Smiling
Smiling tells the world that the person is not threatening and is looking for acceptance. Its infectious and encourages others to smile – "mirroring." Scientific studies show that the more people smile, the more positive reactions they get – it directly affects the attitudes of others. Those who are honest tend to smile more.
The French scientist Guillaume Deuchenne did lots of work on this – he studied the French aristocrats heads which had been guillotined! Two sets of muscles are involved with smiling:
Zygomatic Majors are the muscles which run down the side of the face – they pull back the lips and cheeks and expose the teeth. These are consciously controlled and so can be faked hence the false smile. “Cheese” pulls back these muscles.
Orbicularis Oculi – these pull the eyes back and can cause, "Crows feet." These are subconsciously controlled and therefore cannot be faked.
As a footnote to this, in courtrooms, defendants who apologise together with a smile tend to be treated more leniently than those who apologise alone.
Click here to learn about laughter.
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