A 30 year study done by Berkley examined the smiles of students in an old yearbook, and measured their well-being and success throughout their lives. By measuring the smiles in the photographs the researchers were able to predict: how fulfilling and long lasting their marriages would be, how highly they would score on standardized tests of well-being and general happiness, and how inspiring they would be to others. Those with the widest smiles consistently ranked highest in all of the above.
A 2010 Wayne State University research project examined the baseball cards photos of Major League players in 1952. The study found that the span of a player’s smile could actually predict the span of his life. Players who didn’t smile in their pictures lived an average of 72.9 years, while players with beaming smiles lived an average of 79.9 years.
A smile is one of the most basic, biologically uniform expressions of all humans. Paul Ekman (a leading expert on facial expressions) discovered that smiles are cross-cultural and have the same meaning around the world. In studies conducted in Papua New Guinea, Ekman found that members of the Fore Tribe who were completely disconnected from Western culture and were also known for their unusual cannibalism rituals attributed smiles to descriptions of situations in the same way that you and I would.
A study done in 2002 and another in 2011 at Uppsala University in Sweden confirmed that other people’s smiles actually suppress the control we usually have over our facial muscles, compelling us to smile. They also showed that it’s very difficult to frown when looking at someone who smiles. Why? Because smiling is contagious and we have a subconscious innate drive to smile when we see one. This occurs even among strangers when we have no intention to connect or affiliate with the other person.
Studies suggest that the act of smiling actually makes us feel better rather than smiling being merely a result of feeling good.
Smiling stimulates our brain’s reward mechanisms in a way that even chocolate, a well-regarded pleasure-inducer, cannot match. In a study conducted in the UK using an electromagnetic brain scan machine and heart-rate monitor to create “mood-boosting values” for various stimuli, British researchers found that one smile can provide the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2000 chocolate bars; they also found that smiling can be as stimulating as receiving up to $25,000 in cash. That’s 25 grand a smile!!
Unlike consuming lots of chocolate, lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. Smiling has documented therapeutic effects, and has been associated with: reduced stress hormone levels, increased health and mood enhancing hormone levels, and lowered blood pressure.
If that’s not enough, smiling also makes us look good in the eyes of others. A recent Penn State University study confirmed that when we smile we not only appear more likeable and courteous, but we’re actually perceived to be more competent.
So now we know that:
- When you smile, you look good and feel good.
- When others see you smile, they smile too.
- When others smile, they look good and feel good, too.
Perhaps this is why Mother Teresa said: “I will never understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish.”
Happy New Year,
Dr. Vince Hassel
