Smiling Eases Stress

An old song advises, “Smile and the world smiles with you.” Whether or not that is true, scientists have found that smiling can help people cope with stress. Volunteers were trained so that they could produce a standard smile (the kind you may have used for your class picture, in which only the mouth muscles are engaged) and a “genuine” or Duchenne smile, in which muscles around the eyes are also involved. Then the volunteers did challenging activities, such as putting a hand into ice water, while holding the requested facial expression. Although stress levels from the tasks increased, the participants with Duchenne smiles on their faces recovered a normal heart rate more quickly than those with neutral expressions. The researchers suggest that really smiling, even if you don’t feel happy, may help reduce the physiological impact of stressful situations.
[Psychological Science, online August 2012]