When I was growing up, I remember my parents (my mother, especially) giving me lots of good old-fashioned advice — a lot of which I think could be traced back to old wives’ tales, or folklore, or some such source.
One thing I remember my mother saying pretty often is that it takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown, so I should smile more often.
Just the other day I read that it takes 39 muscles to frown, and only 12 muscles to smile. You’ve probably come across this same statement (or some variation of it, with different numbers.) Regardless of the numbers, the core message remains the same — it takes more effort to frown, so why not just smile instead?
But — this well-meaning, if overly simplistic, piece of advice only sounds scientific. It turns out that there might not even be a “true” answer to this smile-or-scowl question.
It appears that there are just too many variables for this problem to lend itself easily to a scientific solution. For instance, what constitutes a smile — or frown — varies from person to person…if the corner of your mouth turns down, is that a frown? Is a smirk the same as a smile?
Research has shown that we don’t all have the same number of facial muscles. A study of 18 Caucasian cadavers revealed that while five sets of muscles — the ones that control expressions of anger, happiness, surprise, fear, sadness and disgust — were present in all subjects, there were variations in other facial muscles in at least eleven of the cadavers.
So while I buy in to this good advice to turn your frown upside down, there doesn’t seem to be any scientific proof that you’re necessarily using fewer muscles — but just remember there is no one on whom a smile doesn’t look good.
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