Remind yourself often that smiling not only builds more friendships, it also makes you feel better.
Rather than waiting for a reason to smile, physical changes like simply turning your frown upside down may affect your mood, experts say.
Research proves smiling goes a long way.
Jeanne Tsai, a longtime professor of psychology at Stanford University and director of the Culture and Emotion Laboratory, said some earlier research focused on this “facial feedback hypothesis.”
In a classic study from the late 1980s, researchers had subjects place a pencil between their lips and make smile or frown movements while watching positive movie clips such as cartoons. Some smiling subjects experienced the sensation of smiling more and were more amused.
“When we demonstrated it in class, it worked,” Cai said. “When you’re doing it alone in a room, you’re not doing it in a social interaction, maybe it makes you remember, or it’s the effect of remembering something good that happened, and it puts you in a better mood.”
At the Orange County Academy of Sciences and Arts in Southern California, the power of a smile is taken seriously. An entire section of the charter school group’s website is dedicated to its philosophy: Smiles can make a difference.
“Smiling creates a supportive classroom culture where students are relaxed, active, and motivated,” the website says. “It increases emotional well-being, reduces stress, and gives students confidence.”
How smiling is good for your health
Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist in Los Angeles who also teaches at Pepperdine University, discussed smiling as a coping strategy for some patients suffering from depression or anxiety.
“I’m not saying this is their only way to solve the problem,” He said. “It’s like another thing you can add to your toolbox.”
Ho said smiling affects levels of cortisol, a hormone released by the body that partly helps regulate stress and mood. Smiling affects chemicals in the brain associated with positive emotions, including endorphins, dopamine and serotonin.
“People who smile during stressful tasks often exhibit lower heart rates during recovery than people who maintain a neutral expression,” He said. “Smiling also reduces the body’s physiological stress response.”
Hopefully if you smile enough, you’ll start to feel it emotionally.
“In some ways, it’s like a mediating effect,” she added.
The value of a smile varies across cultures
How people perceive a smile, or even how open it is, is not universal. Tsai, a professor at Stanford University, conducted a study examining how emotions in American culture value efforts to maintain positive emotions and minimize negativity and sadness. In East Asian culture, emotion is more about balance.
“It’s like a mix of positive and negative emotions, so you don’t want to feel too positive or too negative,” Tsai said. “You want more of a balance between the two.”
Her past research has also examined how European Americans and East Asians—including Taiwanese, Koreans, Japanese, and Hong Kong people—perceive “neutral or calm” smiles versus bright smiles.
Subjects rated the warmth and trustworthiness of different facial expressions. While some Americans view excited smiles as more friendly, some East Asians describe these facial expressions as “emotionally unstable” or “unreliable.”
“What kind of smile matters — whether it’s a calm, closed-mouth smile like the Dalai Lama’s, or a toothy, excited smile like Julia Roberts,” Tsai said. “We did a series of studies in Taiwan and other parts of East Asia. They didn’t like a toothy, excited smile unless it really suited the situation.”
In Thailand, known as the “Land of Smiles,” smiles have been integrated into the culture. There are nearly 30 words for “smile” in Thai.
Many teaching abroad programs teaching English as a foreign language in Thailand note that smiling frequently with children and colleagues is the key to showing respect, good manners, and calmness.
At OCASA Charter School, smiling is part of making children feel seen.
“I have always believed that I want schools to be a happy place for children,” said RaNae Posey, principal of OCASA Capistrano Elementary School. “Really helping them get into the habit of looking on the bright side of things.”
Forced smiles may lead to more frowning
In recent years, women have broken down the notion that smiling is mandatory in the workplace but men are not. Smiling can be a Catch-22 for some women, and sometimes for people of color, if they don’t smile enough, they can be perceived as unapproachable or cold.
Last year, retailer Target was ridiculed on social media for having a smile policy. If a customer is within 10 feet (3 meters), staff must smile and make eye contact; if a customer is within 4 feet (1.2 meters), staff must greet them personally.
People don’t like to feel like they don’t have “emotional autonomy,” said Nicholas Coles, an assistant professor at the Social Sciences Collaboratory at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
“In these cases, we find more often than not you smile into the pain,” Coles said. “I think it only has a real effect when it feels real and consensual.”
As the holidays approach, more people may have to smile with their families if sensitive topics like politics and religion come up. These might be good times to see if smiling helps.
“If we can smile and say ‘Look, here’s a person who historically cared about you and loved you,’ maybe that will change the way we respond to them, even in difficult moments of conversation,” He said.