Science experiment: smiling at cute babies

[lpm]

You know when you're in the supermarket and the like, and there's a cute little baby, so you smile at her or him and get a lovely little smile back?

I tried it the other day while wearing a mask. And the cute little baby smiled back! Adorable.

Infant Homo sapiens must be able to detect smile from just the movement of the eye muscles and don't need to see the mouth.

But here's the kicker. The cute little baby's smile back had weird exaggerated eye muscle movements, like she was trying to smile with her eyes. Or maybe it was just a weird kid and I was reading too much into it.

You mission, should you choose to accept it, is test this theory in the coming weeks. Smile at all babies while wearing a mask. If you don't have a mask when you meet a baby, put one on. If you don't meet a baby when wearing a mask, shout out that you require a baby to experiment on.

[nezumi]

I'd be more prepared for this if I found babies cute. Or if I ever left the house. I've voted already because the last time I smiled at a baby its Mum turned around and was an old school acquaintance. Got stuck "catching up" for like half an hour and missed the shop I was going to.

I will never smile at a baby again!

[Lew Dolby]

I ticked "burst into tears" but usually they just look puzzled. Being bald but bearded, I think they think I've got my head on upside-down.

[tenchboy]

Can't help m'afraid; I would never smile at a baby in case it thought I liked it.

[Little waster]

Are we running a control arm where we smile at ugly babies?

In the interests of blinding, don't approach the parents and say "What an ugly baby. Can I smile at it in the interests of science?" as that may bias the results.

Top tip, it is probably best not to approach the parents at all, if possible gets as near to the infant as possible before the parents are aware of you. If interrupted attempt to flee with the child screaming "For Science!!!" as you head for the exit. That should minimise confounding factors.

[tenchboy]

Got to admit that for a while there I thought we were talking about smiling whilst wearing Freddy Kruger masks or somesuchlike.
Which might also be a useful control.

[Tessa K]

In pre-mask days I would sometimes stick my tongue out at them. It confuses the hell out of them. Some of them do it back and the parent sees them and tells them off. Result.

[discovolante]

Interesting, are we going to develop a generation of children whose lower faces are floppy, hanging inertly, due to never having seen a smiling mouth in their lives to date, or will that be balanced out by the development of extremely expressive upper faces?

[Aitch]

In pre-mask days I would sometimes stick my tongue out at them. It confuses the hell out of them. Some of them do it back and the parent sees them and tells them off. Result.

I remember when a colleague brought his young girl toddler into the office. I 'taught' her to stick her tongue out and blow a raspberry ie I did it and she copied it. She thought it was hilarious and, apparently, when introduced to anyone new greeted them with a raspberry. His wife gave him a right talking to that evening.

[Stephanie]

You know when you're in the supermarket and the like, and there's a cute little baby, so you smile at her or him and get a lovely little smile back?

I tried it the other day while wearing a mask. And the cute little baby smiled back! Adorable.

Infant Homo sapiens must be able to detect smile from just the movement of the eye muscles and don't need to see the mouth.

But here's the kicker. The cute little baby's smile back had weird exaggerated eye muscle movements, like she was trying to smile with her eyes. Or maybe it was just a weird kid and I was reading too much into it.

You mission, should you choose to accept it, is test this theory in the coming weeks. Smile at all babies while wearing a mask. If you don't have a mask when you meet a baby, put one on. If you don't meet a baby when wearing a mask, shout out that you require a baby to experiment on.

This is interesting.

Are you sure you didn't smile with exaggerated eye muscle movements? Presumably infant babies see their parents smiling without masks so are aware of typical smiles.

[Grumble]

I wish I got to see babies to do this. We’ve been internet shopping since before the pandemic. I had a new nephew arrive a few months before it all kicked off but I’ve missed pretty much all the starting smiling to starting talking bit.

[Boustrophedon]

Some friends had a new baby, it had been very difficult, a surrogacy that went badly wrong, amply helped by the News of the World sticking their oar in, in the public interest, just to get their side of the story, with a wad of promised money, whilst camping out in front of the house, sort of a way.

So Don visits once the sh.t has stopped flying some weeks later and there was the baby and I gave him by bestest beaming smile for babies. And he grinned back and we had a little beamy chortley baby conversation.

The Mother says: "He hasn't smiled for us."

I felt awful.

Our eldest would get in first, as soon as he learnt to lift his head up (almost immediately) and smile, he would fix random strangers with his best smiley face to get a smile back*. He would get really cross if he didn't get a smile in return, but this was rare.

*He still does this, he's 26.

[Tessa K]

Some friends had a new baby, it had been very difficult, a surrogacy that went badly wrong, amply helped by the News of the World sticking their oar in, in the public interest, just to get their side of the story, with a wad of promised money, whilst camping out in front of the house, sort of a way.

So Don visits once the sh.t has stopped flying some weeks later and there was the baby and I gave him by bestest beaming smile for babies. And he grinned back and we had a little beamy chortley baby conversation.

The Mother says: "He hasn't smiled for us."

I felt awful.

Our eldest would get in first, as soon as he learnt to lift his head up (almost immediately) and smile, he would fix random strangers with his best smiley face to get a smile back*. He would get really cross if he didn't get a smile in return, but this was rare.

*He still does this, he's 26.

He was possibly trying to pacify a stranger whereas he feels safe with familiar family faces. Either that or it was wind.

[Boustrophedon]

He was possibly trying to pacify a stranger whereas he feels safe with familiar family faces. Either that or it was wind.

I don't think so, he was and is extrovert and gregarious.

[Bird on a Fire]

I've smiled at my neighbour's baby loads wearing a mask, and he always just stares back blankly like he hasn't got a f.cking clue what's going on. Maybe he hasn't. I'll try being more expressive with my eyes next time. I do good waggly eyebrows.

Also my cousin's just had a baby so I'll try to persuade her to do a proper study.

[mediocrity511]

Miniocrity 2 was a little over 1 when the pandemic hit. I can remember lots of people being quite anti mask when they first came in and lots of people were saying how scary they would be for young children. But then living where we do, we have a significant number of women who would wear a burka, so he was definitely used to not seeing everyone's face and has been entirely unphased. But it probably means that there are parts of the world where babies see a lot of covered faces, except for immediate family and I wonder if there's ever been research done on it.