FACIAL FEELINGS: There might be a feedback loop between our faces and our feelings, new research on botox recipients suggests.
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We smile because we are happy, and we frown because we are sad. But does the causal arrow point in the other direction, too? A spate of recent studies of botox recipients and others suggests that our emotions are reinforced—perhaps even driven—by their corresponding facial expressions.
Charles Darwin first posed the idea that emotional responses influence our feelings in 1872. “The free expression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies it,” he wrote. The esteemed 19th-century psychologist William James went so far as to assert that if a person does not express an emotion, he has not felt it at all. Although few scientists would agree with such a statement today, there is evidence that emotions involve more than just the brain. The face, in particular, appears to play a big role.
This February psychologists at the University of Cardiff in Wales found that people whose ability to frown is compromised by cosmetic botox injections are happier, on average, than people who can frown. The researchers administered an anxiety and depression questionnaire to 25 females, half of whom had received frown-inhibiting botox injections. The botox recipients reported feeling happier and less anxious in general; more important, they did not report feeling any more attractive, which suggests that the emotional effects were not driven by a psychological boost that could come from the treatment’s cosmetic nature.
“It would appear that the way we feel emotions isn’t just restricted to our brain—there are parts of our bodies that help and reinforce the feelings we’re having,” says Michael Lewis, a co-author of the study. “It’s like a feedback loop.” In a related study from March, scientists at the Technical University of Munich in Germany scanned botox recipients with fMRI machines while asking them to mimic angry faces. They found that the botox subjects had much lower activity in the brain circuits involved in emotional processing and responses—in the amygdala, hypothalamus and parts of the brain stem—as compared with controls who had not received treatment.
The concept works the opposite way, too—enhancing emotions rather than suppressing them. People who frown during an unpleasant procedure report feeling more pain than those who do not, according to a study published in May 2008 in the Journal of Pain. Researchers applied heat to the forearms of 29 participants, who were asked to either make unhappy, neutral or relaxed faces during the procedure. Those who exhibited negative expressions reported being in more pain than the other two groups. Lewis, who was not involved in that study, says he plans to study the effect that botox injections have on pain perception. “It’s possible that people may feel less pain if they’re unable to express it,” he says.
But we have all heard that it is bad to repress our feelings—so what happens if a person intentionally suppresses his or her negative emotions on an ongoing basis? Work by psychologist Judith Grob of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands suggests that this suppressed negativity may “leak” into other realms of a person’s life. In a series of studies she performed for her Ph.D. thesis and has submitted for publication, she asked subjects to look at disgusting images while hiding their emotions or while holding pens in their mouths in such a way that prevented them from frowning. A third group could react as they pleased.
As expected, the subjects in both groups that did not express their emotions reported feeling less disgusted afterward than control subjects. Then she gave the subjects a series of cognitive tasks that included fill-in-the-blank exercises. She found that subjects who had repressed their emotions performed poorly on memory tasks and completed the word tasks to produce more negative words—they completed “gr_ss” as “gross” rather than “grass,” for instance—as compared with controls. “People who tend to do this regularly might start to see the world in a more negative light,” Grob says. “When the face doesn’t aid in expressing the emotion, the emotion seeks other channels to express itself through.”
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26 Comments
Add CommentThis is dedicated to all the people I had to literally "throw back-flips for", just to catch a GLIMPSE of a smile on their faces!!! At last, I feel vindicated rather than just plain insane!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy friend had to have gum surgery and could not smile for two weeks. He said not being able to have facial expressions affected his mood greatly. Makes sense...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was always thinking that it is best to repress my facial expressions a kind of strength ! but that had a bad effect onmy body that I started not to be well. I will no longer do this. Expressions are good for all of us :)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks
Kawthar
Jesus taught in Luke 17:7-10 that we should do what is right even when we don't feel like it. But the beauty is that once we start doing what is right we start feeling right about it. If we act grateful we will soon feel grateful.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBoxers and martial artists exploit this. Fight or flight causes us to raise up on the balls of our feet. But if we deliberately raise up and bounce the adrenalin starts kicking in.
A smile speaks volumes, and as my mother always says you will conquer the world with a smile. Thanks mom!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScore one for the fake plastic smiley people, I'll take the world that is based in reality. You know that world where both good and bad happen? I'll frown and smile as I see fit, because you benifit from being both positive and negative. Thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, which is the more helpful, smiling when you don't feel like it just to get the feedback loop benefit, or expressing your feelings of sadness or anger so you can avoid having them come out sideways?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI work in a Dr's office and have to wait on people from all walks of life. Some pleasant and some not, regardless I have to take care of both. I have found that when I am presented with a miserable patient, one I would rather not be around, if I feign a smile to hide my true feelings it always manages to turn into a genuine smile, and the person I thought was horrible actually becomes quite tolerable and my fake smile turns into a real one. The patient then becomes much easier to deal with , and I become much happier. It never ceases to amaze me how a fake smile always turns into a real one and how much better I feel afterwards.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo that's your lesson kids, be dishonest with your feelings so you too can go postal one day at your job.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo there's your lesson kids, be dishonest with your feelings and you will totally feel better years down the road when you go postal at your job. Bearing your teeth is a sign of aggression everywhere but in our twisted heads. I think it's great.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI love this. Be aware that there is always balance in the universe. What you repress somewhere will express itself elsewhere. Don't infatuate with thinking smiling and faking it is any better than expressing how you truly feel at the time and working through it. Both are an option and should be used according to the situation, but perhaps not as a generalisation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI love this. Be aware that there is always balance in the universe. What you repress somewhere will express itself elsewhere. Don't infatuate with thinking smiling and faking it is any better than expressing how you truly feel at the time and working through it. Both are an option and should be used according to the situation, but perhaps not as a generalisation.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe feel happy when we smile because we transfer our emotions to the people around us, and who respond positively. So there is no mechanism in our facial muscles that is affecting our mood. GS
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisunfortunately, for those of us who suffer depression caused by chemical imbalance, smiling does absolutely nothing for us. "normal" people are able to affect or change their emotions through behavior or thought. The first thing that must happen for people like me, is that we must first physically get to the place that most people experience everyday of their lives. Then, we can often be more effective in changing our mood or behavior than "normal" people can because we are more aware of the state of being we are in. This is yet another stupid article from a person who is unaware that feeling "normal" is a gift that not everyone has. Imagine waking up in hell everyday. Do you really think a smile will change that? Utter stupidity from another self-centered and oblivious person...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Cajun Pauley - Keep those quotes from that book of lies to yourself. It makes your response look awfully dumb.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisalso, since you have a great life and you are so selfish that you would not like to see a genuine emotion of unhappiness, don't ask the rest of us to make YOU feel better about things or ruin your party. for the majority of us, life sucks and we have nothing to smile about. maybe, instead of being so selfish, you should ask yourself why so many people are not smiling, instead of asking them to paste on a fake smile for your own benefit. how shallow is that?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thispeople smile when they are happy. people don't smile when they are not happy. what don't you understand about that?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisah ha, a little research on the author illuminates her socio-political slant: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=virus-in-the-brain
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisus slaves should smile and not be heard....
And the grade school teacher would say: "Wipe that stupid grin off your face!" Decades later, seeing for myself that dogs actually smile back, I can now laugh about those junk e-mails that ranted about shamanism in the subject field.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood passage
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEmotions are molecules and they are part of who we are.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome scientists and researchers will speak of mind, emotions and physical body as distinct entities. I believe they are inter-related elements from a whole being (ourselves) and whenever there's a change in one of them, a reaction will happen through the whole body.
Smiles can definitely make the world a better place.
The same analogy from above can be applied to our society and ecosystem, and instead of being composed of a extremely large number of individual lives, it is a whole live entity composed of related elements.
So, when somebody smiles there is a reaction happening, as a consequence, in this whole thing, improving its overall condition and state.
Btw, I use braces, so my smile is kind of metallic right now.
Although I keep very clean (the world deserves it) using a device called Wet Smile - Faucet Mounting Oral Cleaner, which I bough from Amazon.com (this is not an affiliate link).
Smile is colors and types and meanings
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSmile is colors and types and meanings
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSmile is colors and types and meanings
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@hateslemmings
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVerifying the old adage that misery loves company eh?
The fact that you have hate in your username speaks volumes...
A smile is a universal expression of happiness and recognized as such by all cultures.
A smiling person is judged to be more pleasant, attractive, sincere, sociable and competent. Smiling is contagious.
Happy people generally don't get sick as often as people who are unhappy.
Smiling or even seeing somebody smile releases endorphins that work in the brain to give an overall feeling of well-being.
People are born with the ability to smile. Even babies born blind smile.
I've long practised the art of a fake smile to shake a bad mood. My bad moods normally achieve nothing other than making me feel miserable for longer and if I can stop and smile (it's only momentarily fake) the fell good feedback works a treat. I agree with the others who've also said when you smile the world becomes a nicer place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor me it's not about hiding real emotions, I've generally allowed myself to feel other darker emotions but my step to smile is about recognising the fact that the emotions don't change the situation that caused me to feel that way, so I might as well choose to feel good.