A smiling face
Considering their obsession with super white, pearly teeth, it’s no wonder Americans flaunt their chompers every chance they get. Some would say one of the reasons people in the United States smile that much is just to show that their orthodontic treatment really paid off. According to Jessica Tracy, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia, in reality, Americans believe that people, especially “women who smile are absolutely very attractive”.
As Tracy stated in her study published in Emotion, an American Psychological Association journal, smiling “was by far the most attractive expression women showed.” On the other hand, men are considered more attractive if they put on a more serious, even brooding, face. However, both men and women in the United States are known for their wide smiles, too wide, if we were to ask certain foreigners. In fact, according to a tourist from Finland, a person overdoing it with the smiling is usually considered: drunk, crazy, or American.
Americans like it skinny
We’re not talking about skinny jeans, but the people who can fit in skinny clothes in general. Although obesity in the United States reached unprecedented numbers in 2020, Americans are still obsessed with thinness and go to remarkable lengths to lose weight. In the past, fatness, especially in women, used to represent good health and wealth. Nowadays, in many people’s books, it stands for laziness and slackness.
In fact, in a recent study where participants were shown photos of underweight women, more than 50 percent of those surveyed claimed that being thin was a lot more attractive than being fat. Unfortunately, this quest for thinness makes people feel dissatisfied with their bodies, says Dr. Mairi Macleod, a researcher in the School of Psychology at the University of Dundee.
