Smiles that persuade: the power of perceived status and source

Purpose Smiles are a ubiquitous and persuasive tool in services marketing, yet their effectiveness varies depending on contextual factors. This research aims to examine the interplay of smile intensity and perceived source status on consumer evaluations. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted five controlled experiments (including a pilot study) to test the hypotheses. In each study, the authors used distinct service interaction contexts and varied the gender of the source to enhance the generalizability of the findings. Findings This study finds that a broad smile from an individual with lower perceived social status elicits more favorable consumer outcomes, particularly attitudinal evaluations such as positive attitudes and liking, compared to a smile from an individual with higher perceived social status. This effect is attributed to the perception that lower perceived status individuals’ broad smiles align more closely with emotion norms. Additionally, this effect is moderated by source type; when the smile originates from a nonhuman source (e.g. artificial intelligence [AI] avatars), the favorable impact of a broad smile for lower perceived status individuals diminishes. Originality/value These findings advance the literature on social perception and nonverbal emotional communication in services marketing, offering actionable insights for refining service delivery and enhancing customer interactions in both human and AI-mediated contexts.