Smile Straight at Senior Shoppers

Smiling is contagious. Smile gently at someone, and they’re likely to smile back. Okay, you already knew that. A University of Tübingen study verified it. Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed how when a consumer, for instance, sees a happy face, the consumer’s medial basotemporal lobes are activated, which in turn subconsciously stimulates expressions of happiness on the consumer’s face.
     Maybe you already knew those physiological details, too. But what you might not know is that the contagion isn’t so strong when it involves the face of an elderly consumer. With advancing age comes advancing difficulty in accurately perceiving happy expressions and in showing an expression others will perceive as a smile. There isn’t as much difference between a neutral expression and a smile on a senior’s face as on a young adult’s face, according to studies at Osaka University and National University of Singapore. It’s not that most older adults are chronically sad. It’s that they’re less likely to show their happiness prominently in facial expressions.
     Because mutual smiles help make the sale, flash your sunny countenance brighter when working with seniors, look more intently for signs of smiling on their faces, and realize how what you might think are sadness wrinkles could be wrinkles of happiness.
     Believing you’re seeing sadness when it’s not there does more than head off a sale. It also can lead to you underestimating the senior prospect’s abilities. Researchers at San Francisco State University documented how most persuasion agents perceive an older person with a sad expression to be less capable than one with a happy expression. These perceptions of lower capability cover fundamentals such as the skills to prepare one’s own food on up to complex ones such as the ability to use judgment when faced with unexpected developments. Seeing seniors as sad when they really are not might lead to you treating them in patronizing ways when trying to influence them.
     You also could come across as patronizing if, while smiling, you raise your head and look down at the senior or lower your head and look up at them. In discussions of end-of-life decisions or heavy financial investments, it’s best not to smile much. And in all situations, curb prolonged gigantic smiles which make you look simply dopey.

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