In my new book SNAP I talk about the benefits of smiling.This article suggests the reasons
3 Times When It's OK to Fake a Smile
Don't worry, we won't tell.
By Mandy Oaklanderin prevention magazine
It's easy to smile when your husband cooks you dinner for thefirst time in a year, or your puppy wakes you up from a siesta lookingespecially fetching. But what about those moments when you least want toput on a happy face?
Decades of research, including one brand-new study, show thatsmiling does a body all kinds of good, but even more interesting: You don'tactually have to mean it. Check out the 3 best times to fake a smile.
Stress
1. When You're Stressed
Even when your heart's not in it, smiling lowers your heart rateand mitigates stress, found a new University of Kansas study to be published inPsychological Science.
Researchers taught volunteers how to arrange their faces in avariety of ways: With genuine smiles, fake smiles, neutral expressions, andwith chopsticks propping their mouths open into forced grins. Then, theparticipants performed a series of stressful tasks—like plunging a hand into abucket of ice water—all while maintaining their assigned facial expression.Those who smiled in any manner, even when it was fake or forced bychopsticks, had lower heart rates than those with neutral expressions.
In other words, smiling during stress helps lower the body'sstress response, regardless of how happy you actually feel.
2. When You're Bummed
Smiling isn't just good stress relief; it can actually make youhappier—especially if you have Botox. A 2009 experiment at the University ofCardiff in Wales gave two groups of women—one with Botox injections, onewithout—a questionnaire about their depression and anxiety. Those with Botox(who physically couldn't frown) were significantly happier with lower anxietyand depression than the other group, who did not have Botox and could frown.Importantly, the Botox group didn't report feeling any more attractive, so anincrease in attractiveness couldn't account for the happiness gap.
Though Botox does seem to lift more than your lines, we'renot necessarily advocating a massive Botox spree. Giving a good, old-fashionedfake grin has the same effect, smile lines and all.
3. When You've Been Naughty
Uh. Oh. Your husband caught you red-handed buying another pair ofshoes from your already-stretched joint bank account, without discussing itfirst. What's the first thing you should do when you're busted? Crack a smile.
In a 1995 study, Boston College researchers found that whentransgressors smile, their punishers tend to be more lenient. Subjects wereshown photos of people who were potentially guilty of an academic violation.Smiling targets were punished less leniently, even though they weren't seen as lessguilty. It didn't matter whether the smile was genuine or fake: Targets whosmiled were perceived as more trustworthy.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
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