FAKING A SMILE WON'T BRIGHTEN YOUR MOOD

Ever heard that you can brighten your mood just by faking a smile? That idea, which came out of a psychological experiment from the 1980s, may not be true after all. Scientists were not able to repeat the results in a lab setting in a large, rigorous new study. The experiment, led by Eric-Jan Wagenmakers, the lead researcher and a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, tried to replicate a 1988 experiment with 1,894 participants, but in the end found that no evidence that such an effect exists – faking a smile does not make you happy.
* Yeah, but what if people in the Netherlands are just a bunch of sourpusses?
* I mean, this is the first country that legalized euthanasia, for Pete’s sake.
* You folks who have been faking smiles for the last 30 years may now relax your face muscles.
* If you still can.
* Aw, does this mean smiley face emoji is crying on the inside?