WebMD Feature
By Joanne Barker
Reviewed By Alfred D. Wyatt Jr., DMD
Want to succeed in business, fill up your social calendar, and get more
romance into your life? One secret may be in your smile.
Your smile -- simple, straightforward, and most important, sincere --
can attract more than admiring looks. A smiling face tells people that you’re
an outgoing and intelligent person worth getting to know.
"When someone has a big smile, it shows they’re willing to open up
and expose a part of themselves," says Pamela McClain, DDS, president of
the American Academy of Periodontology. Over the long term, smiling can benefit
your health, perception at work, social life, and romantic status. With that much at stake, it's worthwhile to
discover what your smile is saying about you -- and how to interpret the smiles
flashed your way.
Smiling Eyes Aren't Just for the
Irish
Many Americans look at the mouth to judge a person’s mood, but people
smile for all sorts of reasons: anger, fear, embarrassment, confusion, to
deceive. It’s really your eyes that give you away.
The muscles around the eyes can’t be forced to look happy. When people
smile for real, their cheeks rise and the skin around their eyes bunches up. In
fact, in certain countries where suppressing emotion is a cultural norm, people
look more at each other’s eyes to gauge emotion.
A Smile Makes You Look
Successful
"A smile conveys confidence and professionalism," says Lily
T. Garcia, DDS, DDS, MS, FACP, president of the American College of
Prosthodontists. People who project a positive outlook are generally more open
and flexible. They tend to cope better with challenges than people who are
withdrawn and unsmiling.
A study that followed a group of women for 30 years shows the lifetime
benefits of smiling. The women who displayed genuinely happy smiles in their
college yearbook photos went on to have happier marriages and greater
wellbeing.
In the same study, a group of strangers looked at the college photos
and reported their assumptions about the women’s personalities. The women who
smiled were judged to be more positive and competent than those who didn’t.
Turn that Frown Upside Down
Want to be happy? Just smile. Believe it or not, forcing yourself to
smile can actually make you happier.
Paul Ekman, PhD, a psychologist who is an expert in facial expressions,
taught himself to arrange the muscles in his face to make certain expressions.
To his surprise, he found himself feeling the emotions that he was mimicking.
When he raised his cheeks, parted his lips, and turned the corners of his mouth
up, he felt happier.
Ekman and his research partner went on to do a study of college
students to see if they, too, would feel happier by making themselves smile.
The researchers measured the students’ brain activity while the students
followed instructions to smile using the muscles in their cheeks and around
their mouths.
Whether the students smiled spontaneously or on purpose, the activity
in their brains was virtually the same. They felt happy.
http://www.webmd.com/beauty/beautiful-smile-12/smile-personality
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