This paper investigates the paradoxical finding that physical pain in certain social situations makes people smile. A number of models have been proposed to explain emotional behaviour, and we tested some important predictions they make regarding the mental antecedents and cognitive properties that could characterize such distress smiles, specifically ones that occur in informal and non-serious social situations. We assessed impulsivity and controllability of the smile, its accompanying emotions, dependence on effortful appraisal, communicative functions, and whether it is goal dependent or stimulus driven. To do this we made students receive and induce physical pain to each other on the upper arm, and varied the following conditions in which the pain was administered: social distance between participants, hierarchical relation between the participants, attentional load, and instructions to make no movements. We also assessed the presence of happiness and amusement (or mirth), and whether they were correlated with the distress smiles. We concluded that the distress induced smile, at least for males in informal social situations, is a goal dependent impulsive behaviour that communicates appeasement and non-hostility.

本文调查了自相矛盾的发现，即在某些社交场合中，身体上的痛苦会使人们微笑。已经提出了许多模型来解释情绪行为，并且我们测试了他们对可以描述这种苦恼笑容的心理前因和认知特性的一些重要预测，特别是在非正式和非严肃的社会情况下发生的笑容。我们评估了微笑的冲动性和可控性，伴随的情感，对努力评估的依赖，沟通功能，以及它是与目标有关还是受刺激驱动的。为此，我们使学生在上臂之间彼此产生并引起身体上的疼痛，并改变了以下几种导致疼痛的条件：参与者之间的社交距离，参与者之间的等级关系，注意力负荷和不动的指示。我们还评估了幸福和娱乐（或欢乐）的存在，以及它们是否与苦恼的微笑相关。我们得出的结论是，至少在非正式的社交场合中，苦恼引起的微笑是一种与目标有关的冲动行为，传达了安抚和不敌对情绪。