Vanessa Van Edwards explains why a fake smile in your profile picture backfires. A genuine smile engages your cheek muscles and creates crow's feet around your eyes. Half-smiles and smirks read as contempt, so choose either neutral or fully authentic instead.
If you wonder why you're not making a good first impression or people aren't reaching out to you as much, it could be because you are showing a fake smile in your profile picture. People think it is warm and it's actually inauthentic. So a real smile is when the upper cheek muscles are engaged, the ones right next to your eyes, also fondly called the crow's feet. I would rather you either have a neutral face, like no smile, or a full smile. Don't go somewhere in between. And on that, don't show a half smile or a smirk. It's actually a universal contempt microexpression because it makes you look pessimistic, a little bit scornful. So make sure you're either neutral or fully smiling and not accidentally Symmetrical or fake styling.
