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ORIGINAL PAPER
Smile intensity in photographs predicts divorce later in life
Matthew J. Hertenstein ÆCarrie A. Hansel Æ
Alissa M. Butts ÆSarah N. Hile
ÓSpringer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009
Abstract Based on social–functional accounts of emo-
tion, we conducted two studies examining whether the
degree to which people smiled in photographs predicts the
likelihood of divorce. Along with other theorists, we pos-
ited that smiling behavior in photographs is potentially
indicative of underlying emotional dispositions that have
direct and indirect life consequences. In the first study, we
examined participants’ positive expressive behavior in
college yearbook photos and in Study 2 we examined a
variety of participants’ photos from childhood through
early adulthood. In both studies, divorce was predicted by
the degree to which subjects smiled in their photos.
Keywords Emotion Positive emotion Divorce
Introduction
Many contemporary theories in affective science hold that
our emotions organize our daily lives and do so throughout
our lifespans (e.g., Izard and Ackerman 2000; Keltner and
Gross 1999). Such social–functional approaches to emotion
posit that individual differences in emotionality lead to
systematic and reliable differences in behavioral, cognitive,
and physiological responses. These differences are thought
to arise both from the intrapersonal (Levenson 1999) and
the interpersonal (Frijda 2007) functions served by emotion
and are thought to lead to differential life consequences
(Keltner and Gross 1999).
Based on social–functional approaches to emotion,
Harker and Keltner (2001) conducted a study examining
women’s yearbook pictures at an elite institution in relation
to a variety of life outcomes including health, personality,
and marriage. Harker and Keltner calculated the intensity
of female students’ smiles in their senior yearbook photo.
Throughout their adult lives, subjects completed assess-
ments of their well-being, personality, and marriage.
Harker and Keltner (2001) discovered that the more
intense the subject’s positive expression shown in her
senior yearbook picture, the more likely that she would be
married by age 27 and would have a more satisfying
marriage in adulthood. Furthermore, she was more likely to
be more organized, content, nurturing, compassionate, and
sociable than those women with less intense smiles.
1
These researchers theorized that positive emotionality in
photographs could be an index for enduring emotional
tendencies that shape personality and the life course
through their influence on social, cognitive, and behavioral
repertoires (Harker and Keltner 2001). Moreover, these
emotional tendencies may have direct consequences on
others, such that people displaying more positive displays
may evoke positive responses in others thereby facilitating
This research was supported by DePauw University’s Faculty
Development Program, as well as the Asher Fund.
M. J. Hertenstein (&)C. A. Hansel A. M. Butts S. N. Hile
DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, USA
e-mail: mhertenstein@depauw.edu
1
It should be noted that in a follow-up study, many of these findings
were not replicated in a more diverse sample (Freese et al. 2006).
However, these researchers employed a different system of coding for
the smile intensity of their participants. More specifically, instead of
coding the smiles along a continuum like Harker and Keltner (2001),
they coded expressions trichotomously (no smile, Duchenne smile, or
non-Duchenne smile) which yielded a more gross assessment of
smiling behavior. These researchers attempted to adopt Harker and
Keltner’s coding procedure, but were dissatisfied with the inter-rater
agreement achieved. The discrepancy in coding procedure likely
contributed to the lack of replication of Harker and Keltner’s results.
123
Motiv Emot
DOI 10.1007/s11031-009-9124-6
personal bonds (Scarr and McCartney 1983). According to
Keltner (2004), facial expressions play a key role in fore-
casting an individual’s life outcomes. An individual’s
propensity for certain facial expressions reflects one’s
interpretation of proximal events, which shapes how life
events transpire and influences others’ interactions with
oneself (Keltner). Thus, there is a sound theoretical ratio-
nale on which Harker and Keltner’s study was based
(Freese et al. 2006).
Harker and Keltner’s (2001) investigation falls squarely
into the ‘‘thin slicing’’ literature (Ambady et al. 2000). This
literature indicates that from very limited segments of
nonverbal behavior, one can accurately infer a variety of
characteristics including socioeconomic status (Kraus and
Keltner 2009), teacher evaluations (Ambady and Rosenthal
1993), sexual orientation (Ambady et al. 1999), and some
facets of personality (Albright et al. 1988) to name only a
few. A meta-analysis of this literature indicated that (1)
‘‘thick’’ slices of behavior beyond a half-minute, (2) the
various channels of the stimuli that are used (face, voice,
etc.), and (3) the setting in which the stimuli were pre-
sented (lab vs. naturally occurring) did not affect the
accuracy with which people could assess a host of char-
acteristics (Ambady and Rosenthal 1992). Like Harker and
Keltner’s study, the current investigation falls within the
thin slicing literature as it examines snapshots in time of
expressive behavior in photographs.
Study 1
In Study 1, we examined the potential relationship between
smiling intensity in yearbook photos and one major life
event of central importance to demographers, sociologists,
and psychologists alike—divorce. As Harker and Keltner
(2001) have proposed, one’s facial expressions shape and
forge the environment in which an individual interacts,
which should especially include one’s more intimate
spousal relations. Could it be that in today’s society where
almost half of all marriages end in divorce, an individual’s
likelihood to divorce could be predicted simply by exam-
ining one’s facial displays of emotion in photographs? The
current study seeks to determine the relationship between
one’s propensity to display positive emotionality and
divorce.
Harker and Keltner (2001) examined whether positive
emotionality in photographs predicts divorce. They did not
find a significant relation between the two variables, but
their study was limited in a few important respects, most of
which Harker and Keltner acknowledge. First, they only
asked participants whether they were divorced at age 43,
not nearly long enough to determine if participants would,
in fact, obtain a divorce later.
2
Second, the study focused
solely on females, which leaves one to ask how males
would fare (Harker and Keltner 2001). There is a long
history of documenting gender differences in the displays
of emotion in affective science. In general, men smile more
than women (LaFrance et al. 2003), though these differ-
ences are inconsistent and vary across social, cultural,
personality, and situational variables (Brody and Hall
2008). In general, women smile, nod, laugh, and use their
hands to communicate emotions more in comparison to
men (Brody and Hall). Moreover, women more accurately
portray their deliberately posed and spontaneous facial
emotions in contrast to men (Hall 1984). Finally, both men
and women emit Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles in
approximately the same proportions, indicating that one
gender’s smiles are no more ‘‘artificial’’ than the other’s
(Brody and Hall; Hecht and LaFrance 1998). Most relevant
to the current investigation was a study conducted by Re-
gan (1982) in which she analyzed university students’
smiles in yearbook photos. She found that women smiled
more frequently and intensely than did males. In another
study, researchers found that men smiled less than women
in posed photos, but equally as much in spontaneous
interactions (Hall et al. 2001). According to LaFrance et al.
(2003), this pattern of results indicates that women’s
expressive behavior in monitored situations (like photos)
reflects gender-stereotyped norms, such as being commu-
nal and expressive; whereas, less monitored and evaluative
contexts, such as spontaneous conversations, produce less
pressure to behave in those gender-stereotyped manners.
Finally, Harker and Keltner (2001) used only one pho-
tograph to make their predictions. In the current study, we
used all available photos in the yearbooks for all students.
The current study addresses these limitations, thus inves-
tigating whether one’s propensity to display positive
emotionality is related to a key life outcome—divorce.
Method
Sample 1
Of the 1,272 psychology alumni contacted, 359 responded
to an e-mail inviting them to complete online question-
naires, but 53 individuals were removed from the sample
due to no yearbook photos. The remaining sample con-
sisted of 306 (204 female and 102 male). Ranging in age
between 23- and 87-years-old (M=47 years, SD =
14.97), the participants were Caucasian (96%), African
American (2%), Multiracial (1%), and Other (1%). In the
fall of 2005, data were collected on graduates from a small
Midwestern education institution between 1941 and 2005
(M=1981, SD =15.2).
2
The same is true for Freese et al.’s (2006) follow-up study.
Motiv Emot
123
Sample 2
In an effort to replicate the previous results in an independent
sample and extend the population beyond psychology major
alumni, we employed the same methodology and recruited
more alumni from the same University, but expanded our
criteria to all graduates. In response to an e-mail invitation
sent to approximately 18,000 alumni (excluding alumni
majoring in psychology), 428 people completed online
questionnaires, but 79 individuals were removed from the
sample due to no yearbook photos. The remaining sample
consisted of 349 alumni (225 female and 124 male) who
graduated between 1948 and 2005 (M=1981, SD =16.3).
Ranging in age between 21- and 81-years-old (M=
46 years, SD =16.64), the participants were Caucasian
(96%), African American (1%), Multiracial (1%), and Other
(2%). The data were collected in the fall of 2005. These
demographics indicate that the sample was roughly equal to
the first sample other than the fact that sample 2 did not
contain any psychology majors.
Photo coding procedure
We adopted the same coding procedure used by Harker and
Keltner (2001) which was published in the Journal of Per-
sonality and Social Psychology. Drawing upon Ekman and
Friesen’s Facial Action Coding System, FACS, (1976,
1978), two muscle action units, AU6 and AU12, were ana-
lyzed for each photo. The combination of these actions units
are used to reflect positive facial expression because AU6
(orbicularis oculi) causes one’s cheeks to raise as well as
bagging around the eyes while AU12 (zygomatic major)
causes the corners of the mouth to move upward forming a
smile. The intensity of each action unit was scored utilizing a
5-point intensity scale (ranging from 1-minimal to 5-
extreme). A smile intensity score was created by adding
together the scores of Action Unit 12 and Action Unit 6 (2
meaning no smile and 10 being the highest smile intensity
score available; Ekman and Friesen). Once all photos for an
individual subject were scored, all of that participant’s smile
intensity scores were averaged to provide a total smile
intensity score. It should be noted that the coding system
used in the present study and by Harker and Keltner is not
identical to FACS. In Ekman and Friesen’s scheme, scores
could range from 0 to 12 as zeros are given to muscles that
demonstrate no contraction. However, because the present
study was meant as a follow-up to Harker and Keltner’s
investigation, we adopted their coding scheme.
For sample one, all photos (847 total photos) were coded
by one author (S.H.) and a random subset (10%) was coded
by another author (A.B.). Neither coder had access to any
other information regarding the participants when coding.
Following Harker and Keltner’s protocol for creating an
intercoder reliability ratio, the number of unanimous action
units were multiplied by two and then divided by the total
number of scored action units rated by the two coders. The
intercoder reliability ratio was 0.82. For sample two, all
photos (968 total photos) were coded by one author (A.B.)
and a random subset (10%) was coded by another author
(S.H.). The intercoder reliability ratio was 0.82. For both
studies, final analyses were based on the author who coded
100% of the data.
Measures
Participants answered three questions to assess their rela-
tionship status. The alumni were asked if they were
currently in a committed relationship, if they had ever been
in a committed relationship, and if they had ever been
divorced (Due to university constraints, subjects were not
directly asked whether they were married, but were instead
asked if they had ever been in a committed relationship).
These variables were coded dichotomously (Yes/No). By
using the answers to these questions, data were filtered to
provide only those subjects who had ever been in a com-
mitted relationship. These data were then analyzed as to
whether they had divorced or not. Other measures were
administered as part of a larger research project, but only
those that are pertinent to the present report are described.
Results
For the first sample, the mean score for smile intensity (the
sum of the AU6 and AU12 scores) was 5.73 (SD =1.65).
The scores ranged from the lowest possible score of 2
through a high score of 9 (the highest score possible was 10).
Confirming our hypothesis, as a whole, smile intensity pre-
dicted whether or not participants divorced at some point in
their lives. The less intensely participants smiled, the more
likely they would be divorced later in life. This effect was
strongest amongst females, but was somewhat evident
amongst males as well. For the second sample, the mean
score for smile intensity (the sum of the AU6 and AU12
scores) was 5.76 (SD =1.67). The scores ranged from the
lowest possible score of 2 through a high score of 8. Like
sample 1, as a whole, smile intensity predicted whether or not
participants divorced at some point in their lives. The less
intensely participants smiled, the more likely they would be
divorced later in life. Contrary to the first sample, this effect
was strongest amongst males, but was somewhat evident
amongst females as well. Please refer to Table 1for
descriptive and inferential statistics (pvalues are one-tailed
given the directional hypotheses of the studies).
3
3
We also analyzed the data using logistic regression techniques
entering the dichotomous variable (divorce) as the criterion variable
Motiv Emot
123
Study 2
To replicate the findings in study 1 as well as assess gen-
eralizability to other populations, we recruited a
community sample of adults over the age of 55 years.
Participants provided photographs of themselves between
the ages of 5- and 22-years-old, which constitutes a larger
age span for the photos than the other two samples that
focused solely on the college years. In addition, partici-
pants in this study were allowed to include any photos of
their choice, including school photos, wedding photos,
photos taken with family members, etc. Indeed, Harker and
Keltner (2001) acknowledged the need for a variety of
photographs taken in different contexts. As they pointed
out, basic principles of personality and statistics dictate that
more indices of assessment over time and across contexts
yield a more reliable index of emotionality (Bem and Allen
1974). Here, we assessed emotionality in photographs
taken in a variety of situations and contexts over a span of
years.
Method
Participants
Sixty-one people from a small, Midwestern town respon-
ded to the invitation to participate in a photo study, which
included completing questionnaires. Six individuals were
removed from the sample due to their photos not being
clear enough to code. The remaining sample consisted of
55 mature adults (44 female and 11 male). Ranging in age
between 59- and 91-years-old (M=73 years, SD =7.37),
the volunteers were Caucasian (87%), African American
(9%), and Other (4%). Individuals from this sample did not
overlap with the previous samples.
Participants were recruited by disseminating materials in
areas of the community where individuals were most likely
to be aged 55 years and older. Each participant was given a
packet which included instructions, a consent form, mul-
tiple questionnaires, and envelopes for each photo. Upon
completion of the consent form and questionnaires, par-
ticipants were asked to provide up to eight photographs of
themselves between the ages of 5- and 22-years-old. The
mean age at which photos were taken in the study was
10.15-years-old (SD =5.36). Any photos were allowed
including school photos, wedding photos, photos taken
with family, etc. Participants placed each photo in one of
the return envelopes and marked the envelope with their
age in the photograph. When all the photos were collected,
the subject placed all of the envelopes with photos, the
consent form, and questionnaires inside a large envelope
and then contacted the lab for someone to retrieve the
package. Upon receipt of the completed questionnaires and
photos, all portraits were scanned for each participant and
the originals returned within 1 week. Participants were
offered a small monetary gift card for a retail store.
Photo coding procedure
The same coding procedure was employed as in Study 1.
All photos (217 total) were coded by one author (S.H.) and
a random subset (10%) was coded by another author
(A.B.). The intercoder reliability ratio was 0.82.
Life outcome measures
Participants answered three questions to assess their rela-
tionship status, but these questions were slightly altered
Table 1 Descriptive and inferential results: smile intensity and divorce
Study Group Not divorced Divorced
nMSD nMSD df t p r
Study 1: sample 1 All 235 5.9 1.6 49 5.0 1.6 282 3.34** 0.01 -0.20
Male 70 4.7 1.7 22 4.1 1.4 90 1.51
0.07 -0.16
Female 165 6.4 1.3 27 5.8 1.3 190 2.17* 0.02 -0.16
Study 1: sample 2 All 258 5.9 1.7 68 5.3 1.7 324 2.79** 0.01 -0.15
Male 84 5.2 1.7 30 4.6 1.6 112 1.79* 0.04 -0.17
Female 174 6.2 1.5 38 5.8 1.5 210 1.52
0.07 -0.10
Study 2 All 31 5.2 1.6 20 4.4 1.5 49 1.78* 0.04 -0.25
Male 7 4.5 1.4 2 3.6 2.2 7 0.75 0.24 -0.27
Female 24 5.4 1.6 18 4.5 1.4 40 1.86* 0.04 -0.28
*p\0.05, ** p\0.01,
p\0.10
Footnote 3 continued
and the average smiling score as the predictor variable. Overall, the
analyses yielded the same pattern of results as those presented in
Table 1.
Motiv Emot
123
from Study 1. The modification was to ask directly about
marriage and not just if they had been involved in a
committed relationship. The mature adults were asked if
they were currently married, if they had ever been married,
and if they had ever been divorced. By using the answers to
these questions, data were filtered to provide only those
subjects who had ever been married. These subjects who
had been married were then compared to determine whe-
ther they had divorced or not.
Results
The mean score for smile intensity (the sum of the AU6
and AU12 scores) was 4.82 (SD =1.56). The scores ran-
ged from the lowest possible score of 2 through a high
score of 10 (the highest score possible was 10). Continuing
the same pattern, smile intensity predicted whether or not
participants divorced at some point in their lives. The less
intensely participants smiled, the more likely they would
be divorced later in life. This was only evident, however,
amongst females. The group sample size (n=7) was
insufficient to examine whether divorce could be predicted
amongst males. Please refer to Table 1for descriptive and
inferential statistics. It should be noted that smile intensity
scores were collapsed across several different types of
photos (e.g., school photos, wedding photos, family pho-
tos). There are likely different demand characteristics for
smiling in these various contexts. However, the goal of this
study was to average smiling behavior across contexts to
derive a more reliable index of smiling behavior (Bem and
Allen 1974). Moreover, given the fallibility of subjects’
memories, we thought it impractical to ask them the spe-
cific context in which a photo was taken, especially when
some photos were taken when subjects were as young as 5-
years-old.
4
General discussion
For the first time, the current studies provide evidence that
the degree to which one smiles in photographs taken in
early life predicts the likelihood that a person will be
divorced later in life. In Study 1, photographs taken in early
adulthood predicted this life outcome; whereas, Study 2
demonstrated that photographs throughout early life pre-
dicted divorce. Our findings are consistent with
researchers’ contentions that emotional tendencies influ-
ence the life course through social, cognitive, biological,
and behavioral processes (Harker and Keltner 2001; Izard
and Ackerman 2000; Keltner 2004; Malatesta 1990).
Yearbook photos, which are extremely thin slices of
behavior, may reflect participants’ stable emotional ten-
dencies and these tendencies seem to forecast some life
outcomes, such as divorce. This is consistent with Fred-
rickson and her colleagues’ broaden-and-build theory of
positive emotion, which holds that positive emotions
strengthen interpersonal bonds throughout the lifespan
(e.g., Fredrickson and Losada 2005). It is also consistent
with social–functional accounts of emotion which hold that
emotions shape our lives throughout the lifespan via
behavioral, physiological, and cognitive processes (e.g.,
Izard and Ackerman 2000; Keltner and Gross 1999).
The current investigation extended the literature on the
predictiveness of early positive emotion on life outcomes,
particularly divorce, in several ways. First, male partici-
pants were included in the sample. Male and female
developmental processes are not the same (Carstensen et al.
2003), thus the current study’s inclusion of males is an
important contribution when examining divorce. Second,
the current investigation examined whether participants
divorced throughout their lifetime (or, at least, before they
participated in the study), not just before their middle age
as was done in previous research (Harker and Keltner
2001). Third, participants in Study 1 were from a number
of different cohorts. Harker and Keltner focused on only
women who graduated from college in the late 1960s.
Thus, the current investigation extends the findings of
previous work by including a number of different birth
cohorts. Fourth, Study 2 included a community sample
rather than a sample of convenience as has been done in
almost every previous study. Fifth, participants in the last
study were allowed to include photos beyond just their
yearbook photos. Thus, the predictiveness of early emotion
in photographs is not limited to yearbook photos, but other
types of photos as well, such as wedding photos and family
photos. Finally, Study 2 employed pictures taken from
childhood through early adulthood rather than relying
solely on photos taken in early adulthood. In fact, the
average age of participants in the photos was 10-years-old.
Thus, divorce can not only be predicted by photographs
taken in early adulthood, but in childhood as well. As
mentioned, basic principles of personality and statistics
dictate that more indices of assessment over time and
across contexts yield a more reliable index of emotionality
(Bem and Allen 1974). Here, we assessed emotionality in
photographs taken in a variety of situations and contexts
over a number of different years.
The present investigation is limited in a few respects, all
of which call for future investigation. First, this study did
not account for the attractiveness of the participants. We
opted not to examine this variable because previous
4
Like study 1, we also analyzed the data using logistic regression
techniques entering the dichotomous variable (divorce) as the
criterion variable and the average smiling score as the predictor
variable. Overall, the analyses yielded the same pattern of results as
those presented in Table 1.
Motiv Emot
123
research examining life outcomes and positive emotional
displays in photographs found that attractiveness played
little, if any role (Harker and Keltner 2001). Nevertheless,
attractiveness is a possible alternative explanation for our
findings, though given previous data, we do not think this
to be the case. Second, due to university constraints, the
relationship status was more ambiguous for the alumni than
the local community members. The alumni were asked if
they were ever in a committed relationship; whereas, the
local community members were asked if they had ever
been married. Although, by asking all of the subjects if
they had ever divorced, it was implied that they must have
been married before they could technically be divorced.
Future research should refine the committed relationship
variable by separating out those individuals who have been
in a marriage versus those who have been in a committed
relationship without marriage. In addition, future studies
should assess the number of times that people have been
divorced, rather than asking participants if they had been
divorced or not. Third, it is very possible that our findings
and those of others who employ similar methodologies are
limited to US culture. Obviously, some cultures may not
smile as much in photographs compared to those in the US.
Moreover, their smiles may be displayed and interpreted
differently.
Finally, like Harker and Keltner (2001), our data do not
reveal the specific process(es) that may account for the
relation between smiling in early life and divorce. Given
the complexity of the smile in terms of its situational
specificity, it does not yield to any overarching and com-
plete framework to explain its relation to life outcomes
(LaFrance et al. 2003). However, a number of interesting
and potentially important mechanisms can be posited
between smiling behavior and divorce given existing the-
oretical insights and data. First, our findings accord with
the enduring dynamics model of marriages (e.g., Huston
and Houts 1998) which holds that personality dispositions,
especially those closely related to emotionality, shape the
quality of exchanges between partners and these disposi-
tions have a stable effect on relationships. Smiling behavior
in photographs may reflect peoples’ stable personality
dispositions (Keltner 2004). A significant body of research
demonstrates that people with greater levels of positive
emotionality take advantage of opportunities, are more
open to social relationships, are more capable of ‘‘undo-
ing’’ sporadic negative emotions, and appraise ambiguous
events more positively (Fredrickson and Losada 2005). Our
findings are congruent with researchers who find that lack
of positive emotionality in marriages predicts divorce
(Gottman et al. 2001). It’s likely that the aforementioned
consequences that come from individual differences in
positive emotionality likely affect long-term relationships,
including marriage, over a lifetime (Huston and Houts).
A second related mechanism by which smiling behavior
may influence divorce relates to Scarr’s (1992) and Ban-
dura’s (2006,2008) theories of gene-environment
interaction. Research indicates that individual differences
in positive emotionality are inherited to some degree
(McCrae and Costa 1991). According to Scarr’s and Ban-
dura’s theories, one of the ways in which our behavioral
tendencies operate over the lifespan is through niche-
picking—seeking out environments consistent with one’s
genetic tendencies. People high in positive emotionality
may be more likely to seek out environments more con-
ducive to happy marriages and may even seek out partners
who are higher in positive emotionality themselves.
A third mechanism by which smiling behavior may
influence divorce relates the signal value of emotional
displays. Fridlund’s (1994) behavioral ecological perspec-
tive holds that emotional displays signal to others the
behavioral intent of the emoter. Thus, smiling conveys a
readiness to affiliate (i.e., ‘‘Let’s be friends’’) with the
other. If smiling behavior in photographs reflects a general
tendency to smile toward others in naturally occurring
situations (this is an empirical question), the emoter profits
from a lifetime of displayed affiliative cues. Such cues,
according to Scarr’s (1992) genotype-environment theory,
evoke more positive eliciting circumstances in one’s life
which likely play an important role in marriage.
A final mechanism comes from work that indicates that
displays of emotion can elicit congruent reactions in per-
ceivers (Dimberg et al. 2000). Perceivers who view facial
displays, including smiling behavior, demonstrate a con-
gruent facial display at unconscious levels. In addition,
perceivers will smile at almost imperceptible levels when
exposed to pictures of smiling stimuli, even at unconscious
levels. This emotional contagion effect may be playing out
throughout one’s life with a long-term partner.
In sum, the current investigation demonstrates that from
extremely thin slices of behavior, the divorce status of
individuals can be ascertained. The effect was replicated in
three separate samples, comprised of several cohorts and
for both genders. Future research should examine process
oriented variables that underlie the relationship between
smiling and life outcomes in general, and divorce
specifically.
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