By Ashley J. WennersHerron
CNN NY Medical News Intern

As someone who frequently speaks with people who are less than pleasant on the phone, I’ve learned to employ an old telemarketing trick of physically smiling to sound happier. As soon as I set my cheek muscles to work, I feel a little happier, and that tends to rub off on others. The happier I sound, the quicker the person on the other end of the line is soothed. You smile because you are happy, but can you be happy because you smile?

According to several recent studies, emotions’ causes and effects work in a circle; one leads to the other. An April 2009 study, conducted by the University of Cardiff in Wales, determined that women with Botox injections are reportedly happier than women without the cosmetic injections. The boost in happiness is not attributed to a higher self-confidence, as there was not a significant difference in how the women ranked their own attractiveness. It seems that the women who’ve had Botox have an impaired ability to express unhappiness and, as a result, feel happier.

The same holds true for frowning and pain. In a study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2008, subjects held relaxed or controlled faces, or were allowed to facially express displeasure at a painful heat prompt. Those who were allowed to frown and express their hurt reported feeling more pain than those who did not facially communicate pain.

Not expressing pain, and not feeling as much pain, doesn’t mean you are protecting yourself. Research conducted by Judith Grob, a psychologist at the Netherlands University of Groningen, proposes that suppressed emotion can express itself later. Grob subjected her study groups to a series of distasteful images, asking each group to keep its emotion a secret, or to hold a pen in the mouth to prevent frowning, or to express what group members felt. Each group then answered word puzzles. The groups who were allowed to express their emotions filled in missing letters of a word neutrally, while those who were unable to express their feelings created negative words.

Smile when you want to feel happier, but don’t ignore your negative feelings, either. Feelings don’t go away when they aren’t expressed; rather, they tend to emerge in unanticipated ways. Expressions aren’t working to convince others of your emotions, but also yourself.

Do you use facial expression to induce feelings, or do you express what you feel? Do you think there is a difference?

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