What effect does smiling have on you?
Smile and everything will be ok... Is it really mind over matter?
A new social experiment has revealed just what sort of an impact smiling can have on our everyday happiness.
Pearl Drops partnered with Psychologist Dr. Linda Papadopoulos to determine just how important smiling is by challenging two identical twins to take on the mission: one was instructed to smile at every opportunity throughout the day, while the other wasn’t allowed to smile at all.
Aside from just looking alike, the twins are women in their late 20’s and happen to lead very similar lives, making it easy to make a direct comparison. As primary school teachers, both living with their boyfriends, their typical working day is nearly identical. They set out to have key interactions with their boyfriend, a colleague, a student, a shopkeeper, a stranger and themselves.
Dr Linda Papadopoulos has analysed the results and found that “although having the same experiences and similar encounters with others, their emotions were entirely different. The girl who was allowed to smile felt very positive and content. She engaged in conversations she usually wouldn’t have and said smiling gave her a boost of energy and satisfaction. However, the girl who wasn’t allowed to smile felt negative, awkward and unsettled.”
“The social significance of smiling cannot be understated. It impacts how we feel about ourselves and affects how we make others feel.”
Pearl Drops social experiment reveals the top benefits of smiling, explained by Dr. Linda Papadopoulos
1. Smiling releases ‘feel good’ chemicals in our brains to make us feel happier.
“Research shows that the mere act of the physical gesture of smiling, even to yourself, can improve mood as the brain associates the facial gesture with positive emotional feelings thus releasing feel good chemicals in our brains.”
2. Smiling helps get us noticed by the opposite sex.
“A woman's smile has a significant effect on men, over and above eye contact. One study examined how men approached women in a bar (Walsh and Hewitt 1985). When a woman only established eye contact with a man, she was approached 20% of the time. When the same woman added a smile, though, she was approached 60% of the time.”
3. Smiling is contagious.
“We mirror what we see in each other.”
4. Smiling connects us to the here and now.
“Smiling boosts your enjoyment in what you’re doing. It’s fascinating how this simple facial gesture can have an impact on your perception and help you focus more closely on the positive aspects of your experience. It is this kind of mindfulness that plays a big part in making us feel happier and more content, as of course with the positive reinforcement we get from the person we are smiling at.”
5. Smiling helps others trust us.
“One signal that suggests we are trustworthy is a smile. Genuine smiles send a message that other people can trust and cooperate with us. People who smile are rated higher in both generosity and extraversion and when people share with each other they tend to display genuine smiles (Mehu et al, 2007).”
6. Smiling can spark conversation.
“When someone smiles at us, we often see this as an invitation to connect and be friendly.”
7. Smiling lets others know we’re okay.
“A solemn face can be indicative that something isn’t right and create a sense of uneasiness among those around them. So by not smiling, it can indicate that something is wrong.”
8. Smiling speaks volumes.
“Only a small percentage of our communication is verbal, so we rely heavily on non-verbal cues, such as smiling, to read each others behaviour. This is why we are very quick to judge people’s emotions according to their facial expression. The fact is that often we smile subconsciously, without really thinking about it.”
9. Smiling makes you seem polite.
“Culturally we see smiling in certain situations as the polite and socially acceptable thing to do. Smiles are often used as an initial greeting, a kind of gestural 'hello.’”
10. Smile to live longer.
“Consider this: people who smile more may live longer. A study of pictures taken of baseball players in 1952 suggests those smiling outlived their non-smiling counterparts by seven years (Abel 2010).”