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WASHINGTON: Reminding yourself to smile often can not only make more friendships but it can also make you feel better.<\/p>\n
And rather than wait for a reason to smile, just making the physical change of literally turning that frown upside down could impact emotions, according to experts.<\/p>\n
Research backs up the fact that smiling goes a long way.<\/p>\n
Some older research has focused on this \u201cfacial feedback hypothesis,\u201d according to Jeanne Tsai, a longtime psychology professor at Stanford University who runs the Culture and Emotion Lab. In one often replicated experiment, researchers would have subjects put a pencil between their lips and adopt a smile or a frown while viewing a positive movie clip like a cartoon. Some subjects who smiled would feel the sensation of the smile more and be more amused.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019ve done that demonstration in classes, it works,\u201d Tsai said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing it in a room by yourself, you\u2019re not doing it in a social interaction, maybe it\u2019s making you remember, or it\u2019s an effect of remembering some good thing that happened and that would put you in a better mood.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Orange County Academy of Sciences and Arts in Southern California, the power of a smile is taken very seriously. An entire section on the charter school group\u2019s website is dedicated to its philosophy that a smile can make a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmiling creates a supportive classroom culture that makes students relaxed, active, and motivated,\u201d according to the website. \u201cIt increases emotional well-being, lowers stress, and gives students confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
How smiling can benefit health<\/p>\n
Dr. Judy Ho, a Los Angeles clinical and forensic neuropsychologist who also teaches at Pepperdine University, discusses smiling as a coping strategy with some patients suffering depression or anxiety.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not suggesting that that\u2019s the only way they can fix things,\u201d Ho said. \u201cIt\u2019s just like another thing that you can add to your toolbox.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smiling can affect one\u2019s level of cortisol, a hormone the body releases partly to help regulate stress and mood, according to Ho. Smiling can affect brain chemicals that are associated with positive feelings including endorphins, dopamine and serotonin.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who smile during stressful tasks generally demonstrated lower heart rates during recovery than those maintaining neutral expressions,\u201d Ho said. \u201cSmiling also reduced aspects of the body\u2019s physiological stress response.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hope is if you smile enough, you will start feeling it emotionally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some ways it\u2019s like a mediating effect,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The value of a smile varies culture to culture<\/p>\n
How smiling and even the openness of a smile are perceived are not universal. Tsai, the Stanford professor, has conducted research on how emotion in American culture puts value on trying to always feel positive and minimizing negativity and sadness. In East Asian cultures, emotion is more about balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like the positive and the negative emotions are braided together, and so you don\u2019t want to feel too positive or too negative,\u201d Tsai said. \u201cYou want more of a balance between the two.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her past studies also examined how European Americans and East Asians \u2014 including Taiwanese, South Koreans, Japanese and Hong Kong Chinese \u2014 look at a \u201cneutral or a calm\u201d smile versus a full-on grin. Subjects rated the differing facial expressions on warmth and trustworthiness. While some Americans saw the excited smiles as friendlier, some East Asians characterized those facial expressions as \u201cemotionally unstable\u201d or \u201cunreliable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of smile matters \u2014 whether it\u2019s a calm, closed mouth smile more like the Dalai Lama or a big toothy excited smile like Julia Roberts,\u201d Tsai said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done some series of studies in Taiwan and other East Asian contexts. They don\u2019t like the big, toothy, excited smile unless it\u2019s really situationally appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Thailand \u2014 known as \u201cThe Land of Smiles\u201d \u2014 smiling is embedded in the culture. There are nearly 30 Thai words for \u201csmile.\u201d Many teach-abroad programs where people can teach English as a foreign language in Thailand cite that smiling often with children and colleagues is key to showing respect, good manners and calmness.<\/p>\n
At the OCASA charter schools, smiling is part of an effort to make children feel seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always believed in wanting school to be a happy place for kids,\u201d said RaNae Posey, principal of OCASA Capistrano Elementary School. \u201cTo actually help them form habits of looking at the bright side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mandating smiles may lead to more frowns<\/p>\n
Women in recent years have smacked down the idea that they have to smile in the workplace while men do not. Smiling can feel like a Catch-22 for some women and sometimes for people of color who may be stereotyped as unapproachable or cold if they don\u2019t smile enough.<\/p>\n
Last year, retailer Target was ridiculed across social media for instituting a smiling policy. Workers had to smile and make eye contact if a customer was within 10 feet (3 meters) and personally greet them if they were within 4 feet (1.2 meters).<\/p>\n
People do not like feeling like they have no \u201cemotional autonomy,\u201d according to Nicholas Coles, an assistant professor who runs the Social Science Collaboratory at the University of Florida in Gainesville.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those scenarios, what we find is that it\u2019s more that you\u2019re smiling your way to misery,\u201d Coles said. \u201cIt\u2019s only when it feels authentic and voluntary that I think it\u2019ll have any real effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the holidays approaching, more people may have to muster smiles with family if sensitive topics like politics and religion come up. Those could be good times to see if smiling helps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we were able to just smile and be like \u2018Look, this is somebody that historically cares about you and loves you,\u2019 maybe that would change the way that we respond to them even in a moment of tough conversation,\u201d Ho said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n