A smiling mouth expression modulates gaze appearance by enhancing how the eyes light up
Giulia Parovel, Stefano Guidi · 2026
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Description
Giulia Parovel and Stefano Guidi document a visual quirk in 2026: a smiling mouth makes the eyes above it look brighter. Earlier work on mixed expressions focused on emotion reading, not raw appearance. The pair ran two within-subject experiments where volunteers rated eye brightness and smile strength for whole faces and for isolated features.
Eye brightness ratings climbed steadily as the paired mouth smiled more, even when the eyes stayed neutral. A smiling mouth also lifted genuine Duchenne smiling eyes above their solo baseline, while a neutral mouth dimmed them. The effect showed up in photos, paintings, and even face-like patterns. Parovel and Guidi frame the mouth and eyes as one integrated expression.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Giulia Parovel, Stefano Guidi |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 58273 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |