The same smile or held gaze lands differently across cultures. The largest study of this, across 44 cultures, found that in some of them a smiling person is judged less intelligent than the same person not smiling, and that where corruption is high, a smile earns less trust (Krys et al. 2016).
How I Land groups the world into twelve regions, following the GLOBE study’s culture clusters (Gupta, Hanges & Dorfman 2002), and changes a target only where research found a difference. What stays the same everywhere: the two axes that first impressions run on, warmth and dominance, were found again in all 11 world regions tested (Jones et al. 2021).
The twelve regions
English-speaking
For “approachable” the app also asks for parted lips, a broader smile: European Americans rated broad, excited smiles as more outgoing and agreeable than calm ones, more than Hong Kong Chinese did (Tsai et al. 2019). Smiling helps here with looking honest and, a little, with looking intelligent (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand.
Latin Europe
No target changes. Smiling helps with looking honest. For looking intelligent it does little on average, and for France the app’s note is to keep the smile at the low end of its range (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: Portugal, Spain, France, Italy.
Nordic Europe
No target changes. Finnish raters found a direct gaze in person more approachable than an averted one (Akechi et al. 2013).
Countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden.
Germanic Europe
For “competent” the app asks for a more visible smile, lips still closed: the largest gains in perceived intelligence from smiling were found here (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands.
Eastern Europe
No target changes. For looking intelligent a smile does little on average; for Russia the app’s note is to keep it at the low end (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Greece, Georgia.
Latin America
No target changes. The results differ from country to country (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and neighbours.
Sub-Saharan Africa
No target changes. The few countries studied show small effects (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe.
Middle East & North Africa
No target changes. The results differ from country to country; for Iran the app’s note is to keep the smile at the low end (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Gulf states, Iran, Israel.
South Asia (Desi)
For “trustworthy” the smile is optional: here smiling barely moved perceived honesty. A level head, brows not lowered and steady eyes carry it (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives.
Southeast Asia
For “competent” the app asks for a more visible smile, lips still closed: here smiling made faces look more intelligent (Krys et al. 2016).
Countries: Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines.
China & Chinese-speaking
No target changes. A calm smile does the job for “approachable”: Hong Kong Chinese gave broad, excited smiles less of an edge over calm ones than European Americans did (Tsai et al. 2019).
Countries: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore.
Japan & South Korea
For “competent”, a faint smile at most: here smiling made faces look less intelligent, though a mild smile still earns trust (Krys et al. 2016). Eye contact is about 2 seconds at a time, aimed softly between the eyes: Japanese raters judged a held, direct gaze in person as angrier and less approachable than Finnish raters did (Akechi et al. 2013), and Japanese adults in conversation look at the eye region and between the eyes (Haensel et al. 2020). On a screen, direct gaze read as pleasant in both (Uono & Hietanen 2015).
Countries: Japan, South Korea.
In the app
Above “Be seen as”, answer “Where are the people you’ll meet from?”. The outline and the instructions follow the region; “Why” shows what changed and the study behind it.
Free. Nothing is recorded, stored or sent.
A region is a starting point, not a rule about any one person.