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Michael Poh writes on the blog HONGKIET:

When we smile, there are some biological processes that somehow trick our brain into thinking we’re happy.

That being happy can make one smile is obvious. Is it also well established that smiling can make one happy?

Christian
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2 Answers2

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Yes, as we all know, smiling releases "feel-good" chemicals.

The feel good neurotransmitters dopamine, endorphins and serotonin are all released when a smile flashes across your face as well. This not only relaxes your body, but it can lower your heart rate and blood pressure.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201206/there-s-magic-in-your-smile

However, since the 70's, experiments involving forcing subjects to smile and measuring the results have shown us that just the stimulation of the muscles used to smile causes this effect.

“The researchers say their findings suggest smiling during brief periods of stress may help reduce the body's stress response, regardless of whether the person actually feels happy or not.”

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/isnt-what-i-expected/201207/try-some-smile-therapy

As such, even a faked smile can make you happier.

Plumbing for Ankit
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    Could you track down the peer reviewed studies that made those findings instead of linking to what journalists write about the effect? – Christian May 09 '15 at 10:01
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    First claim: http://philpapers.org/rec/LANNCO Second claim: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4818323 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12899366 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23012270 Having attempted three answers on this sub before this, I doubt that this will be enough. – Plumbing for Ankit May 11 '15 at 15:55
  • Given replication experiments that repeatedly failed to confirm the old hypotheses about smiling (http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2016/08/can_smiling_make_you_happier_maybe_maybe_not_we_have_no_idea.html), I am still a bit skeptical about the study above. I think it definitely shows alternative evidence (the things being measured are different) -- but I am looking forward to seeing more studies done by different people on this topic. – Greg Kramida Oct 12 '16 at 15:10
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Yes.

This is an experiment that you can try for yourself with a group of people.

Papers:

Oddthinking
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r3e
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    -1: this answer is based only on anecdotal evidence (which, anyway, does not show that smiling makes you happy) and two quite obscure papers which, again, don't give any empirical evidence to this... I would suggest a bit more research, you may come out with some more relevant papers such as: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25139308 where the pen experiment is done in an fMRI machine (with all the caveats that this implies) albeit with quite a small sample size... Again, I would argue that paper doesn't definitely prove smiling makes you happy, but it's better than those you cite. – nico May 08 '15 at 06:50