In summary, although there was no age difference in the ability
to discriminate spontaneous enjoyment smiles from deliberate
nonenjoyment smiles, older adults had a greater bias toward thinking
that any smiling individual was feeling happy. They were also
more likely than younger participants to ask an individual for a
favor when that person was displaying a nonenjoyment smile.
Questions remain regarding the mechanisms underlying these agerelated
differences and the extent to which these changes impact
older and younger adults’ social functioning.