All of us want to be happy, all of us deserve to be happy
nowadays. Can we, however, possibly become happy
when we live in a world of stress and depression, also
coping with the hectic pace of exhausting life?
Before we suffer from their side effects, scientists have
luckily come up with a straightforward solution: smiling!
You may question this statement, but it is scientifically
proven. Smiling will make you a happy person, reduce
the stress level, and lower your blood pressure and pulse
rate.
The science behind smiling is understandable and plain,
but quite crucial. Smiles occur on our faces when the
contraction of the zygomaticus major muscles and
orbiculoris oculi muscles bring about. Thereupon,
when the production of a hormone called endorphin,
also known as the happiness hormone, is stimulated, it
then sends signals to the muscles mentioned above to
contract which eventually triggers a smile. The same can
happen when we reverse the situation: a smile, even a
fake one, will also send signals to the brain to produce
endorphins that make us much happier. Therefore, if you
want to improve your mood in such a short amount of
time and make your brain happy (technically make us
happy), then you can smile although you feel horribly
bad.
“Pen in Mouth” experiment is a great example of what
is stated above. Scientists wanted participants to hold
a pen in their teeth which causes their muscles, the
two mentioned above, to contract in an experiment
published by Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
in 1988. At the end of the experiment, the participants
were asked to comment on cartoons and evaluate how
funny they were. It was concluded that the participants
whose muscles contracted for smiling were activated
regarded the cartoons as much funnier than those who
did not. In another experiment, Botulinum toxin (Botox)
was used by researchers to paralyze the muscles of
participants for a limited amount of time, making them
uncontrollably smile. Their inference and conclusion
were that it caused a positive shift in the participants’
mood and a plummet in the stress level. Even the forced
smile can make us a happy and calmer person. Although
you are about to take your exams, just smile and you will
easily show the examiners your full potential with the
help of endorphin and smiling.
If you think you cannot manage to hold a little smile on
your face, then you should remind yourself this: “Smiling
is transmissible.” Hanging out with a friend who always
smiles will stimulate your mirror neurons which will cause
you to imitate their behaviors, provoking your smile and
happiness. As a brief but appropriate reference to our
ancestors’ inspirational proverbs, if you lie down with
dogs, you will get up with fleas. They were quite right,
were not they?
The significance of smiling is not open to any discussion
as everybody has the right to be happy and the pathway
to happiness is obviously through smiling. Keeping this
quote in your mind “Do it till you make it” if you want to
get rid of your terrible and distressing mood, just smile,
and wonderful things will assuredly happen in your lives
in rapid succession.
References
A Crisp Explanation of Facial Feedback Hypothesis
With Examples. (n.d.). Retrieved March 22, 2018,
from https://psychologenie.com/explanation-of-facial-
feedback-hypothesis-with-examples
Merle, A. (2015, November 21). The Science of
Smiling. Retrieved March 22, 2018, from https://www.
huffingtonpost.com/andrew-merle/the-science-of-
smiling_b_8570354.html
What's the science behind a smile? (n.d.). Retrieved
March 22, 2018, from https://www.britishcouncil.org/
voices-magazine/famelab-whats-science-behind-smile
Ege Aybars BOZKURT
10-C
THE CLAPPER 2018 - 2019
59
BIOLOGY OF HAPPINESS