Smiley Face Scales – Am I Happy? Is it Yummy?

I have always wondered what the most positive end of the Smiley Face scale means to children.   Does it say “This product is yummy”?   Or does it say “I am happy”? Those are two very different things.

I had a scale developed with a facial scale that drew the faces in more detail and which said “yummy” (at least to me).  

However, for some cultures showing a protruding tongue is offensive – “a part of the body which should not be seen”.    Peripheral stimuli, such as bows in the little girl’s hair and distinctive hair styles tended to distract the children’s attention away from the actual facial expression.  It even led to some inappropriate or irrelevant meaning being associated with the face.

When the cultural scale was inappropriate, children turned to the psychologically neutral scale as being non-racist.   While this scale avoided peripheral stimuli, it was generally less involving.  There was less identification with it – “just lines, can’t look at it and say ‘That’s how I feel’”.

The actual shape and expression of the mouth had a vital role in creating a distinctive expression indicative of a point on the acceptability scale.  The scale was most ambiguous at the central or “neutral” point.  Representing the mouth as a straight horizontal line was seen by some cultures as inviting a negative reaction.  For some larger scale trials in Malaysia and Thailand we used a slightly upturned mouth as being a better representation of an “OK” reaction to a product.   So rather than the face shown on the left below, we used one similar to the face on the right.