Putting on our best smile will make us feel a little better, according to a new study published in the Nature Human Behavior.
Led by Stanford University, Florida State University and the University of South Australia, the study found that by forming a smile with our facial muscles we can feel happier.
Working with a group of international collaborators, the study assessed whether people's subjective experiences of emotion could be influenced by their facial expressions.
Collecting data from 3,878 participants in 19 countries, the study found a marked increase in happiness scores when subjects imitated smiling photos or simply "pulled" their mouths towards their ears.
Researcher Dr. Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos says it's a timely finding as the world heads into the fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There is no doubt that the world is struggling in the midst of the current pandemic. While individuals naturally react differently to adverse situations, it is encouraging to think that we can influence our emotions simply by imitating a happy face."
“In this study, we brought together a group of 'skeptics' and a group of 'believers' (which we called the Many Smiles Collaboration) to examine a mutually acceptable methodology, and what we found was reliable evidence that mechanical formation of a smile can evoke feelings of happiness."
The study looked at three well-known techniques:
1) mimicking facial expressions of actors from photographs.
2) moving the corners of the mouth towards the cheeks using only the facial muscles, and
3) the pen-in-mouth technique that moves the facial muscles into a simulated smile shape.
As Dr. Marmolejo-Ramos reports, "two of these three situations caused a significant increase in happiness levels, thus proving that human emotions are linked to muscle movements.
The pen-in-mouth technique did not achieve the same mood changes (probably because the shape of the simulated mouth was not as representative of a smile as we thought).
Still, the evidence is strong, and knowing that we can feel better by imitating being happy, until we actually achieve happiness, is a pretty hopeful message.''
Coles, N. A., March, D. S., Marmolejo-Ramos, F., Larsen, J. T., Arinze, N. C., Ndukaihe, I. L., ... & Liuzza, M. T. (2022). A multi-lab test of the facial feedback hypothesis by the many smiles collaboration. Nature Human Behaviour, 1-12.