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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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Most of us can spot a genuine smile. There’s just something different about it.
Well it was a French doctor in the 1860s who went to the trouble of stimulating facial muscles with electrical currents to discover just what reveals a genuine smile. It’s two muscles working together. The zygomatic major muscle that turns the corners of the lips up, and the orbicularis oculi muscle that squeezes the eyes into the famous fanned wrinkles also known as crows feet. Now it’s this latter muscle that’s involuntary, so the crows feet smile is considered the real spontaneous emotion and is known as the Duchenne smile.
It turns out the real thing has a lot of power. In this month’s Observer Magazine, Eric Jaffe outlines some fascinating effects of an honest smile. For instance a 30-year long study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that women who displayed the Duchenne smile in their college yearbook photos had greater levels of well-being and marital satisfaction three decades later. Another study published this year in Psychological Science went further to make a connection between smiles and longevity. They found that professional baseball players who sported Duchenne smiles in their yearbook photo were only half as likely to die, in any given year, as those who had not.
So during this holiday season, when the cameras and cell phones come out, give it your best, most candid smile…it appears a good thing.
—Christie Nicholson
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8 Comments
Add Comment"...half as likely to die as those who had not."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou're saying that half of professional baseball players sporting Duchenne smiles won't die? I was under the impression that the probability of death was 100% for all humans (so far).
smile though ur heart is breakin... smile..what's the use of crying? i just love this song soooo much its very inspiring..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou should probably read more carefully:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"half as likely to die, in any given year, as those who had not."
changala,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe text was corrected.
Originally was written what we can see between quotation marks in the comment.
lithiumdeuteride was right when show the error.
Haha... Well this joke of a piece made me smile. Do you think it will increase my longevity?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this...Me neither. But at least I get to enjoy the simple pleasures :)
I discuss this important issue in other contexts, like a conscious observer interspecies communication effort to complement/supplement unconscious 'mind reading' activity based on resonant phase coupling between observer and a subject about to execute an act as planned in his premotor cortical attractor space. See https://angelldls.wordpress.com/ Dr.d
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCorrelation does not equal causation, c'mon Scientific American. I'd hypothesize it isn't the smile which is increasing longevity of life and better success throughout. Instead, the smile is probably a by-product of a happy, non-stressed individual who enjoys those health benefits.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou dam get it right truorion and straight to the facts in issues.
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