A Smile Is The Canvas Of Inspiration
A child laughs 400 times a day, but the happiest adult does not exceed 100 times. The average is between 20 and 30 times a day. As we get older , laughter and smiles disappear from our lives despite their benefits, and we learn to pretend instead of showing our sadness.
We often hide our feelings behind a smile by saying that nothing has happened, when in fact we are sad but do not dare to explain why, and we find it easier to smile than to explain our sadness to others.
Even before birth, babies smile. A Japanese research team demonstrated this in 2012 by recording 31 fetuses for 62 minutes using ultrasound. They found that during these 62 minutes, they produced 51 smiles with an average length of 3.21 seconds. Therefore , it was shown that we can smile even before birth.
Over time, several studies on the subject have been conducted. In 1862, the French neurologist Duchenne Boulogne conducted a study in which it was concluded that a false smile only involves the muscles of the mouth and lips, while an active and sincere smile involves the muscles around the eyes.
In 1973, psychologist Paul Ekman conducted an experiment in which he showed 30 photographs depicting 14 people from different cultures that showed six primary emotions (joy, fear, surprise, sadness, anger and disgust), and found that emotions, especially joy, were expressed in the same way. of most.
More recently , researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2012 developed a system to distinguish a fake smile from a genuine one. To do so, they first asked a group of volunteers to fake frustration. They were then asked to fill out a form on the internet that was developed specifically to cause frustration. Finally, a video of a cute baby was shown.
In the first case, where the frustration was fake, only 10% of the participants smiled. In the second case, however, 90% of them smiled even though they were obviously disappointed. The group that smiled the most, however, was the last to see the video of the baby. The difference is that a smile due to frustration is much more immediate than one of joy.
Furthermore, the muscles involved also differ. Real smiles actually start in the muscles that raise the cheeks and create wrinkles around the eyes.
Behind a fake smile you can find different motivations. One of the most common is the fear of showing our feelings when we are sad or unwell. In these situations, we feel vulnerable, and letting go of our emotions and defending them is more complicated for us than just smiling.
At other times , our grief is hidden behind a smile so as not to hurt the other person. We do not realize that this false smile betrays us and can hurt both ourselves and the person we smile at when we are really sad.
From a very early age we learn about the power a smile can have. A baby interprets the smile of his mother and father as a sign of security that puts things right or that there is no danger. Based on this, an experiment was conducted in 1957 in the United States where several babies were placed at the edge of a high, transparent glass surface called a “visual rock”.
The children felt that if they took over the transparent surface, they would fall down. On the other hand, their mothers, some were smiling and others were not. Those who smiled could make their children overcome their fears and cross the surface. Other children whose mothers did not smile chose not to cross it.
Furthermore, there is an undeniable force among adult men and women that comes from smiles. In fact, in 2001, a study found that people were 10% more likely to trust someone who smiles. Another study showed that women who smile increase their attractiveness to men by 40%.
