3 Experiments On The Power Of Smiling
Smiling is one of those uniquely human faculties, although sometimes we look for smiles in cats, dogs or elephants. It is an expression that causes a great impact. The proof is that we have carried out several experiments on the power of smiling and that almost all of them have come to this conclusion.
Beyond the fact that science has carried out experiments on the power of smiling, anyone can experiment in their daily life to draw their own conclusions. For example, just try asking someone something with a serious expression and then do the same, smiling. See if this causes a change.
We all trust someone who smiles more. Unconscious mechanisms allow us to detect whether someone is sincerely smiling at us or not. If the gesture is not genuine, the opposite effect occurs: we are suspicious. This is what experiments on the power of smiling have shown. Let’s take a look at 3 of them.
1. The “social glue”, one of the experiments on the power of smiling
One of the most interesting power-of-smile experiments was performed by scientist Ron Gutman, who has studied the subject for several years. The findings were published in the journal Forbes in an article entitled The Untapped Power of Smiling (The secret power of smile ).
This study gives us important information. We placed a monkey with two people. One of them was smiling and the other was not. The animal approached the one who was smiling. The experiment was repeated several times, with the same result. Something similar is happening with humans.
The article refers to a study carried out at the University of Upssala in Sweden on the reactions generated by different facial expressions. It was concluded that the good mood of people who smile tends to be contagious. Ron Gutman thus writes that “smiling is evolutionarily contagious”. Therefore, smiling makes people come together. It acts as a “social glue”.
2. Smiling leads to better memories
Another experiment on the power of the smile was carried out at Duke University (United States). 50 volunteers were asked to interact with a woman from an imaginary travel agency. Some were received by a woman who remained serious, others by a woman who seemed sad, and others by a woman who was smiling.
In the end, all of the volunteers who interacted with the smiling woman said they felt more drawn to the company in question. They also claimed that they were more inclined to work with her again. Scientists have established that when a person smiles, the orbitofrontal cortex activates. The latter is an area of the brain linked to satisfaction.
A smiley face has also been shown to lead to better memory. By producing a satisfying experience, we tend to store it more vividly in our memory. Also, we tend to be more open to requests from smiling people.
3. Fake smiles don’t help much
In 1980, the German psychologist Fritz Strack of the University of Würzburg carried out another experiment on the power of the smile. Although he used a precarious methodology, the results of his study became very famous. Strack concluded that if a person is sad or in a bad mood and forces themselves to smile – even falsely – their mood tends to improve.
However, 17 other researchers in several parts of the world wanted to repeat Strack’s experiment. They got rather fuzzy results. Thus, researcher Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, from the University of Amsterdam, decided to carry out a more in-depth study to analyze the subject in detail.
We carried out the experiment with 1,894 people and a very rigorous method. It was concluded that there is no reason to believe that forcing the face to smile improves a person’s mood. In fact, one did not detect any subjective change in oneself by forcing a smile.
All of this allows us to indicate that a smile is not just a facial expression. It must be accompanied by a real feeling to be effective. Of course, we can look for stimuli that allow us to smile. In this case, it is true that our mood changes in a noticeable way.
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