Smiles have a powerful effect on all of us. The human brain prefers happy faces, recognizing them more quickly than those with negative expressions. Smiles are such an important part of communication that we spot a smile at 300 feet – the length of a football field. Smiles can also be your secret to success.
Here are 5 reasons to activate your smile power:-
You’ll feel better – even if you fake it
We all use the fake smile when we don’t really feel emotional closeness to those around us. The real smile is reserved for those we truly care about. And we’ve had a lot of practice doing this. We’ve been displaying both real and fake smiles all our lives. A fake smile is easy to produce. It takes only one set of muscles to stretch the lips corners sideways and create a grin.
There is no doubt that the “best” smiles are genuine. They light up your face, crinkle the corners of your eyes and produces positive psychological changes in your body temperature and heart rate. But consider research findings that even if the smile is mechanically produced, positive feelings still emerge. This study matched samples of people looking at cartoons. The first group ranked every cartoon as funnier than the second group. The only difference is that members of the first group were asked to hold a pencil crosswise between their back teeth. The simulated smile caused by the pencil between their teeth affected their emotion – and their perception of the cartoons as funnier.
You’ll be unforgettable
Why do some people make a long-lasting impression while others are quite forgettable? The answer may be in their smile.
Research from Duke University proves that we like and remember those who smile at us and shows why we find them more memorable. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the Duke researchers found that the orbitofrontal cortices (a “reward center” in the brain) were more active when subjects were learning and recalling names of smiling individuals.
You’ll encourage collaboration
No one, regardless of how intelligent he or she may be, can
succeed alone. We all need the knowledge and ideas of others. You know that. But
did you know that by merely smiling or frowning you can influence how a speaker
reports information and how it is subsequently remembered, and possibly passed
on?
According to research conducted, reported by the British Psychological Society,
positive and negative emotional responses systematically alter the use of
language. Speak to a positive listener, and people will likely use more
abstractions and subjective impressions. But if people talk to a negative
listener, they’ll probably stick to the relative security of objectives facts
and concrete details.
Researchers speculate that this is because the smiles and nods of a positive
listener are interpreted and nods of a positive listener are interpreted as a
sign of agreement and understanding, encouraging the speaker to provide more of
their own opinions and speculations. By contrast, negative listeners provoke
speakers to adopt a more hesitant and cautious thinking style.
You’ll improve your productivity
Charles Garfield, the author of Peak Performance, once
coached the Russian Olympic weight-lifting team. Garfield noticed that when
team members lifted to exhaustion, they would invariably grimace at the painful
effort. In an experiment, he encouraged the athletes to smile when they got to
that point of exhaustion. This seemingly minor difference enabled them to add
2-3 more reps to their performance.
No matter the task, when you grimace or frown while doing it, you are sending
you brain the message, “This is really difficult, I should stop.” The brain
then responds by sending stress chemicals into your bloodstream. And this
created a vicious circle: the more stressed you are, the more difficult the
task becomes.
When you smile, your brain gets the message, “It’s not so bad. I can do this!”
You’ll positively contaminate others
Some nonverbal behaviours can bring the best in people.
Smiling is one of them, as it directly influences how other people respond. When
you smile at someone, they almost always smile in return. And, because facial
expressions trigger corresponding feelings, the smile you get back actually
changes that person’s emotional state in a positive way.
Maybe that’s why a DePauw University study found that people whose smiles were
weakest in snapshots from childhood through young adulthood were most likely to
be divorced in middle or old age. (1 in 4 compared to 1 in 20 for the wildest
smiles.)
And if you ever go to trial, keep this in mind. Although courtroom judges are
equally likely to find smilers and non-smilers guilty, they tend to give
smilers lighter penalties, a phenomenon called the “smile-leniency effect.”
Want to brighten up your mood, make a lasting impression, encourage collaboration, lighten your workload, and positively influence others? Then smile – really smile. Think of someone who genuinely amuses or delights you. But if you can’t do that, then fake it … or hold a pencil in your mouth.