July 19, 2011 • 28 mins
You smile because you're happy, yet happiness research suggests the opposite can also hold true. Smiling may actually improve your mood. Open interpretation make for the best SYSKs, so prepare for an old-fashioned academia studyfest with Chuck and Josh.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
(00:20):
that makes this stuff you should know? Hey, man, how
are you doing? You're all smiles, aren't you? I am?
Is this uh, this article that we're about to talk about?
Did it make you smile? Reading it? Like the contages? Yawn? Anyway,
I'm pretty smiling though. You're fairly smiling unless I'm actively
(00:40):
piste off about something, and then I'll probably be smiling. Okay,
but you just seen me up sat too. That happens.
I've never seen you upset. Hey, you just smiled just now?
Maybe smile? Was that a fake smiler? Was that a
what's called a duchese smile? That was Duquese baby all
the way? So we're gonna go with Duke, but it
could be Duken. Uh, there's two ends, so I think
(01:04):
it may be Duken zu Ken smile. It's French. It's
named after a frenchie, Giom Duken. He's a neurologist, one
of the early ones where it was basically like, oh,
there's a brain there and it's in control of everything,
so let's test all sorts of crazy stuff and we'll
begin the field of neuroscience right in in eighteen sixty two,
(01:27):
sort of oddly at the time, I think there was
so much more interesting things going on to study. He
figured out that the you know, there's a natural smile,
and there are facial muscles involved in that that are
involved with the brain, and so he said, I will
name it after myself. Well, he was kind of an
interesting guy and that he was, from what I understand,
(01:48):
somewhat obsessed with the idea that muscles were connected to
the soul. Okay, which is weird because that kind of
provides the basis of later research into facial expressions and
specifically miling. But he was kind of onto something in
a weird, roundabout way. But the the way that he
isolated he was famous for isolating the facial expressions involved
(02:09):
in the smile. But he did it by taking emotion
out of the equation. I He did that by shocking
the facial muscles of patients in his hospital. That's how
he that's how he identified what muscles were involved in
a smile and a genuine smile yeah um and uh yeah.
He he was known to um basically shock people's faces.
(02:32):
There's a picture of him with a patient these two um,
these two basically rods that you would use to shock
somebody and the person is going like, uh, I'm not
doing this on my own. Yeah wow, Well let's do
can okay, And that was some pretty shocking experiment station.
(02:53):
So you can right comes up with a smile and
it's a that's the genuine smile, but there's also a
fixed mile and the do ken smile. Also, if you're interested,
Chuck Um, I didn't send it to you, but there's
this thing called spot the Fake Smile on BBC. It's
like twenty different pictures and you pick whether it's fake
or genuine. Apparently people stink at it. I didn't have
time to really do it, so I don't know what
(03:14):
my score was. I did like four of them, but
they were kind of hard. But the key is when
you're looking for a genuine smile, the eyes are involved.
You get the crow's feet right, um, you you're you're
you get kind of squinty. That's a real smile. Fake
smiles just the mouth. Yeah. I have jokingly doctored up
photos of Emily and myself, um, like smudging away wrinkles
(03:39):
and stuff and crow's feet, just kidding around. I wouldn't
you know me and pictures I don't care, no you,
that's that's my bag. Um. But it Emily always says,
it looks like we're like smiling without her eyes. It
looks like, you know, that fake smile, like you've been botoxed,
which will come up later exactly in this discussion. So
um fax smiling, real smiling. Obviously, the one you want
(04:02):
to go for is the genuine smile because you you
can feel it. It's like kind of starts in your
gut and comes out of your heart right. Um, Like
when you see a guy fall down on the street
and you just like you feel that sense of happiness,
you know, Yeah, you just start whistling. Maybe as you
walk along your way, you're like, sorry, mr, need need
a hand, Yeah, And then you happen to have your
(04:25):
your prosthetic hand in there and you let him pull
it right off, and you're like, WHOA did I ever
tell you about the guy in college that fell off
his bike and his books splayed out all over the
street in front of like hundreds of students on campus
and he, uh, he just put his arm on his
chin and started throwing through one of the boats, laying down.
Its awesome. It was one of the better reactions I've
(04:45):
ever seen. That is awesome. Wow. I think that would
have emotionally crippled me. I was so self conscious in college.
I would not have like that either. I would have
been like, well, that's it for me in college, transferring
to attent exactly in my dad's back, y'all. Um, So chuck,
we've got the fake the difference between the fake smile
and the real smile. And I don't know if you
noticed this. You're a little older than me, but in
(05:08):
the seventies and eighties, were you aware that there was
a lot of like, this is the heyday of smile research.
I didn't know that. It sort of makes sense just
because that's from the whole happy face boom um. You
know once Forrest Gump invented that with the face T shirt. Yeah,
that was a big deal. Smiling was a big deal. Okay,
So well, people don't put funding into figuring out, what,
(05:28):
you know, just evaluating smiles. And one of the things
they found that was kind of surprising, is that that
fake smile we were talking about, the one that just
has to do with the mouth and it's not necessarily
connected to any emotion. The fake smile um actually can
lead to more positive feelings or a better sense of
well being, at least in these studies that came out
(05:50):
of the seventies and eighties. Yeah, there's a lot of studies,
as it turns out. But that's kind of weird because
you know, the way we've always thought of smiling is
your smile as the result of positive feelings. You can
generate positive feelings from smiling. Right, But there there are
a bunch of studies, as you say that, and they
found this body of researches is surprisingly consistent, right, Yeah,
(06:11):
and the in the late eighties, Uh, this psychologist named
Robert jan I just took it as a johnic. I
think there's no Balkan I know, but they add like
um invisible. It's not silent, it's an invisible vowel a Right.
This doctor from the Falklands where Balkans Balkans from the Falklands,
(06:33):
from the Falkland Islands published a study This smile stuff
is making us so silly. Uh. He had subjects repeat
vowel sounds, obviously, which would mimic either a smile or
a frown. So if you're going to mimic a smile,
you would do like an E R and uh frown,
you would do a long you you and even your
(06:54):
brow furrows, even though I think you're exaggerating, but that's
sort of what happens naturally to your face, right. But
what he was making them use these vowel sounds because
to find out whether it has an effect positive or
negative or none, you have to take emotions out. You
want them to be emotionally neutral to begin with, which
is kind of hard because I would be sitting there
(07:15):
kind of giggling anyway at the stillness of the whole thing.
But it's similar to like Duke Ken using the shocks.
You're trying to keep emotion out of it to generate
I don't think it's something happy, just go right. Uh.
And they in fact reported the subjects reported feeling better
with the long sound the sound, and feeling bad with
the you. So there you have it in case closed, right. Uh. Yeah,
(07:40):
I guess I do kind of You know, I have
problems with studies like that anytime it's a they base
everything on a measure of reported well being subjective well being. Sure, like,
we've talked a lot about happiness, right, We've got an
audiobook just sitting there that we've never released on happiness
just gathering dust. Um, so we know a lot about this,
(08:02):
and we know that there are a lot of studies
out there that are just kind of like, you know, yes,
and if it were just this one, I would I
would be poop pooing it. But there's a bunch of
other ones that have kind of followed similar methodology have
come up with similar results. Well, rather than making vowel sounds,
there was another study that had people hold a pencil
(08:23):
and they're in their mouths to make it makes the
smile or sticking out, which makes a pout out makes
a pout always remember that there's your mnemonic device. Uh,
And they found the same thing that people who were
who had the pens sticking out of their mouths were
unhappier afterward, and people who are holding the pencil or
(08:46):
pen lengthwise, we're happier afterwards. That's right, again self reported,
But this is kind of strange that people are still
coming in the same conclusion yes, and yet another. Josh
had um three groups of people. One was shown pictures
of facial expressions, another group made those facial expressions, and
yet another made those expressions while looking at themselves in
(09:09):
a mirror. And then they were asked questions at pinpointed
their emotional state before and after, and overwhelmingly they scored
happier after smiling, and the mirror subjects saw an even
more pronounced change in mood than those who didn't see
the mirror. So it went. The people who just looked
at pictures of people smiling didn't have much of a change.
(09:31):
He didn't have any at all. Mild, they didn't have
any at all. What it says people who smiled but
didn't look at pictures and didn't look into a mirror
had some change. But the people who smiled but they
looked into a mirror head like through the roof change.
That's the jackpot. That's when you're looking, You're like, hey,
look at you got like that guy he's smiling. I'm
smiling right back, and it's just the love fest. That's
the finny. I'm always disappointed when I look in the mirror,
(09:52):
even when I'm smiling. Yeah, yeah, but I shouldn't even
look in mirrors that much anymore. I think we've talked
about that. Yeah, we and probably in the How Mirrors
Work episode. I'm gonna suspect that one. Although that little
trick mirror. We were on that photo film shoot not
too long ago and they had one of those mirrors.
It makes you all squatty. Fun house mirror. I think
(10:14):
you and I, like five year old stood in front
of that thing for thirty minutes laughing. Yeah. The funniest
part with you and I are like going up and down,
you know, like we're playing in the mirror. But then
the crew was just walking by, and they looked really deliberate,
you know, but they like little little person there carrying
that light it was but with big feet. That was
pretty cool. Fun house mirrors the best. Um. But this
(10:37):
is this kind of raises a big question like why
would looking in the mirror um increase your happiness more
than just smiling? Right? Um, unless you love yourself? I
I think you know, I mean that's an explanation. Sure, um,
but you're probably gonna lose your funding if that's what
you come you come up with instead, these researchers who
(10:58):
conducted this particular it um suggested that there's a self
conscious aspect to um smiling right where if you so
in the group that just smiled there, if there are
people who were introspective, who thought about their feelings, who
were aware of their changes and emotion, those people would
(11:18):
have had the most UM boost in happiness from just smiling.
But looking in the mirror. You take all those people
who aren't necessarily introspective and force them to confront their
change and emotion by by making them watch themselves smile,
and so that that it's that almost UM is a
supplement to self consciousness. If you're not self conscious. This
(11:42):
simulates that that phenomenon. You see what I'm saying, Like you,
you don't have to just sit there and think, oh,
I'm smiling right now, you can see it. You're taking
it in. So they think that there's a there's a
psychological aspect to it. But this guy, Roberts Johnic, that's
what we concluded his name is. He suggests that there's
(12:03):
a physiological basis for it, right, So there's maybe both.
So the only thing we're missing now is what Duken thought,
which is that they're all facial muscles are connected to
the soul. That's right, and then everybody will just be
happy and covered. That's right. And interestingly, Josh, this goes
back to one Chucky Darwin. Yeah, he actually thought of
(12:25):
the stuff back in the nineteenth century that facial expressions
don't only reflect emotions, but could be the cause of them.
And then he got busy with you, now, the whole
other stuff that he did. That's that little matter if
the galappa goes and uh, it kind of sat on
the backburner until the eighties when these new dudes started
(12:45):
studying it, and uh, doctors aghn I looked at the
research a little further and basically says, you know what,
I've got a physiological reason. I've got a hypothesis here
why a smile might trigger happiness. And it has to
do with the temperature of your body parts change when
(13:05):
there's activity there in the muscles, and there's chemical activities
that happen in that area as well because of that
temperature change, just like in smiling. Right. Well, he was saying,
there was other research, I don't think anything to do
with smiling that that found that changes in temperature in
the brain led to biochemical changes, right, So like maybe
(13:25):
more of an endorphin was released when it's cooler. Or basically,
what they found was when you can connect emotions to temperature,
A warmer brain is an anxious brain. Yes, maybe it
has to do with fight or flight. Sure, Um, a
cooler brain comparatively is a happier brain. And Zgohnic said, Okay, well,
(13:47):
how does this relate to smiling and what did he find?
The answer is in the carotid artery, that's right, not
the cartoid artery is some people mistaken, they say, uh,
and that is the pipe that livers. Most of the
blood of the brain flows through an opening called the
cavernous sinus, and that's got a lot of facial veins there.
So when you smile, Uh, those muscles tighten, those veins
(14:10):
are constricted. It's gonna cut down the blood flow going
through the car Toyd carotid artery, and uh, you're gonna
get a cooler brain. So it's gonna gonna make you happier.
But he said, also conversely, when you frown, it actually
relieves even more pressure on that corodid artery, so more
blood flows. More blood flow equals more higher temperature in
(14:33):
the brain and I mean, we're talking about such a
minute change. But it certainly makes sense that if if
our brains are sensitive, if the chemical processes in our
brains are sensitive to very minute changes, which I imagine
they would be, then this explanation is perfectly rational reasonable. Uh,
it's not supported in any way. There's like, none of
(14:56):
these studies show definitively that yes, um, smiling makes you happier,
but they suggest that the results suggest that there's a
pretty good chance that people become happier just from smiling,
even even faking it. Yes, but you found a study
that refuted that. Josh, Well, let's talk about the botox first. Yes,
(15:18):
two more studies with both very interesting. So the botox one,
remember when it supports this, we were saying, like with
the uh, with the shocks, do Ken's shocks are using
the pen all right, You're you're trying to take emotion
out of the equation to see if facial expressions can
create emotions. With botox is doing the opposite. You're taking
the facial expressions out to see how that affects emotions.
(15:41):
And what they found. There's a study from two thousand
ten from Barnard College in New York UM that found
that people who have botox botalks we should unsure most
people know. But it's a it's a toxic proteins, yeah,
that they inject into your uh skin and too basically
paralyze it so like you don't have that troublesome space
(16:05):
between your eyes when you frown, or your your forehead
doesn't crinkle up, or your crow's feet don't don't crinkle
up when you smile, and paralyzes the nerves. Yes, and
it's sort of creepy looking sometimes especially it's not too
too bad, right, but it's it's super popular these days.
It is. To have injected into your face is very popular.
(16:26):
It is pretty we have finally arrived at the dystopian
future that's been predicted forever. UM. But what they found
was that people UM who had botox injected reported UM,
they showed him basically like tear jerk or clips from
movies or or something like that, like a net Banning
is on a couch and she's like crippled or something
(16:48):
like that. Yeah, like Sweet Home, Alabama or something. Yeah,
exactly like at the end when things turn out right
for everybody, it's UM. And the people who had received
botox and actions reported less of an emotional response than
people who've been given restling, which is another injection, but
it's a filler, it doesn't paralyze anything. So basically the
(17:09):
idea it matched their face and the results were that
they if you can't produce a facial expression, then your
emotional experience is slightly lessened. Yeah, it's muted. So this
shows both ways facial expressions are somehow connected to emotion,
(17:31):
to producing emotion. The other study, which I like, talks
about fake smiling, like, uh, you know, turn that frown
upside down and you won't be so gloomy. Not true.
Fake smiling can actually make things worse. So Walmart greeters,
when you're being told the smile on your job, that
can actually bum you out more. And that's that's the reason.
(17:54):
Can't you just one intuitively, didn't you intuitively know this
already that that Porsche mom whose job it is a
smile at everybody is probably the one who like wants
to punch in the stomach most by the end of
the day. Sure, yeah, but it's just interesting because all
these other things say like a smile can actually increase
your emotion, but it's got to be a real smile.
(18:15):
A fake smile has the reverse effect. And they actually
did some research on this, Yeah, Michigan State two thousand
eleven study Spartans. It was in the Academy of Management Journal,
And basically this professor Um, he's a professor management. He
studied a group of bus drivers over two weeks and
found that the ones who fake smile the most had
(18:36):
more withdrawal and emotional exhaustion and had less hemorrhoids probably
um and but so basically that's surface acting fake smiling.
But he did find also that deep acting, which is
where you're like trying to cultivate a more positive outlook
inside yourself, like thinking of a really pleasant memory that
(18:57):
genuinely makes you happy, right you, you're doing that can
lead to actual more positive feelings, better performance at work.
Because again it's a management study, so that's what they
care about. But do you you actually do um experience
more better feelings. There's a positive effect rather than an
emotional withdrawal or waste that comes from fake smiling, Which
(19:19):
makes sense to me because I mean think about it,
like facial expressions are we've always assumed designed for another person.
This is how I'm feeling right now, respond accordingly, If
you are misleading everybody, you're you're going to at the
very least feel like you're not connected anyone because there's
no one who's understanding you. Yeah, they said it causes
(19:40):
feelings of in in authenticity, which makes sense. And they
also found that women, who are typically viewed as more
emotional than men, got in worse moods with the fake
smiling and reacted even more positively when they were deep
acting and really able to able to conjure up those
pleasant feelings puppies. Yeah, so men are just apes. Well.
(20:04):
Another study two thousand five minut University study found that
UM women are likelier to smile, what whether they feel
like smiling or not, in almost all social situations, compared
to man. So there that explains why women are often
emotionally exhausted. Yeah, my mom was much more inclined to
(20:26):
put on a happy face around other people than my
dad was. My dad would literally just like go off
by himself and sulk in front of everybody and just
be like here's me. But still in two thousand and eleven,
the point that we're at is um putting pens in
people's mouths and telling him to make e sounds in
our smile research. This is where we are. But at
(20:46):
the very least the findings are they're interesting and man,
it has been forever since we've done like a study fest. Yeah,
this feels like two thousand and eight, two thousand nine, crazy. Yeah,
you know we've been doing this for more than three
years now. Really that means uh Sarah our fan that
(21:07):
is she's like ninety, she wrote recently. I think she's fourteen? Now?
Is she fourteen? Now? Yes, she's she's on the Facebook
page now. No, I haven't keeps the darn button. Well
that's great. Well that's it for smiling. I'm done smiling
for the day. Yeah, I'm not. I don't feel like
being emotionally withdrawn and exhausted. Although our next podcast that
(21:30):
we're recording is pretty fun, it is, but that'll be
a genuine smile. Yes, okay, So Chuck, you got anything?
Uh no, Just to plug the fact that we're on
the radio now, you can listen to us on Friday
nights from seven eight if you're in the New York
area New Jersey area on WFMU ninety one point one.
As a matter of fact, we cover the whole Hudson
(21:52):
Valley like a wet blanket that's been left out in
the street for a couple of days. Hudson Valley. You
can find us it in dy point one Friday's from
seven eight and big thanks to Ken Friedman. Yeah, huge thanks.
Ken Friedman is like he should wear a cape. Yeah
he might, he probably does. But I Ken is a
w FM you and he's like everyone we've talked to
(22:14):
in public radio, because we've talked to other folks, has said, boy,
Ken is like one of these stand up guys. So
so thanks Ken, And if you're listening to this right
now on WFMU, we'll bet you appreciate Ken yourself. Yeah
they um, okay, So what do you want to do? Listener?
Mail now? Oh, if you want to know more about
(22:36):
smiling and happiness, type happy in to the search bar
at our beloved venerable website How Stuff Works dot com,
and it's gonna bring up a ton of stuff. There
was so much happiness stuff that we wrote like last year,
what people love studying emotion? Yeah, yes they do. That's
psychologists that that's just that's their thing. It certainly is
(22:57):
let's make people cry and then ask him about it.
Let's make people to shock people in the face. We
got to get that happiness audiobook released. Is it still relevant?
Sure it is, okay, it was ever greenest timeless classic. Anyway,
I said how stuff works in handy search bar. So
listener mail, should we go with the underground railroad or
(23:20):
um fear orgasms? I think fear orgaism. I got permission
to read this, by the way, as I do all
of them. Hi, guys, love the podcast. Thanks for making
me learn and laugh. I swear the following story is true,
bizarre but true. So I'm listening to the Fear podcast
at the gym today, and you gave an example of
(23:40):
men asking women out after experiencing fear because they feel
invisible or sexual. And Josh said something like, if you've
ever had a strange reaction to fear, let us know
invincible invisible. I think she made invincible maybe. So last
month I had a truly bizarre experience related to fear.
My boss was out of town. You put me in
charge of a webinar he had planned to do, and
(24:01):
I've moderated them before, but this was the first time
I had to make sure all the mechanics worked. Correctly.
About fifty people were expected to join. I'd practiced thoroughly,
going through it a few times to make sure I
had it down. When the day came to do the webinar,
I loaded it up two hours beforehand to make sure
it was already and it did not work correctly. I
read through my notes and tried again. I could not
(24:23):
get the slides up and started to panic. I can't
get the phone lines to work. All of a sudden,
I try again and again, and I am panicking. Now
I call the client to let them know my difficulties.
At this point, I am really panicked. It's been two hours.
Folks sending me text while they can't connect sending emails.
I like the build up here. It's just like especially coming.
(24:46):
Two phone lines went down, no way to reach the
software support line, and fifty people waiting for me to
connect them to the webinar that is supposed to start
right now. I'm shaking with anxiety. And guess what my
body does. I have an intense orgasm, and then another one.
She doubled down. Well, I'm thinking my body was trying
(25:08):
to get rid of extra energy so I could focus,
which kind of makes sense. Maybe or it's just like
enough of this, right, let's party. Who knows? It was
so unexpected that I almost started laughing. And no, I
have not told many people about this. I'm not sure
how you can share it if you find it of interest,
(25:30):
but please only use my first name. And Julie I
wrote her back and said, yeah, I really would like
to read this, and by the way, good for you,
and she said, yeah, right now, she like goes into
a bear dens and she hang glides and does all
(25:51):
sorts of crazy stuff. All that exactly crazy, Julie beckon
with by the way, I just made up that last name.
And literally she didn't send her last name. Man, So
for all those years that you know, I was stumbling
around in the dark not knowing what the heck was
going on, I should have just like none at a webinar. Okay,
(26:16):
so I don't even know what to call for now. Um,
let's see if you have ever encountered a bear, let
us know. Sorry, yeah, we don't get too many outdoors
and emails these days. How about that you've ever encountered
a bear? Tell us about it? And uh, you can
tweet to us right s y s K podcast, which
(26:38):
by the way, I should tell you we have a
little campaign going that started last night a guy named
OMG Chris. That's his Twitter handle OMG C h R
I S S S. Right, Okay, he had he asked
us to take a vacation because he wanted to catch up,
and I tweeted that, like many other people have caught
up and succeeded, you know you need to so um
(27:00):
I asked all of our fans and followers on Twitter
to let Chris know that he can do it. And
there's a hashtag now, it's pound Chris can do it,
And all these people send him these words of encouragement
and tips and on how to catch up. Some people
listen to us at one point five or two times
and they say, your your laugh is very funny. Twice
the speed. Yeah, We've gotten a lot of people that
(27:21):
said they do that. So if you want to encourage Chris,
I've been retweeting a lot of words of encouragement. But
you can send him a tweet and c c us
on it, and then make sure you use the hashtag
pound Chris can do it? All right, R S S S.
You know it's just h C H R I S
can do it. Good, good thinking. Awesome um. And then
(27:44):
also we were on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash stuff
You should know and you can send us your bare
stories at Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how staffork staff as we explore
(28:06):
the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant
(00:20):
that makes this stuff you should know? Hey, man, how
are you doing? You're all smiles, aren't you? I am?
Is this uh, this article that we're about to talk about?
Did it make you smile? Reading it? Like the contages? Yawn? Anyway,
I'm pretty smiling though. You're fairly smiling unless I'm actively
(00:40):
piste off about something, and then I'll probably be smiling. Okay,
but you just seen me up sat too. That happens.
I've never seen you upset. Hey, you just smiled just now?
Maybe smile? Was that a fake smiler? Was that a
what's called a duchese smile? That was Duquese baby all
the way? So we're gonna go with Duke, but it
could be Duken. Uh, there's two ends, so I think
(01:04):
it may be Duken zu Ken smile. It's French. It's
named after a frenchie, Giom Duken. He's a neurologist, one
of the early ones where it was basically like, oh,
there's a brain there and it's in control of everything,
so let's test all sorts of crazy stuff and we'll
begin the field of neuroscience right in in eighteen sixty two,
(01:27):
sort of oddly at the time, I think there was
so much more interesting things going on to study. He
figured out that the you know, there's a natural smile,
and there are facial muscles involved in that that are
involved with the brain, and so he said, I will
name it after myself. Well, he was kind of an
interesting guy and that he was, from what I understand,
(01:48):
somewhat obsessed with the idea that muscles were connected to
the soul. Okay, which is weird because that kind of
provides the basis of later research into facial expressions and
specifically miling. But he was kind of onto something in
a weird, roundabout way. But the the way that he
isolated he was famous for isolating the facial expressions involved
(02:09):
in the smile. But he did it by taking emotion
out of the equation. I He did that by shocking
the facial muscles of patients in his hospital. That's how
he that's how he identified what muscles were involved in
a smile and a genuine smile yeah um and uh yeah.
He he was known to um basically shock people's faces.
(02:32):
There's a picture of him with a patient these two um,
these two basically rods that you would use to shock
somebody and the person is going like, uh, I'm not
doing this on my own. Yeah wow, Well let's do
can okay, And that was some pretty shocking experiment station.
(02:53):
So you can right comes up with a smile and
it's a that's the genuine smile, but there's also a
fixed mile and the do ken smile. Also, if you're interested,
Chuck Um, I didn't send it to you, but there's
this thing called spot the Fake Smile on BBC. It's
like twenty different pictures and you pick whether it's fake
or genuine. Apparently people stink at it. I didn't have
time to really do it, so I don't know what
(03:14):
my score was. I did like four of them, but
they were kind of hard. But the key is when
you're looking for a genuine smile, the eyes are involved.
You get the crow's feet right, um, you you're you're
you get kind of squinty. That's a real smile. Fake
smiles just the mouth. Yeah. I have jokingly doctored up
photos of Emily and myself, um, like smudging away wrinkles
(03:39):
and stuff and crow's feet, just kidding around. I wouldn't
you know me and pictures I don't care, no you,
that's that's my bag. Um. But it Emily always says,
it looks like we're like smiling without her eyes. It
looks like, you know, that fake smile, like you've been botoxed,
which will come up later exactly in this discussion. So
um fax smiling, real smiling. Obviously, the one you want
(04:02):
to go for is the genuine smile because you you
can feel it. It's like kind of starts in your
gut and comes out of your heart right. Um, Like
when you see a guy fall down on the street
and you just like you feel that sense of happiness,
you know, Yeah, you just start whistling. Maybe as you
walk along your way, you're like, sorry, mr, need need
a hand, Yeah, And then you happen to have your
(04:25):
your prosthetic hand in there and you let him pull
it right off, and you're like, WHOA did I ever
tell you about the guy in college that fell off
his bike and his books splayed out all over the
street in front of like hundreds of students on campus
and he, uh, he just put his arm on his
chin and started throwing through one of the boats, laying down.
Its awesome. It was one of the better reactions I've
(04:45):
ever seen. That is awesome. Wow. I think that would
have emotionally crippled me. I was so self conscious in college.
I would not have like that either. I would have
been like, well, that's it for me in college, transferring
to attent exactly in my dad's back, y'all. Um, So chuck,
we've got the fake the difference between the fake smile
and the real smile. And I don't know if you
noticed this. You're a little older than me, but in
(05:08):
the seventies and eighties, were you aware that there was
a lot of like, this is the heyday of smile research.
I didn't know that. It sort of makes sense just
because that's from the whole happy face boom um. You
know once Forrest Gump invented that with the face T shirt. Yeah,
that was a big deal. Smiling was a big deal. Okay,
So well, people don't put funding into figuring out, what,
(05:28):
you know, just evaluating smiles. And one of the things
they found that was kind of surprising, is that that
fake smile we were talking about, the one that just
has to do with the mouth and it's not necessarily
connected to any emotion. The fake smile um actually can
lead to more positive feelings or a better sense of
well being, at least in these studies that came out
(05:50):
of the seventies and eighties. Yeah, there's a lot of studies,
as it turns out. But that's kind of weird because
you know, the way we've always thought of smiling is
your smile as the result of positive feelings. You can
generate positive feelings from smiling. Right, But there there are
a bunch of studies, as you say that, and they
found this body of researches is surprisingly consistent, right, Yeah,
(06:11):
and the in the late eighties, Uh, this psychologist named
Robert jan I just took it as a johnic. I
think there's no Balkan I know, but they add like
um invisible. It's not silent, it's an invisible vowel a Right.
This doctor from the Falklands where Balkans Balkans from the Falklands,
(06:33):
from the Falkland Islands published a study This smile stuff
is making us so silly. Uh. He had subjects repeat
vowel sounds, obviously, which would mimic either a smile or
a frown. So if you're going to mimic a smile,
you would do like an E R and uh frown,
you would do a long you you and even your
(06:54):
brow furrows, even though I think you're exaggerating, but that's
sort of what happens naturally to your face, right. But
what he was making them use these vowel sounds because
to find out whether it has an effect positive or
negative or none, you have to take emotions out. You
want them to be emotionally neutral to begin with, which
is kind of hard because I would be sitting there
(07:15):
kind of giggling anyway at the stillness of the whole thing.
But it's similar to like Duke Ken using the shocks.
You're trying to keep emotion out of it to generate
I don't think it's something happy, just go right. Uh.
And they in fact reported the subjects reported feeling better
with the long sound the sound, and feeling bad with
the you. So there you have it in case closed, right. Uh. Yeah,
(07:40):
I guess I do kind of You know, I have
problems with studies like that anytime it's a they base
everything on a measure of reported well being subjective well being. Sure, like,
we've talked a lot about happiness, right, We've got an
audiobook just sitting there that we've never released on happiness
just gathering dust. Um, so we know a lot about this,
(08:02):
and we know that there are a lot of studies
out there that are just kind of like, you know, yes,
and if it were just this one, I would I
would be poop pooing it. But there's a bunch of
other ones that have kind of followed similar methodology have
come up with similar results. Well, rather than making vowel sounds,
there was another study that had people hold a pencil
(08:23):
and they're in their mouths to make it makes the
smile or sticking out, which makes a pout out makes
a pout always remember that there's your mnemonic device. Uh,
And they found the same thing that people who were
who had the pens sticking out of their mouths were
unhappier afterward, and people who are holding the pencil or
(08:46):
pen lengthwise, we're happier afterwards. That's right, again self reported,
But this is kind of strange that people are still
coming in the same conclusion yes, and yet another. Josh
had um three groups of people. One was shown pictures
of facial expressions, another group made those facial expressions, and
yet another made those expressions while looking at themselves in
(09:09):
a mirror. And then they were asked questions at pinpointed
their emotional state before and after, and overwhelmingly they scored
happier after smiling, and the mirror subjects saw an even
more pronounced change in mood than those who didn't see
the mirror. So it went. The people who just looked
at pictures of people smiling didn't have much of a change.
(09:31):
He didn't have any at all. Mild, they didn't have
any at all. What it says people who smiled but
didn't look at pictures and didn't look into a mirror
had some change. But the people who smiled but they
looked into a mirror head like through the roof change.
That's the jackpot. That's when you're looking, You're like, hey,
look at you got like that guy he's smiling. I'm
smiling right back, and it's just the love fest. That's
the finny. I'm always disappointed when I look in the mirror,
(09:52):
even when I'm smiling. Yeah, yeah, but I shouldn't even
look in mirrors that much anymore. I think we've talked
about that. Yeah, we and probably in the How Mirrors
Work episode. I'm gonna suspect that one. Although that little
trick mirror. We were on that photo film shoot not
too long ago and they had one of those mirrors.
It makes you all squatty. Fun house mirror. I think
(10:14):
you and I, like five year old stood in front
of that thing for thirty minutes laughing. Yeah. The funniest
part with you and I are like going up and down,
you know, like we're playing in the mirror. But then
the crew was just walking by, and they looked really deliberate,
you know, but they like little little person there carrying
that light it was but with big feet. That was
pretty cool. Fun house mirrors the best. Um. But this
(10:37):
is this kind of raises a big question like why
would looking in the mirror um increase your happiness more
than just smiling? Right? Um, unless you love yourself? I
I think you know, I mean that's an explanation. Sure, um,
but you're probably gonna lose your funding if that's what
you come you come up with instead, these researchers who
(10:58):
conducted this particular it um suggested that there's a self
conscious aspect to um smiling right where if you so
in the group that just smiled there, if there are
people who were introspective, who thought about their feelings, who
were aware of their changes and emotion, those people would
(11:18):
have had the most UM boost in happiness from just smiling.
But looking in the mirror. You take all those people
who aren't necessarily introspective and force them to confront their
change and emotion by by making them watch themselves smile,
and so that that it's that almost UM is a
supplement to self consciousness. If you're not self conscious. This
(11:42):
simulates that that phenomenon. You see what I'm saying, Like you,
you don't have to just sit there and think, oh,
I'm smiling right now, you can see it. You're taking
it in. So they think that there's a there's a
psychological aspect to it. But this guy, Roberts Johnic, that's
what we concluded his name is. He suggests that there's
(12:03):
a physiological basis for it, right, So there's maybe both.
So the only thing we're missing now is what Duken thought,
which is that they're all facial muscles are connected to
the soul. That's right, and then everybody will just be
happy and covered. That's right. And interestingly, Josh, this goes
back to one Chucky Darwin. Yeah, he actually thought of
(12:25):
the stuff back in the nineteenth century that facial expressions
don't only reflect emotions, but could be the cause of them.
And then he got busy with you, now, the whole
other stuff that he did. That's that little matter if
the galappa goes and uh, it kind of sat on
the backburner until the eighties when these new dudes started
(12:45):
studying it, and uh, doctors aghn I looked at the
research a little further and basically says, you know what,
I've got a physiological reason. I've got a hypothesis here
why a smile might trigger happiness. And it has to
do with the temperature of your body parts change when
(13:05):
there's activity there in the muscles, and there's chemical activities
that happen in that area as well because of that
temperature change, just like in smiling. Right. Well, he was saying,
there was other research, I don't think anything to do
with smiling that that found that changes in temperature in
the brain led to biochemical changes, right, So like maybe
(13:25):
more of an endorphin was released when it's cooler. Or basically,
what they found was when you can connect emotions to temperature,
A warmer brain is an anxious brain. Yes, maybe it
has to do with fight or flight. Sure, Um, a
cooler brain comparatively is a happier brain. And Zgohnic said, Okay, well,
(13:47):
how does this relate to smiling and what did he find?
The answer is in the carotid artery, that's right, not
the cartoid artery is some people mistaken, they say, uh,
and that is the pipe that livers. Most of the
blood of the brain flows through an opening called the
cavernous sinus, and that's got a lot of facial veins there.
So when you smile, Uh, those muscles tighten, those veins
(14:10):
are constricted. It's gonna cut down the blood flow going
through the car Toyd carotid artery, and uh, you're gonna
get a cooler brain. So it's gonna gonna make you happier.
But he said, also conversely, when you frown, it actually
relieves even more pressure on that corodid artery, so more
blood flows. More blood flow equals more higher temperature in
(14:33):
the brain and I mean, we're talking about such a
minute change. But it certainly makes sense that if if
our brains are sensitive, if the chemical processes in our
brains are sensitive to very minute changes, which I imagine
they would be, then this explanation is perfectly rational reasonable. Uh,
it's not supported in any way. There's like, none of
(14:56):
these studies show definitively that yes, um, smiling makes you happier,
but they suggest that the results suggest that there's a
pretty good chance that people become happier just from smiling,
even even faking it. Yes, but you found a study
that refuted that. Josh, Well, let's talk about the botox first. Yes,
(15:18):
two more studies with both very interesting. So the botox one,
remember when it supports this, we were saying, like with
the uh, with the shocks, do Ken's shocks are using
the pen all right, You're you're trying to take emotion
out of the equation to see if facial expressions can
create emotions. With botox is doing the opposite. You're taking
the facial expressions out to see how that affects emotions.
(15:41):
And what they found. There's a study from two thousand
ten from Barnard College in New York UM that found
that people who have botox botalks we should unsure most
people know. But it's a it's a toxic proteins, yeah,
that they inject into your uh skin and too basically
paralyze it so like you don't have that troublesome space
(16:05):
between your eyes when you frown, or your your forehead
doesn't crinkle up, or your crow's feet don't don't crinkle
up when you smile, and paralyzes the nerves. Yes, and
it's sort of creepy looking sometimes especially it's not too
too bad, right, but it's it's super popular these days.
It is. To have injected into your face is very popular.
(16:26):
It is pretty we have finally arrived at the dystopian
future that's been predicted forever. UM. But what they found
was that people UM who had botox injected reported UM,
they showed him basically like tear jerk or clips from
movies or or something like that, like a net Banning
is on a couch and she's like crippled or something
(16:48):
like that. Yeah, like Sweet Home, Alabama or something. Yeah,
exactly like at the end when things turn out right
for everybody, it's UM. And the people who had received
botox and actions reported less of an emotional response than
people who've been given restling, which is another injection, but
it's a filler, it doesn't paralyze anything. So basically the
(17:09):
idea it matched their face and the results were that
they if you can't produce a facial expression, then your
emotional experience is slightly lessened. Yeah, it's muted. So this
shows both ways facial expressions are somehow connected to emotion,
(17:31):
to producing emotion. The other study, which I like, talks
about fake smiling, like, uh, you know, turn that frown
upside down and you won't be so gloomy. Not true.
Fake smiling can actually make things worse. So Walmart greeters,
when you're being told the smile on your job, that
can actually bum you out more. And that's that's the reason.
(17:54):
Can't you just one intuitively, didn't you intuitively know this
already that that Porsche mom whose job it is a
smile at everybody is probably the one who like wants
to punch in the stomach most by the end of
the day. Sure, yeah, but it's just interesting because all
these other things say like a smile can actually increase
your emotion, but it's got to be a real smile.
(18:15):
A fake smile has the reverse effect. And they actually
did some research on this, Yeah, Michigan State two thousand
eleven study Spartans. It was in the Academy of Management Journal,
And basically this professor Um, he's a professor management. He
studied a group of bus drivers over two weeks and
found that the ones who fake smile the most had
(18:36):
more withdrawal and emotional exhaustion and had less hemorrhoids probably
um and but so basically that's surface acting fake smiling.
But he did find also that deep acting, which is
where you're like trying to cultivate a more positive outlook
inside yourself, like thinking of a really pleasant memory that
(18:57):
genuinely makes you happy, right you, you're doing that can
lead to actual more positive feelings, better performance at work.
Because again it's a management study, so that's what they
care about. But do you you actually do um experience
more better feelings. There's a positive effect rather than an
emotional withdrawal or waste that comes from fake smiling, Which
(19:19):
makes sense to me because I mean think about it,
like facial expressions are we've always assumed designed for another person.
This is how I'm feeling right now, respond accordingly, If
you are misleading everybody, you're you're going to at the
very least feel like you're not connected anyone because there's
no one who's understanding you. Yeah, they said it causes
(19:40):
feelings of in in authenticity, which makes sense. And they
also found that women, who are typically viewed as more
emotional than men, got in worse moods with the fake
smiling and reacted even more positively when they were deep
acting and really able to able to conjure up those
pleasant feelings puppies. Yeah, so men are just apes. Well.
(20:04):
Another study two thousand five minut University study found that
UM women are likelier to smile, what whether they feel
like smiling or not, in almost all social situations, compared
to man. So there that explains why women are often
emotionally exhausted. Yeah, my mom was much more inclined to
(20:26):
put on a happy face around other people than my
dad was. My dad would literally just like go off
by himself and sulk in front of everybody and just
be like here's me. But still in two thousand and eleven,
the point that we're at is um putting pens in
people's mouths and telling him to make e sounds in
our smile research. This is where we are. But at
(20:46):
the very least the findings are they're interesting and man,
it has been forever since we've done like a study fest. Yeah,
this feels like two thousand and eight, two thousand nine, crazy. Yeah,
you know we've been doing this for more than three
years now. Really that means uh Sarah our fan that
(21:07):
is she's like ninety, she wrote recently. I think she's fourteen? Now?
Is she fourteen? Now? Yes, she's she's on the Facebook
page now. No, I haven't keeps the darn button. Well
that's great. Well that's it for smiling. I'm done smiling
for the day. Yeah, I'm not. I don't feel like
being emotionally withdrawn and exhausted. Although our next podcast that
(21:30):
we're recording is pretty fun, it is, but that'll be
a genuine smile. Yes, okay, So Chuck, you got anything?
Uh no, Just to plug the fact that we're on
the radio now, you can listen to us on Friday
nights from seven eight if you're in the New York
area New Jersey area on WFMU ninety one point one.
As a matter of fact, we cover the whole Hudson
(21:52):
Valley like a wet blanket that's been left out in
the street for a couple of days. Hudson Valley. You
can find us it in dy point one Friday's from
seven eight and big thanks to Ken Friedman. Yeah, huge thanks.
Ken Friedman is like he should wear a cape. Yeah
he might, he probably does. But I Ken is a
w FM you and he's like everyone we've talked to
(22:14):
in public radio, because we've talked to other folks, has said, boy,
Ken is like one of these stand up guys. So
so thanks Ken, And if you're listening to this right
now on WFMU, we'll bet you appreciate Ken yourself. Yeah
they um, okay, So what do you want to do? Listener?
Mail now? Oh, if you want to know more about
(22:36):
smiling and happiness, type happy in to the search bar
at our beloved venerable website How Stuff Works dot com,
and it's gonna bring up a ton of stuff. There
was so much happiness stuff that we wrote like last year,
what people love studying emotion? Yeah, yes they do. That's
psychologists that that's just that's their thing. It certainly is
(22:57):
let's make people cry and then ask him about it.
Let's make people to shock people in the face. We
got to get that happiness audiobook released. Is it still relevant?
Sure it is, okay, it was ever greenest timeless classic. Anyway,
I said how stuff works in handy search bar. So
listener mail, should we go with the underground railroad or
(23:20):
um fear orgasms? I think fear orgaism. I got permission
to read this, by the way, as I do all
of them. Hi, guys, love the podcast. Thanks for making
me learn and laugh. I swear the following story is true,
bizarre but true. So I'm listening to the Fear podcast
at the gym today, and you gave an example of
(23:40):
men asking women out after experiencing fear because they feel
invisible or sexual. And Josh said something like, if you've
ever had a strange reaction to fear, let us know
invincible invisible. I think she made invincible maybe. So last
month I had a truly bizarre experience related to fear.
My boss was out of town. You put me in
charge of a webinar he had planned to do, and
(24:01):
I've moderated them before, but this was the first time
I had to make sure all the mechanics worked. Correctly.
About fifty people were expected to join. I'd practiced thoroughly,
going through it a few times to make sure I
had it down. When the day came to do the webinar,
I loaded it up two hours beforehand to make sure
it was already and it did not work correctly. I
read through my notes and tried again. I could not
(24:23):
get the slides up and started to panic. I can't
get the phone lines to work. All of a sudden,
I try again and again, and I am panicking. Now
I call the client to let them know my difficulties.
At this point, I am really panicked. It's been two hours.
Folks sending me text while they can't connect sending emails.
I like the build up here. It's just like especially coming.
(24:46):
Two phone lines went down, no way to reach the
software support line, and fifty people waiting for me to
connect them to the webinar that is supposed to start
right now. I'm shaking with anxiety. And guess what my
body does. I have an intense orgasm, and then another one.
She doubled down. Well, I'm thinking my body was trying
(25:08):
to get rid of extra energy so I could focus,
which kind of makes sense. Maybe or it's just like
enough of this, right, let's party. Who knows? It was
so unexpected that I almost started laughing. And no, I
have not told many people about this. I'm not sure
how you can share it if you find it of interest,
(25:30):
but please only use my first name. And Julie I
wrote her back and said, yeah, I really would like
to read this, and by the way, good for you,
and she said, yeah, right now, she like goes into
a bear dens and she hang glides and does all
(25:51):
sorts of crazy stuff. All that exactly crazy, Julie beckon
with by the way, I just made up that last name.
And literally she didn't send her last name. Man, So
for all those years that you know, I was stumbling
around in the dark not knowing what the heck was
going on, I should have just like none at a webinar. Okay,
(26:16):
so I don't even know what to call for now. Um,
let's see if you have ever encountered a bear, let
us know. Sorry, yeah, we don't get too many outdoors
and emails these days. How about that you've ever encountered
a bear? Tell us about it? And uh, you can
tweet to us right s y s K podcast, which
(26:38):
by the way, I should tell you we have a
little campaign going that started last night a guy named
OMG Chris. That's his Twitter handle OMG C h R
I S S S. Right, Okay, he had he asked
us to take a vacation because he wanted to catch up,
and I tweeted that, like many other people have caught
up and succeeded, you know you need to so um
(27:00):
I asked all of our fans and followers on Twitter
to let Chris know that he can do it. And
there's a hashtag now, it's pound Chris can do it,
And all these people send him these words of encouragement
and tips and on how to catch up. Some people
listen to us at one point five or two times
and they say, your your laugh is very funny. Twice
the speed. Yeah, We've gotten a lot of people that
(27:21):
said they do that. So if you want to encourage Chris,
I've been retweeting a lot of words of encouragement. But
you can send him a tweet and c c us
on it, and then make sure you use the hashtag
pound Chris can do it? All right, R S S S.
You know it's just h C H R I S
can do it. Good, good thinking. Awesome um. And then
(27:44):
also we were on Facebook, Facebook dot com slash stuff
You should know and you can send us your bare
stories at Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how staffork staff as we explore
(28:06):
the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to
you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready,
are you
Stuff You Should Know News
Hosts And Creators
Chuck Bryant
Josh Clark
Show Links
AboutOrder Our BookStoreSYSK ArmyRSSPopular Podcasts
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!