Facial Expressions

Jokes are funnier if the audience already is smiling. This is another theory of 19th-Century naturalist Charles Darwin. It has been proven by a modern researcher. According to Discover magazine, West German social psychologist Fritz Strack recently proved that even a "smile" forced by holding a pen in the teeth with the lips pulled back significantly, increased the humor "smilers" saw in a series of cartoons.

Re "Top Designers Reveal Some Ideas to See Us Through Spring" (Oct. 11). Sex appeal? Try sick appeal! The pathetic, skeletal bodies, sunken eyes and haunted facial expressions of the models accompanying the article are far more riveting than the outfits they are wearing. Does the fashion industry still get a pass on idealized anorexia and bulimia? The article reports that the clothing was so transparent, the fashion press worried about their photos making it into family newspapers.

A low-budget, no-excitement thriller, "The Victim" was written and directed by Michael Biehn, who also stars as a loner whose chance encounter with a frantic stripper leads to all sorts of mayhem. Annie (Jennifer Blanc) turns up at the cabin where Biehn's Kyle lives with a tale of a woodsy tryst with dirty cops, a friend (Danielle Harris) murdered and herself the next target. He springs into action as a wild-eyed protector, leading to some premium-cable-ish sexy time with Annie. It seems she has the emotional fortitude to set aside her fear of death to purr seductively over her savior's well-preserved bod. (Blanc happens to be Biehn's wife.)

Facial expressions or familiar laughter that can't be packaged in letters can reach military personnel serving in the Middle East on videos. An Oxnard cable company will use its equipment today free of charge to tape home videograms for friends and family of the Seabees. And a Ventura store has been filming area families since mid-September. Jones Intercable, 721 Maulhardt Ave., will take reservations today for appointments between 9:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Putting on a face, whether of fear, anger or amusement, triggers a genuine emotional reaction in the body, a University of California researcher reported Tuesday. "We know that if you have an emotion, it shows on your face. Now we've shown it goes the other way too," said Paul Ekman, a professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco. "You become what you put on your face."

Want to know if a grin or a pout comes from the heart? It's all in the eyes. The problem with faking an emotion, according to University of Pittsburgh psychologist Jeffrey Cohn, is that most people have more control over the lower half of their face than the upper. So smiles and frowns may be screaming "happy" or "sad," but the eyes and forehead are quiet. "In felt expressions of joy, people both smile and they tighten the muscles around the eyes.

I cry. At mushy Hallmark commercials in which the son finally gets home on Christmas Eve. At weddings because everybody's so happy. At funerals because everybody's so sad. Even watching the Olympics, when I bond with the skaters who get teary because they've finally won. But why, really, do I — do any of us — cry? The main reason, say evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists, is because we're human. As far as scientists can tell, no other creature cries emotional tears the way we humans do, despite scattered reports of an elephant or gorilla not just vocalizing in distress but actually shedding tears.

He smiled when he saw the house. "He likes it," she thought. Then the smile faded, and a string of other thoughts flitted through her mind. "Oh, he thinks it's too modern." "Maybe he hates this part of town." "This is awful. We never agree." "The relationship isn't working." Such reactions -- triggered by a simple change of expression -- might seem bizarre to the secure and well-adjusted.

Ten years ago, a spunky sprite with a 1,000-watt smile and a girl-next-door name, Mary Lou Retton, vaulted from the Los Angeles Olympics across television screens into the homes of millions of Americans who fell in love with her. Sweet 16, 4-feet-9, a red-white-and-blue, stars-and-stripes ball spinning through the air, she made an entire country cheer on Aug. 3, 1984, when she landed firmly on her feet and flung up her arms, absolutely sure of a perfect 10 that gave her the first U.S.

What's in a face? David Perrett has spent his career trying to find out. The author of "In Your Face: The New Science of Human Attraction" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), Perrett is an experimental psychologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and head of its Perception Lab. Using computer graphics, Perrett's team tweaks faces on-screen to explore how they help us choose the best mates, whether you can trust a face, the cuteness factor in babies and what faces reveal about overall human health.