Did you know that your dog loves seeing you smile? When a dog sees his owner smile, it raises its levels of oxytocin, more commonly known as the happiness hormone. The study was led by Prof. Outi Vainio, from the University of Helsinki in Finland, and it was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Humans behave in the same way, we respond to facial expressions around us and often mimic them. When you see your friend having a sad face you will most commonly mimic it without even realizing it. Luckily for us, we mimic the smiles too.
According to scientist Andrew Newberg, we respond to smiles with highest positive emotional content and we do it from an early age. We first begin smiling when we are 2 months old and notice it has a direct effect on the people around us. A smile is our first attempt at communication and it grows as we do.
"0-6 Weeks: Reflexive Smile
6-8 Weeks: Responsive Smile
2-3 Months: Social Smile
About 6 Months: Undiscriminating Smile
About 9 Months: Selective Smile
About 12 Months: A Sense of Humor"
How Smiles Develop
From baby smiles to that famous Mona Lisa one, they are all around us and we just can't get enough of them. Let's explore some things about them and see what we can learn.
When we find ourselves in a positive situation or experience a satisfying stimulant, neuronal signals travel from the cortex of our brain to the brainstem. When they arrive, the cranial muscle carries that signal towards the smiling muscles in our face. When the smiling muscles in our face contract, the signal goes back to our brain and reinforces the feeling of joy.
We smile because we feel good
and we feel good because we smile.
There are 43 muscles in the face and different people use a different amount of them to smile but we all use 2 of them; zygomaticus major that controls the corners of our mouth and obicularis occuli which is around our eyes. Scientists had discovered that intentional exercise of muscles can actually make us feel happier. That means that if you fake a smile long enough, it will stick. You can do the same thing by holding a pencil with your teeth.
There is a positive feedback loop of smiling
Give it a try, smile now and notice your emotional state. Has it changed? If it did (and it probably did) it is because your brain reacts with a fresh batch of endorphins everytime you send him a signal that you just smiled.
Speaking of those two muscles that we all use while smiling, not both of them are always a sign of a genuine smile. I am sure you are familiar with the fact that if you are not smiling with your eyes, you are not smiling honestly. Obicularis occuli, the muscle that is around our eyes is the one that shows the sincerity of a smile.
In 1862, the French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne published his finding about those muscles and until this day, a sincere smile is officially called the Duchenne smile. When we force a smile, we use muscles in our cheeks (risorius), to pull our lips into the right shape, but the eye muscles don't contract so we get a fake smile.
Dr. Niedenthal says that there are 3 ways our brain can distinguish the difference between a fake and a genuine smile:
We compare the geometry of a person’s face
We decide if a smile is expected in a certain situation
We mimic the smile and feel for ourselves if it is real
The most important benefit from smiling is the feedback loop I mentioned before but there is also the fact that it reduces our stress and generates positive emotions. It reduces anxiety and lowers our blood pressure and heart rate.
According to Dr. Li Ding:
"The happiness level that a smile can bring to our brains is estimated as equivalent to that of having 2,000 bars of chocolate."
Even I, the biggest fan of chocolate there is, cannot imagine myself eating that amount of chocolate but if I compare the happy feeling that taste gives me with the feeling I have when I smile... Yeah, it seems about right. Oh, endorphins, you tricky little things, I love you guys.
Smiles being contagious is common knowledge and has been long considered a scientific fact. Paula Niedenthal and Adrienne Wood (social psychologists at the University of Wisconsin) explain how people in social situations simulate others’ facial expressions to create emotional responses. When we see a person smiling, we immediately smile too. We are able to extract the emotional meaning from facial expressions in a matter of few hundred milliseconds.
When you smile, the world smiles with you.
The reason behind our mimicking the smiles is said to be very important in our daily human interactions. We use mimicking to distinguish if we like a person or not. So, a person could argue that smiles are not contagious because we are nice but because we are sneaky. We use them to our advantage and to distinguish if we trust a person or not.
“You reflect on your emotional feelings and then you generate some sort of recognition judgment, and the most important thing that results is that you take the appropriate action — you approach the person or you avoid the person.”
Paula Niedenthal
We could experience problems when trying to mimic others. This happens after long-term pacifier use or can be related to a neurological condition like facial paralysis or nerve damage. People with social disorders also have a lot of troubles in this area.
Many of the facts about smiling I already covered so far but I bet you did not know that women smile more than men. Researcher LaFrance says that women smile more often because of two reasons. The first one is that they are happier than men but the more important one is because it is more acceptable for women to smile. I found this sad. Common men, smile more often!
"Women are more likely to tell the difference between a felt and a fake smile.”
Marianne LaFrance
The other thing I found interesting while researching this subject it that the obicularis occuli muscle, that encircles the eye socket, cannot be controlled deliberately, at least not by most people. With practice, some people can learn to use it, especially actors. Did you see Julia Roberts smile? Do you think her smile is always genuine?
So, tell me. How often do you smile? Do you consider yourself a generally happy person or not so much? I am sure you noticed that some things, places, and people can always make you smile. What are they? I would love to hear what makes you smile and if those smiles are genuine or not.
If you don't have a smile,
I'll give you one of mine.
A smile will always be the prettiest thing you can wear, and remember; there are great joy and satisfcation in being someone's reason to smile.
KEEP YOUR SMILE ON!
To learn more about smiles follow these resources:
The Science of Smiling
Interview with Marianne LaFrance
Presentation on the science of smiling
How to spot a fake smile
Rick Nauert PhD on smiles being infectious
Why your dog loves to see you smile
How Smiles Develop
All images used in this post were created from those that are under CC0 license and free for personal and commercial use. You can check the people who made the original photos by following these links:
jeka_fe, sterkyyy, eyeforebony, seteales, escapemoto, verstuyftj& eyeforebony
The smiley element from my titles is from https://pngtree.com
