious, to lowering the eyebrows to look more dominant and powerful, for example.

Dr Peter Collett has pinpointed six types of smiles from the genuine ‘Duchenne’, where the corners of the mouth are pulled up and the muscles around the eyes contract, to the knowing, wry smile.

Secret smiles: A body language expert has revealed the tiniest tweak to a smile can change how someone is perceived - from looking up to appear flirtatious (as seen on Miranda Kerr pictured left) to lowering the brows to look more powerful, which could help you get ahead at work (stock image pictured right)

While the ‘raised-brow’ smile suggests submission, keeping eyebrows level can make the smile more powerful, which could prove useful when negotiating a business deal, or in a job interview.

‘In the realm of facial expressions there’s a big difference between lowered and raised eyebrows, with the former signalling dominance and the latter signalling submission,’ Dr Collett, a psychologist from Oxford, said.

‘When someone smiles with both their eyebrows raised it shows that they don’t want to dominate the situation and they want come across as unthreatening.’

A full smile is called a Duchenne smile - after 19th century anatomist Duchenne de Boulogne, who produced a ground-breaking study of the muscles involved in facial expressions of emotion. The openness of the expression gives the impression that someone is genuine.

A full smile is called a Duchenne smile and signifies that someone is open and genuine (as modelled by George Clooney pictured left), while raising the eyebrows while smiling makes someone look submissive and non-threatening (Diana Vickers is pictured right)

Dr Collett added that the wide open smile is a ‘clever way of getting other people to share one’s positive feelings.'

‘When someone tilts their head back slightly and opens their mouth wide they look like they are laughing rather than smiling.

'Because laughter is so contagious, those of us who see someone doing this are much more likely to be affected by the display and to feel that we share their positive emotions.’

Meanwhile, the ‘look-up’ smile can be used to appear seductive and flirtatious. ‘Some people have a habit of lowering their head slightly when they smile,’ said Dr Collett. 

The wide open smile (modelled on the left by Marilyn Monroe) is a ‘clever way of getting other people to share positive feelings' as it looks as if the person is laughing, which is contagious, while the wry smile (modelled by Emma Watson, right) is intimate and gives the impression they are sharing a secret with someone

‘Unconsciously, this gives the impression that they’re shorter than they really are and that they’re looking up towards the person they’re addressing. 

'This, coupled with the suggestion of embarrassment, makes the look-up smile especially flirtatious, which explains why it’s favoured by women when they’re dealing with impressionable men.’

Some people smile asymmetrically and when they look directly at someone, this wry smile can appear knowing and tells someone that you’re aware of something, or that you share a secret.

‘Smiles come in all shapes and sizes - some are involuntary, others deliberate, and they’re linked to a rich vocabulary of subtle messages,’ continued Dr Collett.

A survey found that just over half of women think a smile is the most attractive trait in a man that they are meeting for the first time, while men also place more importance on a woman's smile than her chest, bottom or legs

‘By taking a closer look at how people smile we can gain a much better understanding of what they’re feeling, and in some cases what kind of person they are. 

'And of course the same principle applies to your own smiles.’

A study of 2,000 people commissioned by Wrigley’s Extra White Bubblemint, found that just over half of women think a smile is the most attractive trait in a man that they are meeting for the first time.

Men also place more importance on a woman’s smile than her chest, bottom or legs.

However, 67 per cent of women and 53 per cent of men said that they worry about their smiles. 

The survey, released to coincide with the launch of National Smile Month today , revealed that there’s nothing better than someone directing a genuine smile straight at us to encourage us to return the favour.

A total of 58 per cent of people smile when they receive a compliment, 37 percent when looking at family photos and one in five when they are praised at work.

The survey revealed that 67 per cent of women and 53 per cent of men said that they worry about their smiles. This graph shows how often people smile a day, with women more likely to crack a grin than men

DR PETER COLLETT’S 10 SMILING FACTS

Up to twelve facial muscles are involved in smiling – slightly more, it’s been observed, than the number of muscles involved in frowning.

The most important of these are the Zygomatic major muscles, which hoist up the corners of the mouth and expose the top teeth, the risorius muscles which pull the corners of the mouth sideways, and the orbicularis oculi which contract around the eyes, creating wrinkles outside the eyes.

There are several things that distinguish fake smiles from genuine smiles. One is asymmetry, where the smile appears more on one side of the face than the other. 

Another is the sudden appearance and disappearance of the smile.

As a rule, genuine smiles involve the muscles around the mouth as well as the orbicularis oculi – those supposedly involuntary muscles around the eyes – whereas false smiles only involve the muscles around the mouth

Psychologists have discovered that women typically smile more than men, and men tend to reduce their smiling in order to appear more dominant.

It’s possible to spot someone’s nationality from how they smile. 

American smiles, for example, concentrate on the Zygomatic major muscles - the muscles that pull up the corners of the mouth and expose the top teeth - whereas English smiles often enlist the risorius muscles, which pull the corners of the mouth sideways, so that the lips remain sealed and the teeth aren’t exposed at all.

The long-term positive effects of smiling were demonstrated by a study in California. 

Researchers analysed the photographs of a large sample of women who had appeared in a  college yearbook in the late 1950s. 

They then contacted the women and interviewed them thirty years later. 

They found that those young students with the biggest smiles had gone on to have the most stable marriages in later life, and that they’d also experienced fewer physical and psychological problems.

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