 |
| Photo Credit: Saige Gerwig |
Are you aware that using that fake smile you use on a daily basis can really just make your day ten times worse than it already was? In a two week study, scientists followed bus drivers around (due to the fact that they have to interact with people on a daily basis) to see how their “surface acting” was affecting them. After a constant study, the researchers found that on days when they were trying to “suppress” negative thoughts and used fake smiles, their mood instantly deteriorated and made them want to work less. Trying to avoid negative thoughts or interacting actually turned out to make them more upset.
On days when the drivers were just themselves and didn’t try to put up a front to anyone, they were in much better moods. Women are affected more by this more than men according to Dr. Scoot who said that “women are socialized to be more emotionally expressive, he said, so hiding emotions may create more strain.”
How Do You Feel About "Fake Smiling?"
I took on my own “poll” and asked around campus last week to see how college students generally felt about fake smiling. College kids must use fake smiles on a daily basis, I know I do. School for eight hours a day (for some) a few times a week has got to be stressful so how could you not be using fake smiles. “What is your honest opinion on fake smiles?” Metro Student, Lynzie Blair stated, “I don’t know, I think that everybody fake smiles. I think it’s a known human characteristic.” This is true; do you know anyone that doesn’t fake smile? “If you’re conscious of it can bring down your mood. Like if I’m at work and I’m just trying to be nice to a guest, but I’m really irritated with them, I’ll give them a fake smile to avoid them knowing how I really feel.” Thousands of people across the world probably feel like this, but most likely don’t know that using a fake smile to avoid interaction, might worsen your mood.
When asked about how she felt about fake smiling Lynzie also stated that; “I feel like it could make me feel two diff. ways. One hand I might feel guilty after fake smiling or I might feel fake.” This was a common response from then ten students that were interviewed. “Being fake is just a normal way of life. It’s probably not the best thing but everyone in one way or another is fake. Fake smiles justify that and if that is why my mood is always crappy, it explains a lot, I do it a lot” said student Amanda Harmon. “I think people just fake smile out of shock most of the times. When you don’t know what to do, that’s just what happens. I don’t have a specific feeling towards it because it’s just something everyone does”. Getting into people’s heads about something so common is a lot tougher than one would think. Most responses were “I don’t know” or “I don’t really care”. Student Dasha Silva didn’t believe that fake smiling could or ever would affect her mood. “I just do it to be nice most of the time, and there is nothing wrong with being nice. I have honestly never gotten into a worse mood just because I fake smiled. Not that I can remember anyway.”
The thing about fake smiling is that everyone does it. You could interview 60 people and you would probably get responses similar to all of these. People just care if they are being fake or not. Even if it brought them down, they would still do it. Interestingly enough, it’s almost stranger that this topic was researched, than if it would have just been left alone. Who knew that fake smiling could possibly bring down your day even more? Even though all of these students are fully aware that they fake smile every day, they never knew that research suggests that using that inauthentic smile to hide everything your going though at the time, can indeed make you feel worse.
To read more about this issue click here
No comments:
Post a Comment