Pearly Whites Episode 1

In the podcast episode "Pearly Whites," the host explores the topic of creepy smiles in media. They discuss how the Uncanny Valley phenomenon, where something almost human but not quite is unsettling, applies to creepy smiles. The host also explores the role of AI-generated smiles and the specific directions given to actors to create creepy smiles in movies. They question whether the level of human likeness affects the creepiness of a smile. The host then delves into the portrayal of creepy smiles in the movie "Smile" and the character of the Cheshire Cat in "Alice in Wonderland." They consider how animals bear their teeth and the different meanings behind smiling in non-human and human-like animals. The host ponders if creepy smiles make humans seem more animal-like and if intentions can be read through facial expressions. They mention a scientist working on reading people's intentions through their faces and the potential for aggression hidden behind a smile. The psychological effect Hi everyone, my name is Sasha Powell and I'd like to formally welcome you to the first and last episode of Pearly Whites, the podcast where we dive into the how, what, and why of creepy smiles in media. Today's episode will be specifically focusing on two movies, Alice in Wonderland and Smile. The first thing I'd like to talk about is the physical appearance of a creepy smile. An article called Infants Prefer the Faces of Strangers or Mothers to Morphed Faces, Uncanny Valley Between Social Novelty and Familiarity, claims exactly what it sounds like it claims. It analyzes an experiment in which babies are shown pictures of strangers, their mothers, and morphed faces to see which one they seem to prefer. The result? Uncanny Valley is a real thing. Stuff that's almost but not quite human is creepy on a level so fundamental that even babies can recognize it. This made me think that maybe one of the reasons that the monster in Smile is so scary is because it's not quite human, but it's close enough to lie in the Uncanny Valley. But I had always thought that the Uncanny Valley was only associated with AI, so I resolved to see if that was always the case. I found another article called Smiling AI Agents, How Anthromorphism and Broad Smiles Increase Charitable Giving, which is all about what makes a friendly smile and how to replicate it in AI-generated people. And I decided that although this article doesn't directly show that the phrase Uncanny Valley can be used outside of the context of AI, it does show at the very least that AI generated people don't have to lie in the Uncanny Valley. Or, in other words, the fact that the people were generated by AI didn't cause the Uncanny Valley effect. There was something specific about their smiles that made people unsettled. In light of this discovery, I decided to pursue this hypothesis that creepy smiles are not quite human. I found an article called What Makes the Smile and Smile So Freaking Creepy. This is all about how the directors in Smile directed the actors to do the scary smile that the movie is so well known for. The directions were actually pretty involved, which just goes to show that the actors had to learn how to smile like that. It didn't come naturally or easily. I happened across another article, this one titled The Psychology of Fear New Developments, which had a chapter that briefly mentioned Slenderman. This got me thinking. Facelessness versus having a wrong face, or, in other words, a face that a human shouldn't normally be making. Slenderman is a very simple example of something that is human-ish, and he raised the question for me. Would Slenderman be as creepy if he was less human-like, or would he be more creepy if he was more human-like? Shortly after this, I realized that I had really only been thinking about Smile and decided to give Alice in Wonderland some of my attention. The reason that I chose to look at Alice in Wonderland in the first place was because of the character of the Cheshire Cat was intriguing to me. Although similar to the monster in Smile, the Cheshire Cat is not a human, it differs in that it is a real-life animal. The Cheshire Cat's iconic toothy smile, although more human-like than the average animal is capable of, made me want to look into animals that bear their teeth. So, like any really serious scholar, I went to Wikipedia and found a page titled Smile. As I had expected, it said that for many less human-like animals, dogs for instance, bearing teeth was a sign of aggression. However, it also said that for more human-like animals, monkeys for instance, bearing teeth is actually the opposite, a sign of submission. This made me consider the question, what does smiling mean for humans? Is it closer to the non-human-like or human-like animals? I realized that normal smiles are typically friendly gestures, closer to submission. However, creepy smiles are frequently signs of bad intentions, which is similar to aggression. This made me consider the possibility that creepy smiles are scary because they make humans seem more animal-like. However, this raises the question, can you actually read someone's aggression or bad intention on their faces, even when they're trying to hide it behind a smile? Is there something more to reading faces than simply registering what expression they're making? Because if there is nothing more to it, a smile should always be a friendly sign, no matter how it is executed. That's when I stumbled upon a book called Fear, which was already an extremely intriguing title. In chapter 8 of this book, it talks about a scientist who is working on methods to read people's intentions on their faces, specifically dealing with criminals and dangerous people who would undoubtedly be attempting to hide their true intentions. This article convinced me that a smile does, in fact, have the potential to harbor an animalistic aggression behind it. Alright, so the how and why of a creepy smile is obviously very interesting. However, it's all about the smiler and says nothing about the smiley, so I decided to try to dive into the psychological effects that a creepy smile can have on the onlooker. I'm going to be completely honest here, this was definitely the hardest section. It was hard to research for, and it's hard to produce a cohesive conclusion. However, I have to do my journalistic duty and present the evidence. Maybe you, the listener, can draw some conclusions for yourself. During my research on the movie Smile, I stumbled upon a critique of the movie titled Smile, a shallow treatment of mental illness in the world of the supernatural. This intrigued me because up until this point I had only read positive things about the movie, and I'm glad I read it because this article brought up the very interesting point that the movie was originally supposed to be dealing with mental illness. This made me consider the possibility that creepy smiles could allude to mental illness. Maybe the psychological effect of seeing a creepy smile is the uncomfortable reality of having to confront your own fear of mental illness. An article called Landscapes of Fear had a section in chapter 9 that discussed witches and how their incognito nature enhanced fear. Because they looked like normal people, they could deceive others into believing they weren't witches, and that made them scarier. I found this very interesting because when someone believes that they might be being lied to, that definitely affects them psychologically. Creepy smiles are typically deceptive in nature, as they are bad intentions hiding behind a friendly facial expression. Is that what makes them scary? Would humans prefer to be confident that someone has bad intentions instead of unsure as to what a person's intentions are? Thank you for listening to my journey into the nitty-gritty of creepy smiles. I hope you enjoyed and left with a conclusion that creepy smiles can be scary for a number of reasons, and who knows, may even vary from person to person.