Keep smiling... it really will make you feel better

WHEN someone tells you to smile, you really should follow their advice. For merely expressing happiness helps cheer you up, scientists say.

Researchers who looked at 138 studies found that we genuinely feel slightly happier when we are smiling.

We also feel sadder when frowning and angrier when asked to scowl.

Experts believe our facial expression sends messages to the brain, which triggers signals to the regions that process emotions. People do not even need to be aware they are smiling to feel more positive, with the same effect being achieved when they hold a pen between their teeth to force their lips upwards.

Nicholas Coles of the University of Tennessee, who led the review, said: ‘There has been a long debate about whether smiling can make people happy, or whether it just amplifies existing feelings of happiness. We found both to be the case and that just curling your lips upwards can make people a little bit happier – it doesn’t even need to be a broad grin. Unfortunately the effect is quite small... but it can help.’

His team looked at studies on facial expressions that together involved more than 11,000 people. Subjects reported being happier after being asked to smile and even when they did not realise they were smiling. The review, published in the Psychological Bulletin journal, says the effects ranged from ‘small to medium’.

People became happier when in situations that might provoke happiness, such as recalling happy memories, but also when doing nothing. This makes experts believe that smiling can create happiness.

‘These findings are exciting because they provide a clue about how the mind and the body interact to shape our conscious experience of emotion,’ Mr Coles said.