Apart from the sloth, which has a permanent smile, the dolphin with a bottlenose is most often associated with smiling. Like the sloth’s, the smile of the bottlenose dolphin is merely a result of its mouth turning up to the side. Even though humans find it difficult to understand, a dolphin who appears to smile at you as it bobbles beside your boat may not actually be saying, “Hey! Let’s become friends!” If dolphins don’t smile at us they might be doing the same thing to each other. When dolphins play with each other, they are more likely than not to show an expression similar to a smile. The authors also point out that this expression can be used to defend. Dolphins may not smile the same way as humans do when they are playing.
Analyzing Animal Faces
Dogs, too, have an open-mouth expression that is very much like a human smile. It’s difficult to tell what the meaning behind an expression is. Researchers in the U.K. studied a range of facial expressions of dogs. The researchers found that dogs show different expressions when they are feeling emotions. These expressions do not correspond to emotions as we would expect. The U.K. researchers found that when dogs are afraid, they often smile.
Cats, on the other hand, don’t seem to smile at all. George Carlin once said that cats do not have facial expressions, because they lack eyebrows. Researchers disagree (not on the eyebrows but the absence of facial expressions among cats).
A team of researchers from England and Australia published a study in 2017 that adapted software developed for objectively coding human facial expressions to cats. Results showed that the faces of cats do show emotions such as anger, fear and frustration. But, alas, no smiles.
Evolution of the Smile
It makes sense to search for other primates that have a smile similar to a human’s. Research has revealed that the open mouth expression used by apes when they play is likely the evolutionary predecessor to the smile. The expression can be difficult to understand. The late animal ethologist and primatologist Frans deWaal described many of the meanings that go behind primate smiles. It seems that a smile can be interpreted in many different ways.
A smile is not necessarily a sign of friendliness or joy, even in humans. Consider nervous smiles and insincere grins. It’s important to distinguish between a smile and grimaces. Why should we assume that animals always smile when they are happy? It is easy to interpret an animal’s facial expression as a sign of friendliness and happiness. Greg Bryant, UCLA cognitive scientist who studies social and communication behavior, says that smiling animals are similar to seeing faces on the clouds. Humans, being social animals as we are, tend to notice patterns everywhere. (Even in toast). It’s natural to mistake an upward-facing mouth for a smile.
Proceed with Caution
But we should proceed with caution. Marc Bekoff, an evolutionary biologist and animal ethicist, avoids using the term smile to describe animals. He says: “I do not think that they are necessarily smiling because they are happy or joyful.”
For example, take dogs. Bekoff says we must consider context when interpreting a dog’s expression. Who is the dog?” What other people are in the photo? Who else is in the picture? What? Another human? Bekoff says that a dog’s smiling (open mouth with lips pulled back and tongue lapped over teeth) occurs most often when the dogs are relaxed but can also occur when they pant. A dog’s panting could indicate fear.
By putting a human spin on their smiles, we may do them a great disservice. Bekoff warns that a person who does not know his dog very well may make an error in interpreting what the animal is feeling. Treating your pet as though they were human might appear harmless or even kind. This is probably not the best thing to do. Bryant says that a dog should be treated as if it were a canine. Dogs are looking for you to lead the pack. The dogs don’t like to negotiate power. They become anxious when you make them feel like they are another person. “Treating your dog as an equal can cause stress”.
Animals do indeed smile. Be careful about what you interpret from these adorable expressions.
