TRENDING SCIENCE: Can you smile your way to happiness?

Can changing your facial expression intensify or even change your mood? According to the facial feedback hypothesis, smiling should make you happier, while frowning sadder or angrier.

Science has been trying to prove or disprove this theory since the days of Charles Darwin. Findings published in the journal ‘Nature Human Behaviour’ present strong evidence that posed smiles can really make people happier.The study involved nearly 3 900 people from 19 countries divided into three equal groups. Half in each group looked at cheerful images of puppies, kittens, flowers and fireworks. The other half looked at a blank screen.

One group was instructed to put a pen in their mouth to imitate smiling. Another had to copy the facial expression of photos of smiling actors. The third group was told to move the corners of their lips towards their ears and lift their cheeks using only the facial muscles.

They were then shown the images and blank screen, but were told to keep a neutral facial expression. The volunteers rated how happy they were after each test.

Results showed that participants who mimicked smiling photos or pulled their mouth to their ears felt much happier. However, the mood didn’t change much for those who used the pen-in-mouth method.

“Some people believe that emotional experience is very cognitive – that’s [sic] it’s solely driven by our evaluations of what’s going on in the world. This work, however, suggests that it’s also physiological,” lead author Dr Nicholas Coles, a research scientist at Stanford University in the United States, told ‘The Guardian’. “Emotional experience appears to be built, in part, off of feedback or sensations from the peripheral nervous system. The accelerated heart can make people feel anxious, the furrowed brow can make them feel angry, and the stretch of a smile can make them feel happy.”Dr Coles further explained in a Stanford University news release: “We experience emotion so often that we forget to marvel at just how incredible this ability is. But without emotion, there’s no pain or pleasure, no suffering or bliss, and no tragedy and glory in the human condition. This research tells us something fundamentally important about how this emotional experience works.”

He continued to elaborate on emotion: “The stretch of a smile can make people feel happy and the furrowed brow can make people feel angry; thus, the conscious experience of emotion must be at least partially based on bodily sensations. Over the past few years, the science took one step back and a few steps forward. But now we’re closer than ever to understanding a fundamental part of the human condition: emotion.”

So go ahead and crack a cheesy grin for a selfie or social media post. It might just brighten your day!