The present study investigated age-related changes in the ability to discriminate between distinctions in
the emotion underlying enjoyment and nonenjoyment smiles, both when making explicit decisions about
feelings of happiness and when making social judgments of approachability. No age differences were
found in the ability to discriminate between these two types of smile. However, older adults demonstrated
a greater bias toward reporting that any smiling individual was feeling happy. Older adults were also
more likely to choose to approach an individual who was displaying a nonenjoyment smile. Implications
of these findings for older adults’ interpersonal functioning are discussed