Friday, August 30, 2019

Study Claims Key to Being Happy is to Just Smile. A Real Story



I hope any individual who is reading this and is having a bad day should know there is a simple way to resolve their problems. They should smile and they will feel better. According to a new study that all it takes. Could this eliminate the need for depression medication? When people call a suicide hotline are they going to be told to just smile?

“I lost my job, my wife left me and my landlord kicked me out of my apartment.”
“No problem, according to a recent study, all you need to do to feel better is smile.”
“Okay, seems to be working.”
“Do you feel happier.”
“Yes, I'm thinking about my revenge.”
“Oh.”

Below are some excerpts of the story with my valuable insights in italics.

Researchers from the University of Tennessee and Texas A&M say that, in fact, several of our emotions can be manipulated to a degree by our facial features. The effect, they note, isn’t necessarily long-lasting or even profoundly powerful, but it’s significant enough to show a correlation between our emotions and how we carry ourselves.
“It appears that the physical act of smiling can make us feel happy, that frowning can make us feel sad, that scowling can make us feel angry,” says lead researcher Nicholas Coles, a Ph.D. student in social psychology at UT

(Sarcasm Alert)

One thing I've always wanted to do is manipulate my facial features. I don't believe this is possible in all situations. I was doing a home project once. It involved hammering a nail. I missed the nail and hit my thumb. I believe no amount of facial feature manipulation would have made me feel better. I'm sure seeing a man dancing around holding a bloody thumb as swear words came from his smiling face may have been an odd thing to see. I did try to manipulate my facial features once when my wife yelled at me for being forgetful, she turned around and then walked into a door. No known power in this world could have made me frown at that moment.


The research included data of more than 11,000 participants from around the world. Just two years ago, one project involving 17 teams of researchers was unsuccessful in proving a prominent experiment that found a link between smiling and happiness. Coles says psychologists have debated this theory for more than a century, but he believes his team’s research is the strongest evidence yet.

So, if I understand this correctly. Scientific research has spent countless hours and money on studies involving over 10,000 people and more than 16 teams of researchers to discover if there is a link between smiling and happiness. Interestingly, this has been a topic of debate for over a century.

(Sarcasm Alert)

Well, I can only imagine this type of research must have inspired other important studies such as discovering a link between screaming in pain and experiencing gut-wrenching agony. If this is successful, they may move on to really important research such as why do people who eat too much get fat and why people want to sleep when they're tired. Then there is always research that could forever alter society like why people like to breathe and why men like to write their name in the snow after consuming significant amounts of beer. But first, we must prove the theory of a link between smiling and happiness.

Who pays for this stuff?


Ultimately, Coles found that there is a clear and noteworthy connection between our facial expressions and our feelings, albeit a small one. The effect can vary from person to person and may depend on the circumstances and setting. He doesn’t suggest that smiling more will cure a depressed person, but it might help in bringing some level of uplift.

Well after so much effort into this research, I'm glad they were able to discover a small connection between our facial expressions and our feelings. My look of nausea may reveal my disgust for such a waste of money. There is no need to worry. I'll just smile and experience some level of uplift.

Still, Coles notes the findings are exciting because they shed more light on how the mind and the body works together to form emotions.
“Every day that we study these facial feedback effects, we get a little bit closer to understanding how emotions work, and that’s a real reason to smile,” he says.


No, I think the findings are exciting because they're getting paid to do this work. I don't know how much someone gets paid to study facial feedback effects, but it's too much. I hope they have to at least clean up the office and take out the trash. I think these researchers understand their happy feelings at realizing someone is paying them to do this.

I'm sure it has caused all of them to smile.

Here is a link to the story.


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