It doesn't matter what you wear: The impact of posed and genuine expressions of happiness on product evaluation

Participants were presented with a series of images of a female model wearing a T-shirt and asked to evaluate each T-shirt on a number of dimensions. The T-shirts were identical except for color. The model was identical in all images except for her facial expression, which was either a neutral expression, a genuine smile or a posed smile. T-shirts paired with a genuine smile were evaluated more positively than those paired with either a posed smile or a neutral expression (Experiment 1). The impact of the facial expressions was not, however, seen with short exposure times (Experiment 2). The impact of facial expressions of emotion on product evaluation was seen even when participants viewed the items without an evaluation goal (Experiment 3). Results are discussed in terms of the differences between posed and genuine expressions of emotion.