If North Carolina ever gets tired of being called as the "Tar Heel State," there's another nickname just waiting for them: "Home of the happiest mug shots."
That's according to a survey of 30,000 mugshots conducted on behalf of Aizman Law Firm, a Los Angeles-based criminal defense firm.
Mugshots from all over the country were simply put through Microsoft Cognitive Services, a web-based tool that can detect emotions, in order to determine the moods of each suspect.
The facial recognition software sorted the various booking photos into emotions like happy, sad or most surprised. It also determined which types of alleged crimes were mostly likely inspire specific emotions -- everything from kidnapping to DUIs.
This wasn't a peer-reviewed scientific study, so you have to take the results with a big grain of salt. That said, the results are still pretty interesting to think about.
As this infographic shows, North Carolina came out on top for smiling suspects, over the other joyful contenders Nevada, Indiana, Maine and New York.
The crimes these smiling suspects were most likely accused weren't anything to grim about. They included contributing to the delinquency of a minor, cruelty to animals, child sex abuse, vandalism and resisting arrest.
It might seem strange to grin when you're being arrested, but happiness was the dominant emotion in 59 percent of the mug shots examined by the software.
Only 21 percent were "sad" and seven percent had a mood best described as "contempt."
Here are some other emotions that showed up in mug shots and the states where they occurred the most.
Now that you've seen the analysis, take a look at our mugshot gallery and see how good you are at figuring out the emotions of the arrestees.
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