Once Upon a time, a young, forth grade me stomped into the classroom after recess with a huge frown on my face. No one had caused me harm or said anything mean, I was just in a bad mood. Mr. McKenna, my teacher, said “smile, it’ll make you feel better, I promise!” Reluctantly, I turned my frown upside down, and before I knew it I was back about my normal day, happy as 
a forth grader can be. Here I am, ten years later, and I still try and smile every time I’m feeling down. Yet, despite my many years of experience with this simple tactic, I remain clueless as to why turning up the corners of my mouth can make me feel so much better. So, I plugged a question into the handy dandy Internet: does smiling actually make you feel better?
The answer is yes, and there is quite a story to prove it. In the 1800s, French scientist Guillaume Duchenne studied the emotional expressions of humans and discovered many things, including how to determine a fake smile from a real one (turns out, it’s all about the eyes). This conclusion caused the genuine smile to receive the scientific name, the Duchenne smile. Duchenne’s experiments inspired Charles Darwin, who later suggested that our facial expressions actively influence our mood; also known as the facial feedback hypothesis. The discoveries of both Guillaume Duchenne and Charles Darwin lead one Dr. Zajonc’s to further his research, hypothesizing the effects of facial expression on body temperature. Research shows that the cooler you brain is, the better you feel, and the warmer your brain is, the worse you feel. Zajonc believed that when we change our facial muscles, the biochemical processes would cause a change in body temperature, which would explain the positive emotion that simply faking a smile can cause us to feel.
After finding all this information along with many other hypotheses, I was surprised by the lack of experimentation. But a little more googling, and I found a good one. In one experiment, researches conducted an experiment manipulating the faces of 169 subjects into a natural expression, a standard smile or a Duchenne smile. Some were also asked to smile along with the use of chopsticks. Then, the subjects underwent a serious of stress inducing and multitasking activities while their heart rates were monitored. The results showed that those told to smile had the lowest heart rates while undergoing the activities. Those who were forced to smile using chopsticks also reported lower levels of stress. They concluded that in a stressful situation, even forcing a smile can genuinely decrease stress and make you happier.
All in all, I was happy with what my research had to offer. I learned that my forth grade teacher set me up for a world of success just by telling me to smile. So thank you, Mr. McKenna, and thank you to all the wonderful scientists and doctors who offer a solution to help the world feel a little bit better, even in the worst of times.
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