Believe it or not, these are old images in which Guillaume Duchenne was attempting to find the perfect smile through electrodes targeted at specific muscles. He articulated this quest:

The “Duchenne smile” is a genuine one, one that seems happy and friendly. It’s the result of two different groups of muscles working together. Cheek muscles turn the lips up in a voluntary maneuver that can be faked. But the muscles under your eyes that crinkle the skin to the outer side of each eye are involuntary, and they don’t necessarily start working just because you need to make a good impression at a job interview. Only the two combined really look genuine. When you smile with just your lips, you look like you’re either faking or in pain.

Recently however, more people can fake a ‘perfect smile’. Are we as a society becoming more fake? Or less aware of the nuances of expression? Or (worst of all) less joyous?