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of as forced/voluntary smiles) indicates enjoyment and reflects positive af,fect (Frank & Ekman, 1993; Ekman et al., 1990), this position has beenrecently debated. Recent studies have suggested that Duchenne smiles arefrequently observed in intentional contexts, thus, may not be an indicationof positive affect exclusively (Girard, Cohn, Yin, & Morency, 2021; Krumhu,ber & Manstead, 2009). Future research should further examine whether ornot the expression and mimicry of genuine smiles indicate attraction in ablind-date setting.Our findings, albeit providing an insight into the dynamics of expressionsexhibited during first dates using an ecologically valid paradigm and precisecoding of (subtle) behaviors, should be interpreted with caution. First of all,the scope of the present study was limited to only heterosexual participantsand was mostly comprised of university students, which is a common prac,tice in speed-dating studies (Perilloux et al., 2012; A. J. Lee et al., 2020).Furthermore, the social skills of our sample might differ from those of a widerpopulation, meaning that people more likely to attend speed-dating eventsmight have stronger or weaker social skills (Finkel & Eastwick, 2008). Toincrease the generalizability of such findings, it is recommended that futureresearch includes a more diverse range of participants with respect to age,educational background, and sexual orientation. Finally, our study was notexperimental and, thus, the causal influence of the mimicry of coy-smiles onattraction cannot be inferred. Future studies may try to manipulate mimicryto test the causal effect of mimicry in attraction in real life settings.In conclusion, our study examined whether mimicry of subtle flirtingexpressions predicts attraction in a real-life speed-dating paradigm. Ourfindings demonstrate that mimicry of specific expressions associated withattraction, namely coy smiles, predicts attraction in a speed-date paradigm.Surprisingly, we found that mimicry of genuine smiles reduces attractionto a partner. The results of this study further extend previous work onattraction and bond formation by highlighting the importance of mimick,ing subtle unconscious expressions in ecologically real-life dating paradigms.Future research should expand upon these findings to further disentanglethe interplay between mimicry and attraction in real-life dating scenarios.Iliana Samara 17x24.indd 165 08-04-2024 16:36