#DoYouKnowHumans
Hey there animal lovers! 🐾 Have you ever noticed that most animals show their teeth as a form of aggression, but us humans do it as a sign of friendliness? 🤔 Isn’t that a little strange?
I was observing my pet cat the other day, and every time she bared her teeth, I instinctively backed away. But when my friend smiled at me, showing their teeth, I felt warm and fuzzy inside. 😊
I couldn’t help but wonder why teeth are such a versatile tool in communication for different species. So, I did a little research and found some interesting facts! Did you know that animals like dogs and cats bare their teeth as a warning sign, whereas humans do it to express joy and friendliness?
I’m curious to know your thoughts on this topic! Do you think it’s fascinating how something as simple as showing teeth can have such different meanings across species? Let’s have a chat about it! 💬
So, what do you think? Share your insights in the comments below! Let’s dive into this fascinating world of animal behavior together! 🌍 #TeethTalks #AnimalBehavior #HumanCommunication
First thing I look at someone. Nice teeth = Good looking
Probably because our teeth aren’t sharp
Yep. That’s why so many humans have terrible interactions with animals. They treat them like humans without considering how the animal communicates. Don’t smile at dogs people. And dogs don’t like hugs either.
Appart from passive agression..
This is the cause of a surprising number of apes attacking people. Do we look and act similar in many ways? Yes. But that ain’t one of them
Many animals (including other primates) *do* show teeth as a threat display. But they also can do it differently to be submissive, or friendly. Just like humans 😉
top of the food chain just hits different
You ever see humans talk through their teeth in an agressive way?
Dogs also do it as a sign of friendliness, but that is because they learned smiling from us. (And of course they also do it as a sign of aggression.)
Yeah, because we don’t use our teeth as weapons.
Often animals will do this from a position of power as a way of saying do what I want or else. Animals will also often do this when in fear as a way to convince the other animal that they are in a poison of power. Due to apes recognizing this, showing teeth became a signal for not being aggressive
For some friendliness is a threat
Complex nonverbal communications.
The same as eye contacts— most animals find it aggressive to look straight into their eyes.
My teeth are too ugly to show off.
I sneer at people, showing them my upper teeth, when I don’t like them. It happens more often than one might think, particularly because I find most people are full of shit and I don’t like disingenuous people.
Well we do also show our teeth when feeling aggressive. We just have much more complex facial expressions than other animals, so most other animals can’t tell the difference between our friendly teeth and our angry teeth.
Dogs open their mouth and therefore show their teeth as a sign of friendliness too
We also do it to show aggression. It’s just that we bare our teeth for purposes than just one.
We’re very weird in this respect because I *believe* (feel free to fact check) we’re the only primates that do. The others do it out of aggression.
And domesticated dogs are weird too, since they see us showing our teeth as a sign of friendliness (or at least can identify us smiling versus other facial expressions or other animals bearing their teeth), but other canines would see it as a sign of aggression.
Again, fact check me because I’m not a dogologist, but I think that’s how it goes.
I read this observation in a SF story years ago: the only known species to bare their teeth when they are happy.
We are complicated. We have complex signs of our intent. Eyes darting to the side, full eye contact, eyes down, eyes up, jaw firm, jaw loose, shoulders tensed, shoulders relaxed, leaning standing firm, standing with weight mostly on one side or the other. Weight on your back foot, weight on your front foot, fists loose, fists clenched, pointing with your index finger, pointing with whole hand, pointing with 2 fingers…
We are complicated. We smile. That’s kind of our thing.
Remember though, a shark’s smile is not a friendly smile. A smile is not to be trusted.
I’m sure you’ve met someone who smiled at you but the 2 dozen other metrics of body language did not match. Therefore, you put your weight on your back foot to run, or weight on your front foot to fight.
Bottom line, humans are very, very complicated. I’m sure you can tell the difference between a growl and smile. It’s not the baring of teeth that makes the smile. It’s the eyes.
You smile with your eyes, not your teeth. Anyone can bare their teeth and fake a smile but it isn’t real. See Tom Cruise for reference. A very nice smile, with dead eyes.
Human hands are fare better weapons than our teeth.
Animator here. Human expression is much more nuanced than this. For instance, we show happiness with a smile, but we have closed mouth smiles that show no teeth, and open mouthed smiles that do. Smiling is mostly done with the outer cheek muscles, which pull the mouth corners up and out, and will influence the lower lids and contribute to friendly or “smiling” eyes.
However, we also bare our teeth in a sneer. This action is done with the inner cheek muscles closer to the nose, and only pulls on the inner portion of the upper lip. This is a very powerful expression, and even slight movements of our sneer muscles/upper lip can indicate irritation or anger. Once both sides of the mouth are raised in a sneer or snarl, showing teeth and gums, the expression goes from “I don’t like you” to “I am going to murder you”.
Really depends on culture, as well. I had a Russian professor who returned home after many years. People kept asking her why she was smiling so much.
Dogs will occasionally do this to against their nature if they observe their master smiling and being in a good mood.
Old housemate had a mini blue Aussie that would greet you by lowering his head, sticking out his but to you as you approached and showing his teeth.
There are cultures that see showing your teeth as a sign of hostility.
Wait, you guys aren’t trying to threaten others by smiling? Oh man, I’m gonna need to process this for a while, geez
Thats because they cant pick up a steel pipe.
There is an interesting theory about smiling and being tickled.
Your response to being tickled is to show your teeth and defend yourself, because the areas you are ticklish are usually sensitive and vulnerable areas (armpit, sole of the foot, belly, neck…)
So animals show their teeth while being tickled to show aggression (so people stop touching your sensitive areas). But I guess overtime, with enough ticklish play (like bonobos do), it could become a sign of friendliness (this is an individual where I expect to tickle or get tickled)
It still not very solid, but one of the Theories.
Read it in “História do Humour e Escárnio (History of Laughter and Mockery)” by George Minois.