Smile is good for your health

Research confirms that smiling works. Some earlier studies focused on the so‑called facial feedback hypothesis, says Jeanne Tsai, a long‑time professor of psychology at Stanford University who headed the Culture and Emotion Laboratory. In a classic experiment from the late 1980s, participants were asked to hold a pencil between their lips, either to assume a smiling expression or to frown, and then watch a positive video — for example, a cartoon. Those who smiled felt the smile more strongly and were more likely to find the video amusing. “When we repeated this demonstration in class, it worked,” says Tsai. “When you do it alone, outside of social interaction, perhaps the effect is due to memories: a smile reminds you of something good, and that improves your mood.”

In one of the California schools, the power of smiles is given a special role — there, an entire website page is devoted to the philosophy that a smile changes the atmosphere. “Smiles create a supportive culture in the classroom, which makes students relaxed, active, and motivated,” the website says. “It improves emotional well‑being, reduces stress, and gives confidence.”

Dr. Judy Ho, a clinical and forensic neuropsychologist from Los Angeles, discusses smiling as a coping strategy (managing stress) with some patients suffering from depression or anxiety. “I’m not suggesting that this is the only way to fix everything,” she says. “It’s just another tool for therapy.”

A smile can affect the level of cortisol — a hormone that partially helps regulate stress and mood — and the brain chemicals associated with positive emotions: endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin. “People who smiled during stressful tasks usually showed a lower heart rate during the recovery period than those who maintained a neutral expression,” says Ho. “A smile also weakened the body’s physiological response to stress.” If you smile often enough, over time the smile will begin to be reinforced emotionally as well. “In a sense, it’s an indirect effect,” she adds.

The perception of a smile and even its openness is not a universal thing. Tsai studied how American culture values the desire to constantly experience positivity and suppress negativity and sadness, whereas in East Asian cultures, emotions are more about balance. “Positive and negative emotions seem to be woven together, and you don’t want to feel too much positivity or too much negativity,” she explains. “You need a balance between them.”

In her previous studies, European Americans and East Asian residents—Taiwanese, South Koreans, Japanese, and Hong Kong Chinese—were asked to rate a “neutral or calm” smile and a broad smirk on scales of warmth and trustworthiness. Some Americans found exaggerated smiles more friendly, while some Asians described the same expressions as “emotionally unstable” or “unreliable.” “It matters what kind of smile it is — a calm, reserved one, like the Dalai Lama’s smile, or a broad, toothy smile, for example, like Julia Roberts’s,” says Tsai. “In a series of studies in Taiwan and other East Asian contexts, participants didn’t like a wide, toothy smile unless it was contextually appropriate.”

In Thailand, the “Land of Smiles,” smiling is embedded in the culture: the Thai language has nearly 30 words for “smile,” and English‑language teaching programs abroad remind people that frequent smiling at children and colleagues is the key to respect, good manners, and calmness. And at OCASA charter schools in California, smiling is part of the effort to make children feel noticed. “I’ve always believed that school should be a happy place for children,” says Raney Posey, principal of OCASA Capistrano Elementary. — To truly help them develop the habit of seeing the bright side of things.