A smile means more than expressing contentment. Certain studies have revealed many ways of using your smile to your very own advantage. People generally smile when they are together but not necessarily because they are happy. People usually smile out of social reasons, and such a smiling mask can render a certain message.



We live in a world where most people follow their very own interests, and its often not easy to find someone to trust. A smiling person always inspires trust. A genuine smile can suggest to other people that one is trustworthy. People who smile are assessed with greater generosity and extraversion, and when people share something good to each other, they usually put on a genuine smile. Even economists consider that smiles are valuable. A smile may increase other peoples trust with approximately 10%.

People may also smile when they are caught doing bad things. According to a study made by LaFrance and Hecht (1995), this can in fact be to their own advantage. We have the tendency to be more indulgent towards those who make mistakes if they put on a smile while being caught. It doesnt matter if its a fake smile, a miserable smile or a genuine smile; they all work for the wrong-doers good. Even an ashamed smile may help you get away pretty easy when you make mistakes such as for instance, forgetting to buy your spouse an anniversary gift, and so on.



We may also smile when we hear a piece of good news. In this case, women tend to smile more often than men. But on the other hand, smiling can also be a means of reducing the pain caused by a troubling situation. Psychologists call this hypothesis the psychological feedback. Even if we force ourselves to smile when we dont feel like, this may be enough to lift up our spirits just a little bit.

When we feel angry or anxious, our attention tends to narrow down. We can no longer see whats going on around us and we can only notice what is in front of us. So when we are stressed out or filled with anger, our ideas are less pleasant than the way they truly are within our own conscience. In order to understand a problem, we need those ideas that we do not find pleasant at that particular emotionally-charged moment. When we smile, we feel better and increase our attention flexibility and the ability to think holistically. Smiling can help us focus and understand better.



Smiling women may seem more attractive to men than smiling men to women. Men feel very attracted by a smiling, beautiful woman, whereas women may perceive a smiling man as less masculine. Psychologists say that a genuine smile never lies. Fake smiles involve only ones lips, whereas the genuine smiles, also called Duchenne smiles, also involve ones eyes.



Smiling can be used for hiding ones true feelings, but its not so easy to imitate a genuine smile, because a genuine smile takes place within certain timing. There are certain clues that may help us determine the genuineness of a smile. Thus, a genuine smile starts slowly; it takes about half a second to spread out on the whole face. According to some researches, as compared to a frank and rapid smile, honest and slower smiles are more trustworthy, more genuine and even more coquette.

"Keep on smiling, and the world will smile with you." One of the greatest social pleasures is to smile and be smiled to in return, especially because this comes like a natural thing. As many of us have probably often noticed, not everyone smiles back at us. Hinsz and Tomhave (1991) wanted to see the degree to which people are willing to answer the smiles they receive. In this respect, their results suggest that 50% of the persons have smiled back when being smiled at.



Smiling can indeed increase our longevity chances. People who smile often live longer (if their smile is genuine, of course, and not a mere mask). A 1952 study based on some pictures taken of some baseball players suggested that those who used to smile a lot survived approximately 7 years longer than those who did not smile very often.

Smile, and the world smiles with you. Cry and be the hunted, and you will not be mourned