Turn That Frown Upside Down
October 28, 2011
How can you make your day better? Turn that frown upside down. As corny as that phrase is, science can back it up.
As part of the Wall Street Journal’s “Is It True” video series, Christina Tsuei interviewed APS member George Bonanno about whether smiles really do improve your mood. Bonanno, author of “The Other Side of Sadness,” talked about the benefits of a spontaneous joy-filled smile. The video below also references a 2010 study published in Psychological Science, Cosmetic Use of Botulinum Toxin-A Affects Processing of Emotional Language. The researchers found that when they used Botox to block the muscle used for frowning, participants took longer to process a negative emotion such as anger or sadness.
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