What came first, the happy or the smile?<\/p>\n
Charles Darwin wanted to know. \u00a0He proposed a theory that facial expressions don\u2019t just reflect one\u2019s emotions, they may in fact cause them. \u00a0In 1862, a neurologist named Guillaume Duchenne took up Darwin\u2019s challenge and tried to find a connection between the act of smiling and the feeling of happiness. \u00a0He isolated and examined the facial muscles one uses while smiling, and noted the differences between an authentic smile (for example, the downturn in the outer edges of the eye) and a \u201cforced\u201d one. \u00a0Though he never found a scientific link between smiling and happiness, he set the benchmark for further study; modern neurologists refer to a \u201cDuchenne smile\u201d as one which appears genuine.<\/p>\n
Scientists wrestled with the problem for a century with no success. \u00a0Then, in 1989, Stanford psychologist Robert Zajonc reported that, when test subjects were asked to pronounce the long letter \u201cE\u201d (unknowingly mimicking a smile) and then pronounce the long letter \u201cU\u201d (a pout), they felt better after the \u201cE\u201d and worse after the \u201cU.\u201d\u00a0 Other studies involving simulated smiles reinforced Zajonc\u2019s conclusion. \u00a0Conversely, subjects who only looked at other people smiling felt no better. \u00a0So how does the mere ACT of smiling make one feel better?\u00a0 Zajonc hypothesizes that, when one smiles, the tension in the facial muscles constricts the carotid artery, reducing the amount of blood going to the brain. \u00a0This cools the brain, and doctors have long known that \u201ca cool brain is a happy brain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do you buy it?\u00a0 Can you really force your face to make you feel happy?\u00a0 Who knows, but these days we can all use whatever help we can get.\u00a0 So, as marketers, we recommend you consider the following this weekend:\u00a0 Have a Coke and a Smile. \u00a0Grab a McDonald\u2019s Happy Meal and Put a Smile On.\u00a0 Remember, There\u2019s a Smile in Every Hershey Bar.<\/p>\n
By Monday, you\u2019ll be fat and diabetic, but scientists project you\u2019ll probably be OK with that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What came first, the happy or the smile? Charles Darwin wanted to know. \u00a0He proposed a theory that facial expressions don\u2019t just reflect one\u2019s emotions, they may in fact cause them. \u00a0In 1862, a neurologist named Guillaume Duchenne took up Darwin\u2019s challenge and tried to find a connection between the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[321,527,1044,1091,1129],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4","tag-darwin","tag-guillaume-duchenne","tag-robert-zajonc","tag-science","tag-smile"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}