And now for something completely different. My last few posts have been
a little on the dark side. Indeed, that was the title of one of them, and
“dark” was also in the title of another. So what can I talk about today that is
a little lighter and brighter?
Smiling. That’s what I will talk about. It’s funny how in human beings,
the upturning of the corners of the mouth, and perhaps even opening the mouth
and showing the teeth, is seen as a sign of friendship and happiness. In chimps
it seems to be more a sign of fear or anxiety. But then, we, too, have a
nervous or embarrassed smile. Smiles, even in humans, serve more than one purpose.
We smile when we are relaxed and happy. Perhaps we smile when we are nervous or
anxious to create a state of
relaxation and happiness. This would be a kind of bio-feedback, in which our
outward action has an impact on our emotional state, rather than simply
expressing it. I have tried that, sometimes, when I have been feeling a bit
low: make the facial expression of a smile, which my body associates with
happiness, joy and pleasure, and perhaps my emotions will respond. And it
works… kind of… a little bit… sometimes. It doesn’t hurt, anyway. It’s good to
keep the smile muscles exercised. I have seen people who seem to have lost the
capacity to smile. I’m sure, with lack of exercise, those muscles become as
weak as any other.
Smiles are also astonishingly contagious. It is difficult not to smile,
when someone smiles at you. Perhaps this is just politeness, but I like to
think not. I think the other person’s smile triggers, in a small way in us, the
feelings that smiling usually expresses. In this case another person’s facial expression is influencing my emotional state. Perhaps this also
tells us something about the evolution of the smile in human beings. If, in
chimpanzees, it expresses anxiety, perhaps it is not a huge step from there for
it to express appeasement in the presence of a potential threat, i.e., the
other person. The other person responds in kind, and so each realises that the
other is also anxious; perhaps an important step towards détente.
Perhaps this is also why we often avoid another person’s gaze as we are
walking down the street. Eye contact can be threatening, in itself. But seeing
another person’s smile would disarm us in a way that we would rather avoid.
Heaven forbid that we should see our bitter enemy smile at us! How could we
shoot them if they did?
Are there some cultures in which smiling is more prevalent than in
others? There are almost certainly cultural differences. And it is even
possible to misunderstand a smile within our own culture. We might, for
example, mistake an embarrassed smile for a smile expressing pleasure or
happiness. In some cultures, smiling may be linked more closely to
embarrassment than to happiness. We might involuntarily smile or laugh in the
presence of someone else’s misfortune, and they might think that we are smiling
or laughing at their misfortune. But
really we are only expressing our own discomfort.
Yet there are few things more likely to make me smile (and I smile even
thinking about it) than a broad, open smile on the face of another, expressing
joy, happiness and pleasure.
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