Putting broad smiles in ads may backfire

Broad smiles lead people to be perceived as warmer, but less competent, say scientists who found that smile intensity in marketing ads may influence consumer behaviour.
However, a more intense smile may elicit more buzz on social media, with photos with a broader smile receiving twice as many Facebook shares than those with a slight smile.
The researchers including one from University of Kansas in the US conducted experiments in which respondents viewed marketing images that included marketers with either broad or slight smiles.
They also conducted a content analysis of postings on a crowd-funding website, where people commonly seek donations for causes or business ventures.

Past marketing and psychological research has focused on smiles leading consumers to perceive people as being friendly and viewed in a more positive light.
However, the new study shows that is true but that there can be a trade-off in how a smile might elicit action from a consumer.

"We found that broad smiles lead people to be perceived as warmer but less competent. We ask how that can influence consumer behaviour and in what situations might marketers want to smile more broadly," said Jessica Li, assistant professor at the KU School of Business.
Li said one consideration is the context of the service the marketer is providing and whether or not there is potential risk associated with it.

The intensity of someone's smile in a marketing image elicits two fundamental dimensions of social judgements - warmth and competence, the researchers found.
Li said broader smiles that tend to elicit more warmth seem to be more effective in promotional ads for a service that would carry less risk.
However, photos with a slight smile did better in marketing scenarios where services were higher risk, such as a medical procedure, legal representation or investment in a startup company.
"If I see an ad with a heart surgeon who smiles really broadly at me, I might think she is really warm, but not choose her to be my doctor because she seems less competent than a surgeon with a slight smile," Li said.

"If the risk is really low, such as going to the store to get a new shirt, then the competence of the salesperson is not as important and I respond more positively to the broad smile," she said.
In their analysis of the crowd-funding website, when the page creator's profile photo exhibited a broad smile that tended to elicit perceptions of warmth, the total amount of money pledged decreased by more than 50 per cent and the average contribution per backer was 30 per cent less than when the creator's photo included only a slight smile.
The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Research.