WONDERINGS - Can You Smile When You're Angry?

Why is a smile the same the world round? No matter what nationality, race, environment, or social background, everyone can recognize a smile when they see it. For that matter, all major facial expressions like joy, anger, and surprise are pretty much the same no matter who you are or where you are from. Why?

Are the facial expressions of emotions built into our genetic code? To pique the "wonderer" in yourself, try the following experiment. Force yourself to smile, grin, or smirk - then ask yourself how you feel. Does the very act of smiling give you a good feeling? Now try frowning (or some other "mean" expression) without feeling the associated emotion! I think most of us would find it quite difficult to not feel at least a twinge of the associated emotion.

On the other hand, I'd be willing to bet that it's easier to think a very happy thought but keep from smiling, and to think of something that makes you angry but keep from frowning. In other words, at least with a little practice and effort, you can keep a "poker face."

And what about those laugh tracks on comedy shows? The folks who produce such shows know that laughter is infectious. Just hearing laughter without actually seeing those laughing tends to at least capture your attention; and it acts like a catalyst to induce a similar response in the listener. But try watching some of those funny clips on America's Funniest Home Videos with the sound turned down. Does it make a difference?

Have you ever been caught up in laughing along with someone else but not having the slightest idea of what was so funny? Or, at least you may have wondered afterwards why you laughed at all because you didn't think it was that funny?! And, finally, have you ever watched a baby giggle and screech with joy? Come on now, admit it, you can’t help but have a healthy giggle yourself regardless of whether or not you know why the baby is having such a good time! A baby’s laugh is just so primal that it is nearly impossible to witness it and not have that same primal urge to join in!

The proof is sitting in the highchair below!

[The Swedish text that begins the video above means "Can you have any more fun?" According to Wikipedia, "The baby subsequently became an instant worldwide celebrity, becoming the 10th most viewed Youtube video of all time."]

A bit of consideration and some thoughtful observations should reveal just how powerful a part that emotions play - from profoundly affecting the lives of individuals to determining war or peace between nations. With this in mind, and knowing that emotions, from happiness to outrage, are so easily spread and shared without rational thought or conscious effort, are we then at the mercy of our own biology?

Or is that where reason and logic are supposed to come in - to help balance out the whole act? Are our emotions like the wind in the sails of a boat by providing the moving force to actually go somewhere, while our rationality is like a rudder to give direction to our movement through life? And, like a sailboat, when we want to go "upwind," instead of facing the wind head-on, don't we sometimes have to "tack" to one side or the other to make progress?

But if the winds of our emotions build to "hurricane strength," how much good is ANY kind of rational rudder, no matter how big or strong? Perhaps extending our reason and logic to take down the sails might help.

Yet, some things defy our reason and logic altogether. I think music is one of those things. Music often lifts us above the sea of mundane reality that we all try to navigate day to day. It seems to waft us up and about like a balloon with a mind of its own. Is there any need at all for reason and logic here? Do reason and logic even have a place in the experience of music? You might think Not, at first. But I suggest that people can sometimes be moved to extreme behaviors,… if they don’t exercise some kind of rational control to let some air out of the balloon before doing something unfortunate.

Yet not all music lifts or moves everybody – tastes differ.

Religious fervor can also be infectious and devoid of reason. Whether that is good or bad is not the issue. But the emotion of being in its throes is just another example of the power and buoyancy of these types of things that seem able to carry us above and beyond the normal seas we sail. However, religious fervor can go too far also, can’t it? Especially if the safety valve of rationality is ignored or denied?

Yet not all religious activity lifts or moves everybody – tastes differ.

But a smile? Is there anything else that is so universally moving? Is there such a thing as extreme smiling, or too much smiling?

Is a smile just a smile? Or is it a balloon just waiting for you to put some air in it?

I wonder!

© 2009 by Gary D. Timothy

And now for just a bit of science.

From an article on MSNBC:

Any mother who's ever felt a jolt of joy at her baby’s first grin knows how intoxicating that can be.

Now, scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine say there’s more to the baby buzz than just a rush of happy feelings. Turns out that seeing your own child smile actually activates the pleasure receptors in the brain typically associated with food, sex  — and drug addiction.

“It may be that seeing your own baby’s face is like a ‘natural high,’ said Lane Strathearn, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor and and Texas Children's Hospital who studied the brain reactions of 28 first-time moms.

...

Strathearn and his team used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the mothers' brain reactions to photographs of their own 5-month to 10-month-old babies and those of others in three emotional states: happy, neutral and sad. As expected, the sight of their own happy babies sent blood rushing to the moms’ brain regions associated with dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in addiction. The spike rewarded the mothers with a neural kick that prompted them to want to take action to care for their babies, Strathearn said.

From a Science Daily article:

ScienceDaily (Jan. 16, 2008) — Smiling affects how we speak, to the point that listeners can identify the type of smile based on sound alone, according to a study by scientists at the University of Portsmouth.

The research, which also suggested that some people have "smilier" voices than others, adds to the growing body of evidence that smiling and other expressions pack a strong informational punch and may even impact us on a subliminal level.

And before you all start commenting on how it takes more facial muscles to frown than it does to smile, I have found NO authoritative reference on this subject.  All sorts of answers are offered up smilingly at all kinds of "answer sites," but I have not been able to find any legitimate scientific studies that give a definitive answer.  So, if you're going to tout your answer to me, please include a link to your authority. I truly doubt that there ever can be a definitive answer since we all have different smiles, we all smile differently for different occasions, and there's the question of just when you cross the line between a smirk or a grin, and a big old full-faced smile!