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A comment on Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011). Parent comment

Re:Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011) by crusso on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:50PM (#6757851)
No, the article is claiming that to Westerners a smile is neutral and that to a Russian no smile is neutral. The article is making the implication that a smiling Westerner and a non-smiling Russian are expressing the same emotion, it's just that the Westerner is faking something.

The poster to whom you're responding is actually saying that the no smile in Russia is because of an actual underlying difference in the emotions being felt.

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Re:Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011) by zeteo on Monday November 18, 2013 @05:56PM (#6757903)
>the article is claiming that to Westerners a smile is neutral [...] The article is making the implication that a smiling Westerner [...] is faking something.

I don't see where you got the second sentence as the article's implication. Especially since it's rather contradictory with the first sentence.

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Re:Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011) by crusso on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:06PM (#6757961)
I'm trying to see how you find those statements to be contradictory.

Maybe you think that the same concept is being discussed in the two sentences? Really there are multiple concepts at play so calling one of them neutral relative to one another and the other one "fake" isn't a contradiction at all. They're different things.

Just because the emotion being expressed is supposed to be neutral doesn't mean that the facial expression can't be implying something more. The article author's contention is that the facial expression is fake and expressing more of an emotion than is present, given that the "real" underlying emotion is one of neutrality in the smile and no-smile cases.

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Re:Why Russians Are Not Smiling (2011) by swang on Monday November 18, 2013 @06:38PM (#6758118)
Because they are separate sides to the same thing. Westerners smile as a "neutral" stance, but to a Russian it feels disingenuous because smiling isn't "neutral" but is suppose to convey something.
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