Want to look your best? Say cheese! Smiling makes you MORE attractive, study finds

Many celebrities, such as Victoria Beckham, are rarely photographed on camera smiling, perhaps for fear of showing age-revealing laugh lines.

A study suggests that smiling for the camera may make you look more attractive.

The researchers recruited 112 volunteers and presented each of them with 80 pictures of people with neutral expressions or smiling slightly.

When they were asked to rate faces in terms of attractiveness, they gave higher scores to people who were smiling.

When asked how they judged attractiveness, more study participants considered someone’s facial expressions and whether they seemed approachable more than their clothing, hairstyle, and grooming level.

Many celebrities, such as Victoria Beckham, are rarely photographed on camera smiling, perhaps for fear of showing age-revealing laugh lines. A study suggests that smiling for the camera may make you look more attractive

Study volunteers were also asked to scroll through photos of smiling or neutral faces, like using a dating app, but in this case to decide which photos they would “keep” or “delete.”

About 53% of the smiling photos were selected for retention, compared to only about 44% of the photos in which people had neutral expressions.

Dr Christian Walloch, who led the study from the University of Vienna, said: ‘Faces were always straight in Victorian photographs, and in the 1990s it became fashionable again for models and celebrities not to smile – if they wanted to look great.’

But these results suggest that people appear more attractive when they smile.

“It’s a facial expression we’re drawn to, because it makes people look friendly, approachable and non-threatening.

“So when you’re asked to smile for the camera, you’re more likely to do so.”

“I’m sure Victoria Beckham would like to smile more, based on these results.”

The study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, used computer-generated male and female faces that, although they looked so realistic, a handful of study participants guessed they were not real people.

Study participants, ages 18 to 30, had just one second to scroll through each photo and press a key to keep or delete it.

The results showed that people instinctively prefer smiling faces when swiping – suggesting smiley photos on an online dating app can improve your chances of a match.

When asked why they save photos, about 44% of people said facial expressions and friendliness were important.

When they were given more time to look at photos and rate a person’s attractiveness, men and women also preferred smiling people.

Volunteers were also asked to scroll through photos of smiling or neutral faces (pictured) – like using a dating app, but in this case to decide which photos they would “keep” or “delete”. About 53% of the smiling images were selected for retention, compared to only about 44% of those in which people had neutral expressions.

They found these photos to be more beautiful overall, although the beauty rating also took into account factors such as whether the person in the photo had nature or a blank background behind them.

When asked what important factors they use to judge whether photos are attractive, more than a quarter of study volunteers gave an answer referring to facial expressions and how friendly the person appears.

It was the top answer combined with someone’s facial features, facial symmetry and skin texture.

However, the study found that more experienced photographers were less influenced by whether someone was smiling in a photo, because their judgments may be more complex.

Dr Valoch said: “We currently apply filters to selfies to improve the appearance of skin, or remove wrinkles, so in the future it may be easier for us to edit photos to add a smile and make ourselves look more attractive.”

“A holiday photo where someone is not enjoying that moment can be changed in this way, because smiles are so powerful.”