Smiling Makes You
Feel Good!
Research on the positive effects of
smiling.
ewscientist.com/article/mg15020279.300-act-now-think-later--fear-not-politicians-that-elusive-feelgood-factor-can-be-created-in-an-instant-just-appeal-to-our-primal-instincts-advises-david-concar.html Act now, think later - Fear not, politicians. That elusive feel-good factor can be created in an instant. Just appeal to our primal instincts, advises David Concar
27 April 1996
Magazine issue 2027. Subscribe and save
Department stores opt for nice smells and muzak; impresarios use warm-up acts. But psychologist Sheila Murphy has an infinitely more devious way of getting people in the right frame of mind. First she sits them in front of a screen in her lab at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Then she flashes up images of smiling faces.
Nothing obviously devious about that: smiles make people cheerful. The rub is that Murphy's smiles last for just a few thousandths of a second. That's way too fast for the human brain to know what it's looking at. And yet, according to in-depth studies carried out over many years by Murphy, veteran emotions researcher Robert Zajonc and their colleagues, these split-second flashes of teeth and warmly wrinkled eyes induce a measurably more positive frame of mind.
It sounds crazy. How can people respond to facial expressions too short-lived to permeate...?
ewscientist.com/article/mg15020279.300-act-now-think-later--fear-not-politicians-that-elusive-feelgood-factor-can-be-created-in-an-instant-just-appeal-to-our-primal-instincts-advises-david-concar.html Act now, think later - Fear not, politicians. That elusive feel-good factor can be created in an instant. Just appeal to our primal instincts, advises David Concar
27 April 1996
Magazine issue 2027. Subscribe and save
Department stores opt for nice smells and muzak; impresarios use warm-up acts. But psychologist Sheila Murphy has an infinitely more devious way of getting people in the right frame of mind. First she sits them in front of a screen in her lab at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Then she flashes up images of smiling faces.
Nothing obviously devious about that: smiles make people cheerful. The rub is that Murphy's smiles last for just a few thousandths of a second. That's way too fast for the human brain to know what it's looking at. And yet, according to in-depth studies carried out over many years by Murphy, veteran emotions researcher Robert Zajonc and their colleagues, these split-second flashes of teeth and warmly wrinkled eyes induce a measurably more positive frame of mind.
It sounds crazy. How can people respond to facial expressions too short-lived to permeate...?
