When you're smiling, the whole world really does smile with you

Date:
August 13, 2020
Source:
University of South Australia
Summary:
From Sinatra to Katy Perry, celebrities have long sung about the
power of a smile -- how it picks you up, changes your outlook, and
generally makes you feel better. But is it all smoke and mirrors,
or is there a scientific backing to the claim? Groundbreaking
research confirms that the act of smiling can trick your mind into
being more positive, simply by moving your facial muscles.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
From Sinatra to Katy Perry, celebrities have long sung about the power
of a smile -- how it picks you up, changes your outlook, and generally
makes you feel better. But is it all smoke and mirrors, or is there a scientific backing to the claim?

========================================================================== Groundbreaking research from the University of South Australia confirms
that the act of smiling can trick your mind into being more positive,
simply by moving your facial muscles.

With the world in crisis amid COVID-19, and alarming rises of anxiety
and depression in Australia and around the world, the findings could
not be more timely.

The study, published in Experimental Psychology, evaluated the impact
of a covert smile on perception of face and body expressions. In both scenarios, a smile was induced by participants holding a pen between their teeth, forcing their facial muscles to replicate the movement of a smile.

The research found that facial muscular activity not only alters the recognition of facial expressions but also body expressions, with both generating more positive emotions.

Lead researcher and human and artificial cognition expert, UniSA's Dr
Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos says the finding has important insights for
mental health.



========================================================================== "When your muscles say you're happy, you're more likely to see the world
around you in a positive way," Dr Marmolejo-Ramos says.

"In our research we found that when you forcefully practise smiling,
it stimulates the amygdala -- the emotional centre of the brain -- which releases neurotransmitters to encourage an emotionally positive state.

"For mental health, this has interesting implications. If we can trick
the brain into perceiving stimuli as 'happy', then we can potentially
use this mechanism to help boost mental health." The study replicated
findings from the 'covert' smile experiment by evaluating how people
interpret a range of facial expressions (spanning frowns to smiles) using
the pen-in-teeth mechanism; it then extended this using point-light
motion images (spanning sad walking videos to happy walking videos)
as the visual stimuli.

Dr Marmolejo-Ramos says there is a strong link between action and
perception.

"In a nutshell, perceptual and motor systems are intertwined when we emotionally process stimuli," Dr Marmolejo-Ramos says.

"A 'fake it 'til you make it' approach could have more credit than
we expect."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_South_Australia. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos, Aiko Murata, Kyoshiro Sasaki, Yuki Yamada,
Ayumi Ikeda, Jose' A. Hinojosa, Katsumi Watanabe, Michal
Parzuchowski, Carlos Tirado, Raydonal Ospina. Your Face and Moves
Seem Happier When I Smile. Experimental Psychology, 2020; 67 (1):
14 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/ a000470 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200813123608.htm

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