Why is my sincere smile taken as a fake smile by others?

Laughter is one of the most commonly used expressions in people's daily life. Dr William Frey, an American psychiatrist, emphasized that without laughter, people are prone to get sick and get seriously ill. However, all smiles are not from the heart. under

In this regard, Professor Paul ekman, a psychologist at the University of California, and Professor Wallace V. Falsen at the University of Kentucky, after years of research, designed a coding system to recognize facial expressions, which can successfully decode people's real expressions, including real smiles and fake smiles. Their research results have been put on the hit American TV series "Don't Lie to me" and have been sought after. Professor ekman was also included in the list of "100 Most Influential People in the World" in May 2009.

Experiments show that spontaneous smile (real smile) produced by joy is different from fake smile (fake smile) produced by deliberate contraction of facial muscles.

When you really laugh, your mouth is upturned and your eyes are narrowed. At this time, the main muscle of cheekbone, which is in charge of smiling, and the orbicularis oculi muscle around the eyes contract at the same time. Because the real smile is spontaneous and not dominated by consciousness, in addition to reflexively raising the corners of the mouth, the center responsible for handling emotions in the brain will automatically order the orbicularis oculi muscle to tighten, making the eyes smaller, the corners of the eyes wrinkled and the eyebrows slightly inclined.

When you giggle, only the corners of your mouth tilt up. Camouflaged smiles are produced by consciously contracting facial muscles, grinning and raising the corners of the mouth. Unlike real laughter, the orbicularis oculi muscle will not contract at this time, because the eye muscles are not dominated by human consciousness, and will only change when they really feel it. Some people exaggerate when smirking, their facial muscles contract strongly, and their whole faces shrink into a ball, giving people the illusion that their eyes are narrowed. But note that there is no way to hide the wrinkles and oblique eyebrows at this time. In other words, covering other parts of a person's face, only revealing eyebrows and eyes, if you really smile, you can still see that he is smiling; If you giggle, you can only see a pair of godless eyes.

Therefore, eyes and eyebrows are the most important clues to know whether others are really laughing or pretending to laugh.

However, in real life, whether you really laugh or fake it, as long as you put yourself into it, it will be good for your body and mind. Because when you "really laugh" happily, the happiness center of the brain will get excited; When trying to "fake smile", this action will also stimulate the relevant areas of the brain related to pleasure. Therefore, when you feel lost, depressed and sad, you might as well grin in front of the mirror and raise your mouth. At the same time, pull down your eyebrows and squint your eyes, and try to make a real smile and feel the relaxation and relief brought by smiling.