When I was growing up, I remember my parents (my mother, especially) giving me lots of good old-fashioned advice \u2014 a lot of which I think could be traced back to old wives\u2019 tales, or folklore, or some such source.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019ve probably come across this same statement (or some variation of it, with different numbers.) Regardless of the numbers, the core message remains the same \u2014 it takes more effort to frown, so why not just smile instead?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But \u2014 this well-meaning, if overly simplistic, piece of advice only sounds<\/em> scientific. It turns out that there might not even be a \u201ctrue\u201d answer to this smile-or-scowl question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2014 or frown \u2014 varies from person to person\u2026if the corner of your mouth turns down, is that a frown? Is a smirk the same as a smile? When I was growing up, I remember my parents (my mother, especially) giving me lots of good old-fashioned advice \u2014 a lot of which I think could be traced back to old wives\u2019 tales, or folklore, or some such source.\u00a0 … Continue reading
Research has shown that we don\u2019t all have the same number of facial muscles. A study of 18 Caucasian cadavers revealed that while five sets of muscles \u2014 the ones that control expressions of anger, happiness, surprise, fear, sadness and disgust \u2014 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\u2019t seem to be any scientific proof that you\u2019re necessarily using fewer muscles \u2014 but just remember there is no one on whom a smile doesn\u2019t look good.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"