Gender differences in smiling

Discusses the nature and size of the gender difference in smiling, moderators of the difference, and possible explanations for the difference. The authors describe and evaluate the various general explanations that have been proposed, and discuss society's stereotypic expectations for smiling in men and women and what effects the stereotypes and the smiling difference itself have, in turn, on men and women. The authors draw on published reviews of the smiling literature, as well as individual studies that shed light on their questions, taking a social psychological perspective. Their emphasis is on smiling from middle childhood on up (mainly adolescence and adulthood), with no discussion of smiling in infancy.