A smile might be all that stands between victory and defeat while playing a game, according to a new study.

New research done by the USC Institute for Creative Technologies indicates that the simple act of smiling while winning can actually decrease chances of succeeding against the same person when matched up again, according to USC News.

According to the study, those who smiled while winning were more likely to have their opponents go into overdrive while trying to win prize money, instead of sharing it as the game progresses.

A new study shows that those who smiled while winning were more likely to have their opponents go into overdrive trying to defeat them the next time they're matched up

But, the opposite applied to those who were losing — in that case, smiling actually helped a losing person's chances of success as the game progressed.

The study, which was sponsored by the US Army Research Laboratory and presented at May's International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems, was based on results seen when 370 people were asked to play a version of the UK television game show, Golden Balls.

In the game, two subjects were presented with a lumpsum of cash and each person was asked to decide whether to split the money with their opponent or steal it from them.

If both people picked the split option, they split the money. If both picked steal, neither person got the money. If one person picked split while the other picked steal, the stealer got the money.

Each study participant was given $30 as a starting off point. They received additional tickets for a $100 lottery based on the number of 'steals' and 'splits' they succeeded with.

The study was based off results from 370 people playing a modified game of UK game show 'Golden Balls' via Skype. Their facial reactions while playing the game were recorded

The study participants played against each other over Skype video. Their reactions were recorded with emotion-tracking software, which then encoded facial muscle movements, including any cheek, lip and chin raises. Dimples and lip compression and separation were also noted.

When reviewing the results, researchers theorized that those who smiled while successfully stealing the pot of money were then subjected to future punishment by the loser. But, if losers smiled as they lost the money, it was seen as being a cooperative gesture and even a feeling of mutual success.

The study indicated that emotion-based reasoning was likely responsible for participants acting against their rational self-interest in the name of getting revenge against the smiling winners.

'We think that emotion is the enemy of reason. But the truth is that emotion is our way of assigning value to things,' Jonathan Gratch, senior study author and director of virtual humans research at USC ICT and a professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, told USC News.





'Without it, we'd be faced with limitless choices.'

Gratch's work focuses on lies and corresponding 'tells' for the purpose of creating artificial intelligence that can both identify and portray those same emotional cues.

He and other USC Institute for Creative Technologies researchers aim to provide virtual humans and robots with the kind of value-based judgement that humans instinctively have, using emotional pattern recognition and reactions, which would form a sort of intuitive decision-making.