Working on a Smile: Responding to Sexual Provocation in the Workplace

Scan any social situation involving both sexes and you will likely see differences in how women and men communicate both verbally and nonverbally. One nonverbal behavior concerns the fact that women tend to smile more than men. Indeed, numerous studies done over several years provide strong support for the finding that women smile more than men irrespective of whether the measure is frequency, duration, or even the size or kind of smile (Hall, 1984; Hecht & LaFrance, 1998; Henley, 1977; LaFrance, Hecht, & Paluck, 2003).