The Dangers of a Fake Smile

To fake a smile is stressful. A person fools himself when he shows people a vibrant smile but absolutely despise doing it.

Some jobs or occupation, however, will require one to smile or show goodwill through smiling. There is a store in a little mall along the highway in Quezon City* that sells goods or items at discounted prices. It has these typical employees. The sellers (sales lady or salesman) in that store try their very best to show their teeth and greet in a very loud voice saying tediously “Good morning/afternoon, sir/madam, welcome to ****!” It can be irritating at times listening to their voices reverberating inside the store but it is a concern, too, what their current emotional statuses are.

There is a study headed by a certain Dr. Brent Scott at Michigan State University that tells it is ‘hazardous to the health when a person fakes a bright smile to cover the real emotions‘. He argued that ‘a forced smile can result in emotional exhaustion and can subsequently; damage the mental health of the person‘. He added that ‘women are more susceptible than their male counterparts’.

How are women more susceptible? In the study, it identified them because they are tied up with being emotionally expressive therefore making it harder for them to hide what they truly feel. True enough, women are characterized by their tendencies to verbalize their emotions. In suppressing what they truly feel and showing a different emotion, they could become counterproductive and moody.

In an article by Anahad O’Connor of the New York Times, ‘The Claim: A Fake Smile Can be Bad for Your Health’, Dr. Scott and his fellow scientists was mentioned to have studied drivers that experienced fake smiling described as ’surface acting’. The opposite, ‘deep acting’, or the display of genuine smiles was also observed. Deep acting was generated by positive thoughts as explained by the group.

Although the power of smiles can greatly affect other people that we get to interact with in a positive way, anotherarticle by Dr. Mercola emphasizes that forcing or faking a smile without actually feeling it can be bad to the health. The doctor suggested about cultivating happiness as a way of reversing negative thoughts and this can be done by thinking that you are happy, as an affirmation, and much like what the adage says that ‘Happiness is a choice.’