THE SCIENCE OF SMILING
Smiles are calming. They’re contagious. And they have the power to transform our outlook.
[…] There’s a reason the tears-of-joy smiley face is the most popular emoji. A sunny countenance – the most frequent of all facial expressions – has the power to cheer up friends and make strangers feel at ease (predators don’t usually walk around with authentic smiles plastered on their mugs.) But can we actually smile ourselves happy […]? And if so, can we use this as a tool to transport ourselves into a more optimistic headspace? […]
Smiling starts in utero, and babies reward adults for feeding and caring for them by flashing a gummy grin. […] That, in turn, triggers the reward center in the brain of mothers, which may be a vital component in facilitating parent-infant attachment. […]
Smiling remains a powerful communication tool throughout the life cycle, with adults primarily relying on three types of smiles, which Niedenthal’s Emotions Lab has dubbed reward, affiliation, and dominance. Those baby beams fall under the reward umbrella, as do the smiles of joy that spontaneously happen when we’re happy to see someone or open a fabulous present. […]
Affiliation smiles (toothless, lips pressed together, corners of the mouth upturned) are used to acknowledge the presence of another person […] and they convey harmless intentions. […] Dominance smiles are more of a smirk or sneer, a way to negotiate status while conveying a feeling of superiority or defiance.
Reward smiles are the ones that elicit the most positive response from others, and, like yawns, they’re contagious, thanks to a phenomenon called facial mimicry. […] When you flash a friend an authentic reward smile, she automatically mirrors your expression. A happy side effect of this is she’ll likely feel a bit of your delight.
Smiley folks, then, are more likeable, according to research, in part because they make people around them feel better. That can translate into scoring a better job and being deemed more attractive.
[…] “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy”. […] Don’t be surprised if all that grinning makes you feel a bit more optimistic about life in general. […] “Smiling tells you something about a person’s disposition […] and happier people tend to take better care of themselves – they eat [healthier], exercise more.” Smiley people may have more and better relationships, and there is a rock-solid link between social connectedness and health.
By Leslie Goldman, Real Simple, Special Edition, The Power of Positivity, 2021
The text explains that
