Why Smiling Changes Your Face-Analysis Results

Face-analysis tools measure distances and angles between landmarks: eye corners, nose, mouth corners and jawline. A smile moves most of them.

What a smile changes

• Eyes: cheeks push up, narrowing the eyes and lifting the outer corners, which raises canthal tilt readings.
• Mouth width: grows noticeably, changing lower-face ratios.
• Cheekbones: look higher and wider.
• Symmetry: many smiles are slightly lopsided, which lowers symmetry scores.

So which is "right"?

Neither. A neutral face is easier to compare over time and between tools, which is why most analyses ask for it. A smiling photo often looks more attractive to people, because warmth and expression matter in real life far more than ratios.

Practical tip

If you're testing, take one neutral and one smiling photo, run both, and look at how much the numbers move. That spread shows how much a single score should be trusted.

FreeAttractivenessTest asks for a neutral photo and explains why on its how it works page.

Disclosure: written by the FreeAttractivenessTest team.