Smiling and Happiness - And a related question

[BadgerJelly]

Smiling and happiness. What is the relationship?

[snipped aside question moved to Feedback Forum]

[mtbturtle]

Hi BadgerJelly,

I copied your aside question and moved it to the Feedback Forum

[Percarus]

I ponder deeply... Are humans pre-conditioned to smile when happy simply as a sociological effect that is everso present from a young age? One can frown and yet be happy henceforth smiling is not directly related to happiness. Chimpanzees smile when happy but I believe Lions and Tigers do not. Is it hence an inbuilt DNA character trait? Do all humans smile when happy (I fear not)...

[sponge]

I’m no expert but I seem to remember reading that primates like apes, monkeys and humans who all live in social groups, use body language to communicate mood and feelings to other members of the group. Smiling, as far as I remember, signifies a lack of aggression, friendliness or fear.

I guess other animal groups have their own versions of body language.

I don’t think smiling particularly expresses happiness at all. We do tend to smile when nervous or to convey a friendly disposition. We might smile deliberately to convey our happiness to others but, I think, a spontaneous reaction to happiness is more likely to be a yell, a high fist salute or even a little dance. Left alone with on-going happiness, we tend to wallow in the good feeling and enjoy the glow but, in the absence of others, we rarely sit there grinning no matter how happy we are.

Unless that’s just me?:)

[charon]

sponge

Unless that’s just me?:)

Not just you at all, absolutely right.

Smiling, laughing, giggling, and so on, is nothing. Drunk people do it. Adolescents do it. Models in adverts do it. It's got very little to do with real contentment and stability. Maturity is maturity, it doesn't need to go around flashing its teeth at everybody.

Not that one doesn't like to smile, of course :)

[Paralith]

The muscles we use to make different facial expressions are interconnected with the parts of our brain that feel the related emotions. Obviously, as several of you have pointed out, it's not a strict relationship where we can only smile when we genuinely feel happy. We have conscious control over those muscles and can make expressions even when we don't really feel that way. Though most people are pretty good at noticing a fake smile when they see one. Human facial expressions are definitely universal across different cultures. An indigenous man living a traditional life style in the highlands of Papua New Guinea smiles when he's happy the same as you and I do.

Also, there is a some feedback when you make those expressions. Researchers studying the universality of human facial expressions were categorizing facial muscles by making different expressions, and they noticed that the week they were working on sad and angry expressions, they actually felt worse and their moods were low. There have also been studies on mental exhaustion in people like salespersons and airline attendants who are forced to smile all the time when they're not genuinely happy.

[BadgerJelly]

Interesting stuff Paralith. It makes sense really

[Athena]

I’m no expert but I seem to remember reading that primates like apes, monkeys and humans who all live in social groups, use body language to communicate mood and feelings to other members of the group. Smiling, as far as I remember, signifies a lack of aggression, friendliness or fear.

I guess other animal groups have their own versions of body language.

I don’t think smiling particularly expresses happiness at all. We do tend to smile when nervous or to convey a friendly disposition. We might smile deliberately to convey our happiness to others but, I think, a spontaneous reaction to happiness is more likely to be a yell, a high fist salute or even a little dance. Left alone with on-going happiness, we tend to wallow in the good feeling and enjoy the glow but, in the absence of others, we rarely sit there grinning no matter how happy we are.

Unless that’s just me?:)

That might be just you. When I walk along the river on a beautiful day, I am smiling, if others are around or not. Researchers are investigating the facial feedback system. Our facial expressions also communicate our emotions to our brains, and when we do not get this facial muscle feedback, we are less sensitive to the emotion. I have a vague awareness of questioning how I feel at the moment and noticing I am smiling, and thinking, yup, I am really happy.

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/02/01 ... 11082.html

However, I have noticed some blind people do not have facial expressions. I think this is more likely if they were born blind? I am not sure, but I realized it is a terrible communication problem, as I observed a young man communicating with absolutely no facial expressions. This has an isolating effect, because we don't warm up to someone who is facially communicating, "I like you". I would guess we learn facial expressions.

In some cultures people are less emotionally expressive, and I heard when McDonald's went to the USSR, the company had to teach the staff to smile. Later customers were interviewed by a reporter and people enjoyed the McDonald's in part because everyone was smiling.