It’s been said that a smile is the most inexpensive way to change your looks, but now researchers are suggesting it may be the most inexpensive way to change how you feel about your looks.
If you want to make a woman feel good about herself, just smile, scientists say.
A team from Maastricht University in the Netherlands found that women who are unhappy with the way they look feel significantly better about themselves after being greeted with a grin.
The self-esteem boost has led psychologists to theorize that confidence in one’s appearance stems from social acceptance.
Psychologist Carolien Martijn and her team recruited 57 women of normal body weight with varying degrees of happiness about their looks.
Martijn and her team first rated the women’s self esteem, then photographed them. They then showed the women photos of themselves along with the other women, with every photo followed by a face that was smiling, neutral or frowning.
Women whose photos were always followed by smiling faces had increased body satisfaction after the study, no matter what their original level of self-esteem was, according to a press release from the British Psychological Society. (The study results were presented Tuesday at the society’s annual conference in Sheffield, England.) The group who saw random facial expressions after their photos had no such boost.
“The positive effect we witnessed for women with a high level of body concern supports the idea that body satisfaction may be linked to the idea of social approval,” Martijn said in a statement. “Simply showing these women photographs of themselves followed by a smiling face — signalling social approval — increased their body satisfaction and self-esteem significantly.”
As the saying goes, a smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
Photo courtesy jovike via Flickr.