3 Times When It's OK To Fake A Smile

It's easy to smile when your husband cooks you dinner for the first time in a year, or your puppy wakes you up from a siesta looking especially fetching. But what about those moments when you least want to put on a happy face?
Decades of research, including one brand-new study, show that smiling does a body all kinds of good, but even more interesting: You don't actually have to mean it. Check out the 3 best times to fake a smile.

1. When you're stressed.
Even when your heart's not in it, smiling lowers your heart rate and mitigates stress, found a new University of Kansas study to be published in Psychological Science.
Researchers taught volunteers how to arrange their faces in a variety of ways: With genuine smiles, fake smiles, neutral expressions, and with chopsticks propping their mouths open into forced grins. Then, the participants performed a series of stressful tasks—like plunging a hand into a bucket of ice water—all while maintaining their assigned facial expression. Those who smiled in any manner, even when it was fake or forced by chopsticks, had lower heart rates than those with neutral expressions.
In other words, smiling during stress helps lower the body's stress response, regardless of how happy you actually feel. (Here's something you should never fake, though: your sexual climax. Here's how to never fake another orgasm.)

2. When you're sad.
Smiling isn't just good stress relief; it can actually make you happier—especially if you have Botox. A 2009 experiment at the University of Cardiff in Wales gave two groups of women—one with Botox injections, one without—a questionnaire about their depression and anxiety. Those with Botox (who physically couldn't frown) were significantly happier with lower anxiety and depression than the other group, who did not have Botox and could frown. Importantly, the Botox group didn't report feeling any more attractive, so an increase in attractiveness couldn't account for the happiness gap.
3. When you've been naughty.
Uh-oh. Your husband caught you red-handed buying another pair of shoes from your already-stretched joint bank account, without discussing it first. What's the first thing you should do when you're busted? Crack a smile.
In one study, Boston College researchers found that when transgressors smile, their punishers tend to be more lenient. Subjects were shown photos of people who were potentially guilty of an academic violation. Smiling targets were punished less leniently, even though they weren't seen as less guilty. It didn't matter whether the smile was genuine or fake: Targets who smiled were perceived as more trustworthy.