The Smile Is The Canvas Of Inspiration
A child laughs up to 400 times a day, however the happiest adult does not exceed 100 times and the average is between 20 and 30 times. As we get older, therefore, laughter and smile disappear from our lives despite the benefits they bring and, incidentally, we learn to pretend instead of showing our sadness.
On many occasions we hide our feelings under a smile saying that nothing is happening, when in reality we are sad, but we do not dare to explain why and we think that it is easier to smile than to explain our sadness to other people.
Even before they are born, babies smile. As demonstrated by a team of Japanese scientists in 2012, who recorded 31 fetuses for 62 minutes through an ultrasound technique and saw that in those 62 minutes there were 51 smiles, with an average duration of 3.21 seconds. In this way, it was shown that even before we are born we are capable of smiling.
How to distinguish a fake smile that hides sadness
Over time, various studies have been carried out on the subject. In 1862 the French neurologist Duchenne Boulogne carried out a study with which he reached the conclusion that a false smile only involves the muscles of the mouth and lips, while a sincere smile also activates the muscles that surround the eyes.
In 1973 the psychologist Paul Ekman carried out an experiment in which he showed 30 photographs of the faces of 14 people from different cultures, which expressed 6 primary emotions (joy, fear, surprise, sadness, anger and disgust) and reached the conclusion that emotions, especially joy, were associated in the same way by most of the subjects.
More recently, in 2012 several scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed a system to distinguish a fake smile from a real one. To do this, they asked a group of volunteers to, first, feign frustration, then fill out an online form specifically designed to provoke frustration (by filling in the requested fields and clicking “Accept”, all the information was deleted) and, finally, they watch a video showing a nice-looking baby.
In the first case, when frustration was feigned, 90% of the participants did not smile. However, in the second case, 90% smiled despite being disappointed, and in the third with the baby video, the majority also smiled. The difference is that the smile of frustration is much more instantaneous than the one of joy.
In addition, the muscles involved are different, in fact in real smiles the muscles that lift the cheeks and wrinkle the part around the eyes are set in motion.
Why do we hide behind a smile
Behind a fake smile, different motivations can be found. One of the most common is the fear of showing our feelings when we are sad or feel bad. In these situations we feel vulnerable and the fact of letting out our feelings and explaining them is more difficult than simply smiling.
At other times, we smile hidden our sadness, for not hurting another person. We do not realize that that false smile gives us away and can harm both ourselves and the person we smile at, when in fact we are sad.
The power of a sincere smile
From a very young age we learn the power that a smile can have and the effect it has on other people. A baby interprets the smile of his father or mother as a sign of confidence, that he is doing things well or that there is no danger. In this sense, in 1957 an experiment was carried out in the United States in which several babies were placed on the edge of a transparent glass surface raised to a certain height, which is called a “visual cliff”.
The children had the feeling that if they walked along the transparent surface they would fall into the void. At the other end were their mothers and some were smiling and others were not. Those who smiled made their children overcome fear and cross the surface. The other children, whose mothers did not smile, preferred not to cross that surface.
On the other hand, among adult men and women, there is also an undeniable power derived from a smile. In fact, in 2001, a study was conducted which found that people were 10% more likely to trust someone who smiles. Finally, in 1985 it was shown that smiling women increase their attractiveness by 40% for men.
