Smiles and Scowls 'In Our Genes'

I don't dispute that expressions may be hard-wired, but hang on ;

Professor David Matsumoto and his team compared 4,800 photographs, capturing the expressions of sighted and blind judo athletes at medal ceremonies at the 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In each case, the faces of gold and silver medal winning athletes were scrutinised.

While the winners frequently showed genuine joy at their victory, those in the lesser medal positions often produced "social smiles" - smiles involving only mouth movement, indicating that they may be artificial rather than spontaneous.

So these people are on a podium, and those who get told they're the best smile (regardless of sight). Huh ? How does that prove smiling is/isn't a learned reaction

A spider jumps if you shout. Pull it's legs off, and it won't jump when shouted at. Ergo, pulling legs off a spider makes it go deaf.

Oh well, smiling supposedly uses less muscles than frowning. Maybe.

I think you're spot on with the lack of exactitude in the methodology. Doesn't make the hardwired theory impossible, just undefined by this "experiment". I'm presuming this was a sociology, not a biology venture? However, I had absolutely NO idea spiders' ears were in their legs.

Yep, the rigorous experiment proves that spiders ears are on their legs. To minimize cruelty, you can try shaving their legs, but it seems a bit time-consuming.

Pull the legs off the Olympians and see if they smile then.

Come now they gave them polygraphs to know when the smiles were genuine.

Oh ya polygraphs measure changes in stress not lies, the rest is interpretation like poetic licence. You can't see a lie but you can tell the truth to a polygraph and it becomes a see able lie.

Is facial expressions hardwired? possibly even probably. Is this proof? only of the easter bunny.

Is this proof? only of the easter bunny - LOL !