People might say you have your dad's smile or your Aunt Brunhilda's grin, but what if they said you had the smile of a chimp? They might be right. One of the ways scientists study facial expressions, including smiling, is by observing the behavior of other animals, especially primates-that group of mammals that includes humans and our closest relatives, the apes and monkeys.
Some experts believe that the human smile evolved, not from feelings of happiness, but from the "silent bared-teeth display"-often called a "grimace"-that certain primates make when they are feeling threatened or startled. You know the look: lips pulled back to reveal all those monkey teeth. But this primate "smile" might actually mean "I'm afraid of you. Please don't attack me. I'm nice."
If you think about it, you can see how the primate's grimace of fear eventually came to be, among humans, a signal of friendship. Do you ever smile when you are nervous? Or perhaps you try to joke around when you are uncertain about something. The message you are sending is "I'm not sure about this, but I'm willing to work it out. Let's be friends."
Reference: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4128/is_200311/ai_n9341157
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