Ashley Davies: The smile experiment

Making eye contact and smiling at a stranger on the bus could be regarded by some people as an invitation to further interaction. Picture: Getty

A BRIEF experiment shows that many ­people are happy to connect with a stranger if only we give them a chance, writes Ashley Davies

There’s more than a fortnight left to run on National Smile Month – which is actually an oral health campaign, but I thought I’d subvert it a little with an unscientific experiment in friendliness. Well, arm’s length friendliness anyway. Spending a whole month smiling at strangers was going to be a challenge too far for this city-dweller (I’m a big fan of a nod and a greeting in the countryside, but it’s not so realistic in an urban setting), so I decided to spend just one day doing it, the aim being to see how people would respond and how their responses would make me feel.

I woke up early, which I rarely do, and smiled, as I always do, at my other half, which was easy, as he’s a decent sort who always smiles back. The first strangers I encountered on leaving the flat were a couple of builders eating buns in a van. I was hoping they wouldn’t see me but they did, so I smiled. One of them, who was about to put food in his mouth, did a sort of double-take and his food stopped short of his open mouth as he gawped at me in surprise. They didn’t smile back and I was embarrassed.

Walking to the bus stop I passed three separate women in their 50s. It was easy to smile at them and they all responded well, their task-orientated expressions transforming naturally into friendly ones. It felt good, like when you encounter random friendliness on holiday.