People settle on a face within about a tenth of a second (Willis & Todorov 2006). When you meet someone new, the look has to be there when your eyes meet theirs, not a moment after.
The greeting
In everyday encounters filmed in three cultures, a quick raise of the brows came at the start of contact, usually with a smile, and signalled a yes to the contact itself (Grammer et al. 1988). Make it a flash, up and back in a fraction of a second: held, raised brows read as surprise (Knoll, Attkiss & Persing 2008). This is the open look.
Then: approachable
- Approachability is read mostly from the mouth: the curve of the lower lip, the width of the mouth, lips apart (Vernon et al. 2014). Happy faces were rated the most approachable, angry ones the least (Willis, Palermo & Burke 2011).
- Keep your brows at their resting height or higher, and your chin level.
- Look at their eyes for about 3 seconds at a time, then glance to the side, not down (Binetti et al. 2016; Mason, Tatkow & Macrae 2005).
On a first date
Warmth first: approachable or happy. Let a smile last: smiles seen as amused lasted about twice as long as polite ones (Ambadar, Cohn & Reed 2009). And let it build; a smile that switches on reads as put on (Krumhuber et al. 2009).
At a networking event
You want to be approached and taken seriously. A slight closed smile does both: a broad one reads warmer but less competent (Wang et al. 2017). See competent.
Practise it live
Open How I Land and choose “open” after “Be seen as”. Your camera shows your face with the look drawn on it, and one instruction at a time tells you what to move. When it fits, hold it for five seconds to remember the position.
Free. Nothing is recorded, stored or sent.