I can relate to the behaviour described in the article. A smile is a signal, as is a frown. If you center your origin in the middle of the scale, you can use a

I can relate to the behaviour described in the article. A smile is a signal, as is a frown. If you center your origin in the middle of the scale, you can use a smile to signal positive things and a frown to signal negative things. If you smile a lot you will move the origin: you're "always" smiling so what do you do when you're really happy? Or if you're always frowning what do you do when you're pissed off for real? If the default signal is neutral, it's easy to give a little smile or a little frown and have that convey a lot of meaning, conscious or subconscious. And you still have reserves for the truly earth-shattering moments. I'm not very qualified to comment on Americans but they do talk a lot. For what I've observed they seem to smile and then express with words such things that maybe someone from another culture could express with a slight change in his facial expression.