Lake Tahoe | Ron Gutman: The hidden power of smiling
Transcript
When I was a child, I always wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to save the world and then make everyone happy. But I knew that I’d need superpowers to make my dreams come true. So I used to embark on these imaginary journeys to find intergalactic objects from planet Krypton, which was a lot of fun, but didn’t get much result. When I grew up, and realized that science-fiction was not a good source for superpowers, I decided instead to embark on a journey of real science, to find a more useful truth.
I started my journey in California with a UC Berkley 30-year longitudinal study that examined the photos of students in an old yearbook and tried to measure their success and well-being throughout their life. By measuring their student smiles, researchers were able to predict how fulfilling and long-lasting a subject’s marriage will be, how well she would score on standardized tests of well-being and how inspiring she would be to others. In another yearbook, I stumbled upon Barry Obama’s picture. When I first saw his picture, I thought that these superpowers came from his super collar. But now I know it was all in his smile.
Another aha! moment came from a 2010 Wayne State University research project that looked into pre-1950s baseball cards of Major League players. The researchers found that the span of a players smile could actually predict the span of his life. Players who didn’t smile in their pictures lived an average of only 72.9 years, where players with beaming smiles lived an average of almost 80 years.
(Laughter)
The good news is that we’re actually born smiling. Using 3D ultrasound technology, we can now see that developing babies appear to smile, even in the womb. When they’re born, babies continue to smile — initially, mostly in their sleep. And even blind babies smile to the sound of the human voice. Smiling is one of the most basic, biologically-uniform expressions of all humans.
In studies conducted in Papua New Guinea, Paul Ekman, the world’s most renowned researcher on facial expressions, found that even members of the Fore tribe, who were completely disconnected from Western culture, and also known for their unusual cannibalism rituals, attributed smiles to descriptions of situations the same way you and I would. So from Papau New Guinea to Hollywood all the way to modern art in Beijing, we smile often, and you smile to express joy and satisfaction.
How many people here in this room smile more than 20 times per day? Raise your hand if you do. Oh, wow. Outside of this room, more than a third of us smile more than 20 times per day, whereas less than 14 percent of us smile less than five. In fact, those with the most amazing superpowers are actually children who smile as many as 400 times per day.
Have you ever wondered why being around children who smile so frequently makes you smile very often? A recent study at Uppsala University in Sweden found that it’s very difficult to frown when looking at someone who smiles. You ask, why? Because smiling is evolutionarily contagious, and it suppresses the control we usually have on our facial muscles. Mimicking a smile and experiencing it physically help us understand whether our smile is fake or real, so we can understand the emotional state of the smiler.
In a recent mimicking study at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in France, subjects were asked to determine whether a smile was real or fake while holding a pencil in their mouth to repress smiling muscles. Without the pencil, subjects were excellent judges, But with the pencil in their mouth, when they could not mimic the smile they saw, their judgment was impaired.
(Laughter)
In addition to theorizing on evolution in “The Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin also wrote the facial feedback response theory. His theory states that the act of smiling itself actually makes us feel better — rather than smiling being merely a result of feeling good. In his study, Darwin actually cited a French neurologist, Guillaume Duchenne, who used electric jolts to facial muscles to induce and stimulate smiles. Please, don’t try this at home.
(Laughter)
In a related German study, researchers used fMRI imaging to measure brain activity before and after injecting Botox to suppress smiling muscles. The finding supported Darwin’s theory by showing that facial feedback modifies the neural processing of emotional content in the brain in a way that helps us feel better when we smile. Smiling stimulates our brain reward mechanism in a way that even chocolate — a well-regarded pleasure inducer — cannot match.
British researchers found that one smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 bars of chocolate. (Laughter) Wait. The same study found that smiling is as stimulating as receiving up to 16,000 pounds Sterling in cash. That’s like 25 grand a smile. It’s not bad. And think about it this way: 25,000 times 400 — quite a few kids out there feel like Mark Zuckerberg every day.
- And, unlike lots of chocolate, lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. Smiling can help reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and dopamine, increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphin and reduce overall blood pressure.
And if that’s not enough, smiling can actually look good in the eyes of others. A recent study at Penn State University found that when you smile you don’t only appear to be more likable and courteous, but you actually appear to be more competent.
So whenever you want to look great and competent, reduce your stress or improve your marriage, or feel as if you just had a whole stack of high-quality chocolate — without incurring the caloric cost — or as if you found 25 grand in a pocket of an old jacket you hadn’t worn for ages, or whenever you want to tap into a superpower that will help you and everyone around you live a longer, healthier, happier life, smile.
(Applause)
Ron Gutman
Ron Gutman is the founder and CEO of HealthTap, a personalized health-info site that’s currently in beta. He’s also the organizer of TEDxSiliconValley.
Ron Gutman is the founder and CEO of HealthTap, responsible for the company’s innovation, vision and product. Before this, he was founder and CEO of Wellsphere, an online consumer health company that developed the world’s largest community of independent health writers; it was acquired in early 2009.
As a graduate student at Stanford, Gutman organized and led a multidisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students from the schools of Engineering, Medicine, Business, Psychology and Law to conduct research in personalized health and to design ways to help people live healthier, happier lives. He is an angel investor and advisor to health and technology companies such as Rock Health (the first Interactive Health Incubator) and Harvard Medical School’s SMArt Initiative (“Substitutable Medical Apps, reusable technologies”). He’s the organizer of TEDxSiliconValley.
The Untapped Powers of the Smile
By: Ron Gutman, founder and CEO of HealthTap, HealthTap Blog.
Recently I made an interesting discovery while running – a simple act that made a dramatic difference and helped carry me through the most challenging segments of long distance runs: smiling. This inspired me to embark on a journey that took me through neuroscience, anthropology, sociology and psychology to uncover the untapped powers of the smile.
I started my exploratory journey in California, with an intriguing UC Berkeley 30-year longitudinal studythat examined the smiles of students in an old yearbook, and measured their well-being and success throughout their lives.[1] By measuring the smiles in the photographs the researchers were able to predict: how fulfilling and long lasting their marriages would be, how highly they would score on standardized tests of well-being and general happiness, and how inspiring they would be to others. The widest smilers consistently ranked highest in all of the above.
Even more surprising was a 2010 Wayne State University research project that examined the baseball cards photos of Major League players in 1952.[2] The study found that the span of a player’s smile could actually predict the span of his life! Players who didn’t smile in their pictures lived an average of only 72.9 years, while players with beaming smiles lived an average of 79.9 years.
Continuing my journey, I learned that we’re part of a naturally smiling species, that we can use our smiling powers to positively impact almost any social situation, and that smiling is really good for us.
Surprisingly, we’re actually born smiling. 3-D ultrasound technology now shows that developing babies appear to smile even in the womb.[3] After they’re born, babies continue to smile (initially mostly in their sleep) and even blind babies smile in response to the sound of the human voice.[4]
A smile is also one of the most basic, biologically uniform expressions of all humans. Paul Ekman (the world’s leading expert on facial expressions) discovered that smiles are cross-cultural and have the same meaning in different societies. In studies he conducted in Papua New Guinea, Ekman found that members of the Fore tribe(who were completely disconnected from Western culture and were also known for their unusual cannibalism rituals) attributed smiles to descriptions of situations in the same way you and I would.[5]
Smiling is not just a universal means of communicating, it’s also a frequent one. More than 30% of us smile more than 20 times a day and less than 14% of us smile less than 5 times a day. In fact, those with the greatest superpowers are actually children, who smile as many as 400 times per day!
Have you ever wondered why being around children who smile frequently makes you smile more often? Two studies from 2002 and 2011 at Uppsala University in Sweden confirmed that other people’s smiles actually suppress the control we usually have over our facial muscles, compelling us to smile. They also showed that it’s very difficult to frown when looking at someone who smiles.[6]
Why? Because smiling is evolutionarily contagious and we have a subconscious innate drive to smile when we see one. This occurs even among strangers when we have no intention to connect or affiliate with the other person. Mimicking a smile and experiencing it physically helps us interpret how genuine a smile is, so that we can understand the real emotional state of the smiler.
In research performed at the University of Clermont-Ferrand in France, subjects were asked to interpret real vs. fake smiles, while holding a pencil in their mouths to repress the muscles that help us smile.[7] Without the pencils in their mouths, subjects were excellent judges, but with the pencils (when they could not mimic the smiles they saw), their judgment was impaired.
These findings would not have surprised Charles Darwin, who in addition to theorizing on evolution in The Origin of the Species, also developed the Facial Feedback Response Theory, which suggests that the act of smiling actually makes us feel better (rather than smiling being merely a result of feeling good).
This theory is supported by various recent studies, including research out of Echnische University in Munich Germany. In a 2009 study, scientists there used fMRI imaging to measure brain activity in regions of emotional processing in the brain before and after injecting Botox to suppress smiling muscles.[8] The findings showed that facial feedback (such as imitating a smile) actually modifies the neural processing of emotional content in the brain, and concluded that our brain’s circuitry of emotion and happiness is activated when we smile!
Smiling stimulates our brain’s reward mechanisms in a way that even chocolate, a well-regarded pleasure-inducer, cannot match. In a study conducted in the UK (using an electromagnetic brain scan machine and heart-rate monitor to create “mood-boosting values” for various stimuli), British researchers found that one smile can provide the same level of brain stimulation as up to2,000 chocolate bars; they also found that smiling can be as stimulating as receiving up to 16,000 Pounds Sterling in cash.[9] That’s 25 grand a smile…. At 400 daily smiles, quite a few children out there feel like Mark Zuckerberg every day!
And unlike lots of chocolate, lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. Smiling hasdocumented therapeutic effects,[10] and has been associated with: reduced stress hormone levels (like cortisol, adrenaline, and dopamine), increased health and mood enhancing hormone levels (like endorphins), and lowered blood pressure.
If that’s not enough, smiling also makes us look good in the eyes of others. A recent Penn State University study confirmed that when we smile we not only appear more likeable and courteous, but we’re actually perceived to be more competent.
So now we know that:
- When you smile, you look good and feel good
- When others see you smile, they smile too
- When others smile, they look good and feel good too
Perhaps this is why Mother Teresa said: “I will never understand all the good that a simple smile can accomplish.” What’s the catch? Only that the smile you give has to be big, and genuine!
In my fascinating journey to uncover more about smiling, I discovered something far greater than just a way to get through a challenging run – I found a simple and surprisingly powerful way to significantly improve my own life and the lives of others.
So now, whenever you want to look great and competent, improve your marriage, or reduce your stress…or whenever you want to feel as good as when you’ve enjoyed a stack of high quality chocolate without incurring the caloric cost, or as if you randomly found 25 grand in the pocket of a jacket you hadn’t worn for ages…or when you want to tap into a superpower and help yourself and others live longer, healthier happier lives … SMILE
Ron Gutman is founder and CEO of the online HealthTap, your Home for Health, which launched April, 2011. Prior to HealthTap, he co-founded Wellsphere (acquired in early 2009). Ron is also an angel investor and advisor to early stage technology companies, an advisor to Harvard Medical School’s SMArt Initiative (“Substitutable Medical Apps, reusable technologies”), a host of health “hackathons,” and serves as the Curator of TEDxSilicon Valley. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rongutman, or check out HealthTap’s beta community at www.healthtap.com
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[1] Keltner, D. and Harker, L., Expressions of positive emotion in women’s college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across adulthood, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2001, Vol. 80, No. 1)
[2] Ernest L. Abel, E. and Kruger, M., Smile Intensity in Photographs Predicts Longevity,Psychological Science (April 2010 21: 542-544)
[3] Scanner shows unborn babies smile, BBC News (September 9, 2003); Scans uncover secrets of the womb, BBC News (June 28, 2004).
[4] Bowlby, J., Attachment (Volume 2 of Attachment and Loss), Basic Books (1983)
[5] Ekman, P. & Friesen, W. V, The repertoire of nonverbal behavior: Categories, origins, usage, and coding, Semiotica (1969, 1, 49–98).
[6] Dimberg, U., Thunberg, M., Grunedal, S., Facial reactions to emotional stimuli: Automatically controlled emotional responses, Cognition and Emotion (2002) 16:4, 449–471; Dimberg, U., Söderkvist, S., The Voluntary Facial Action Technique: A Method to Test the Facial Feedback Hypothesis, Journal of Nonverbal Behavior (2011), 35:1, 17033.
[7] Niedenthal, P. Mermillod, M., Maringer, M., Hess, U., The Simulation of Smiles (SIMS) model: Embodied simulation and the meaning of facial expression, Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2010) 33, 417–480.
[8] Hennenlotter, A., Dresel, C., Castrop, F., et. all, The link between facial feedback and neural activity within central circuitries of emotion – New insights from botulinum toxin-induced denervation of frown muscles, Cerebral Cortex (2009) 19 (3): 537-542.
[9] One smile can make you feel a million dollars, The Scottsman, May 4, 2005 <http://news.scotsman.com/health/One-smile-can-make-you.2607641.jp>; Lewis, David and Carter, Nigel, “Yet Another Reason to Look After Your Teeth,” Press Release, British Dental Health Organization (April 30, 2005) <http://www.dentalhealth.org.uk/pressreleases/releasedetail.php?id=228/>.
[10] Abel, H. and Hester, R., “The Therapeutic Effects of Smiling,” in An Empirical Reflection on the Smile (Mellen Press, 2002).
SMILING FACE FILM by Yoko Ono
Add yours & your friends’ smiling faces at
www.SmilingFaceFilm.com
www.SmilingFaceFilm.com
My ultimate goal in film-making is to make a film which includes a smiling face snap of every single human being in the world. Of course, I cannot go around the whole world and take the shots myself. I need cooperation from something like the post offices of the world. If anybody would drop a snapshot of themselves and their families to the post office of their town, or allow themselves to be photographed by the nearest photographic studio, this would be soon accomplished.
Of course, the film would need constant adding of footage. Probably no-one would like to see the whole film at once, so you can keep it in a library or something, and when you want to see some particular town’s people’s smiling faces you can go and check that section of the film. We can also arrange it with a television network so that whenever you want to see faces of a particular location in the world, all you have to do is to press a button and there it is. This way, if Johnson wants to see what sort of people he killed in Vietnam that day, he only has to turn the channel. Before this you were just part of a figure in the newspapers, but after this you become a smiling face. And when you are born, you will know that if you wanted to, you will have in your lifetime to communicate with the whole world. That is more than most of us could ask for. Very soon, the age may come where we would not need photographs to communicate, like ESP, etc. It will happen soon, but that will be “After The Film Age”.
Yoko Ono
London ‘67
London ‘67
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